Modernization car
The modernization wagon or MOD wagon (unofficial abbreviation) is a series of passenger wagons of the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) of the modern compartment wagon design , which was created in the 1960s from old wagons from the time before the Second World War . The vehicles are similar in appearance to the later Reko cars .
history
Replacement of old cars
Like the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB), the DR also had to struggle with a significant shortage of wagons after the Second World War, as well as with a considerable obsolescence of the passenger car fleet until the 1970s. Still formed Schnellzugwagen Prussian and Saxon types as well as a plethora of D-tensile and Eilzugwagen the majority of the fleet for fast and express trains, which the DRG had procured. The limited resources of the GDR economy were only sufficient for a rather smaller series of modern UIC-Y cars for use abroad and in interzonal trains , but they were not enough to renew and rejuvenate the out-of- date equipment for fast long-distance transport . Even though the maintenance of the old vehicles meant a lot more work. As with the Rekowagen program, the DR started to modernize the pre-war express train cars.
Usable assemblies from the older cars were used. In the first planning phase, only the welded wagons of usage group 35 and skirted wagons of group 39 were included. In the DR, these wagons were classified as D 2 or D 1. The program was later expanded to include riveted wagons of usage group 29 (D 3), express train wagons E 36 (D 9) and foreign wagons that remained with the DR after the Second World War.
Production car
The Raw Delitzsch built its first sample car in 1960. This second class car was built on an older floor frame. It was classified as a Bge. In the same year, 20 baggage cars of the modernization design were delivered, for which parts of old baggage cars were also used, but were otherwise new. They had two four-leaf loading doors on each side. One part had a side aisle separated by sliding wire grids with a customs compartment for international traffic. Other series followed later. These wagons were used in trains going west until 1993. They were referred to as Dge and Dgse. The suffix “e” was dropped in 1986 because electrical heating had become the standard design. The German Bahn AG took over another part of the car and classified as Dg 950.0 and 950.1 Dgs. They were in use until 1996.
From 1961 series production of the seating car began in Delitzsch. First, second class cars and mixed-class type ABge cars were delivered. From 1962 first class vehicles followed, Age and buffet car Bgre. The buffet cars did not go into series production until 1964. 17 cars of this type were produced. The buffet area had a 3.5 meter long dining room with two bar tables , followed by a sideboard and counter.
Only the floor frame, the drive and the braking system were taken from the donor trolley . Finally, a corrugated iron floor was welded onto the old floor frame. Otherwise, a new steel, load-bearing car body was produced. This was 2935 millimeters wide and measured 3980 millimeters to the roof edge. The mass of the wagons varied between 34 and 40 tons. Because the underframes were left in their dimensions, the modernization wagons had different wagon lengths and pivot spacing depending on the vehicle of origin . Since the dimensions of the compartments and doors remained the same, the difference was compensated for with vestibules and toilet cubicles of different lengths. The transitions were protected with a rubber bead . The transition doors were initially designed as folding doors, later they went over to double sliding doors, which in contrast to the Reco and new construction cars ran in pockets. The entrance doors, which were flush with the outer wall, were revolving doors with an offset pivot point and had lowered windows.
All compartments of the second class were 1,700 millimeters long, those of the first class were 2,113 millimeters deep. The first class cars had seven compartments, the second nine, and the mixed class four A and B compartments each. The uniform 1200 millimeter wide windows were fixed in the lower part, the upper quarter could be opened upwards with a crank. The interior design corresponded to the contemporary taste of the 1960s. Lightly upholstered seats that offered space for eight travelers in the compartments were covered with blue-gray artificial leather and designed as a continuous bench. In the first class, the passengers found six fabric-upholstered individual seats. The wall paneling was made of imitation wood, that of the second class was simply gray Sprelacart . The corridor was separated between the car classes by a middle door, which, like the compartment doors, was made of aluminum.
The modernization cars were equipped with a Nuhz low-pressure circulation steam heater, and most of them also had resistance heating elements for electrical heating of the interior. The lighting was powered by direct current generators, which were driven by a belt on the old bogies, and by cardan shafts for the Görlitz V bogies, and were supplied by a 110 V battery when the car was stationary.
The old Görlitz III bogies of the donor wagons with and without fourth suspension were also taken over in the first few years , but they were converted to roller bearings. Some of the cars even retained the side skirts of the skirted cars.
It was not until 1964 that the modernization cars were uniformly 21.25 meters long. These vehicles were completely new constructions of the Raw Delitzsch and ran on bogies of type Görlitz V. These were built until 1970. For some cars, the brake designs of the donor vehicles were left at the beginning, especially the Hildebrandt-Knorr-Bremse Hikssbr, later Hik-GPR. Cars delivered later received the Knorr KE-GPR standard brake during the conversion, to which all modernization cars were gradually converted.
The top speed for this type of car was initially 140 km / h. After they were only used in inland traffic, the speed could be reduced to 120 km / h in order to be able to extend the inspection intervals.
commitment
The modernization cars were immediately used in inland and inter-zone trains. They also reached the area of the Federal Railroad. They were often represented on the Berlin - Hamburg transit trains. The carriages with multi-voltage heating could be used freely internationally and were used that way. Typically two or three A or AB cars ran in the middle of the train in front of and behind the dining car in the inland express trains, which were otherwise made up of four-axle Reko cars. The B-part of an AB car was usually used for special compartments (service compartment, for locomotive and train personnel on guest journeys, mother and child, severely disabled people). With the delivery of the UIC-Y-wagons, but especially after the Raw Halberstadt Bmhe-wagons and later the UIC-Z-type wagons were delivered to the DR, the modernization wagons were preferably used in express train service. In the 1990s they could only be found in subordinate services. Some Ag cars were used as second class cars, especially in Saxony.
Originally, all of the cars were painted dark green with a thin white decorative stripe below the window area, black trimmed solebar and gray roof, analogous to the Reko cars. In the late 1970s, the car bodies began to be painted uniformly dark green except for the roof during general inspections. From the 1980s, this paint gave way to the new DR scheme in chrome oxide green-ivory with a fawn-brown roof. In the case of luggage trolleys, which were mainly used in passenger trains, the ivory-colored stripe in the window area was omitted, as was the case with the Rekowagen. Not all cars were repainted, some remained dark green until they were retired.
From 1970 to 1975, the automatic UIC central buffer coupling was tested in passenger train service with a train of modernization cars.
Overview of the modernization cars
| Original design | Category after modernization | Length over buffers | first year of construction | Places |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AB4ü-35, -38 | Age | 21 820 mm | 1962 | 42 |
| ABC, BC4ü-35, -39 | Age, ABge, Bge | 21 250 mm | 1960-62 | 42, 24/32, 72 |
| C4ü-35, -38 | ABge, Bge | 21 270 mm | 1960, 61 | 24/32, 72 |
| Group 28 | Age | 21 720 mm | 1962 | 42 |
| C4up-36 | ABge | 21 450 mm | 1961 | 24/32 |
| New building | Age, ABge, Bge | 21 250 mm | 1964-70 | 42, 24/32, 72 |
