Trolleybus Berlin (1951–1973)

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Railcar 1529 of the type W602a in Fruchtstrasse, 1954
Route map 1961

The Berlin trolleybus , which existed from 1951 to 1973, was the most extensive trolleybus system in Berlin . It comprised up to four lines that ran in the eastern districts of Mitte , Friedrichshain , Prenzlauer Berg and Lichtenberg . The responsible transport company was the Berliner Verkehrs-Betriebe (BVG-Ost), abbreviated as BVB from 1969. Up to 1972 the trolleybus was assigned to the tram operating part , in the last years of its existence it belonged to the omnibus operating part .

history

The BVG-Ost opened after a three-month construction period on August 1, 1951 on the occasion of the III. World Festival of Youth and Students the first trolleybus line in East Berlin. Line O40 replaced the A40 bus line established after the Second World War on its route from Ostbahnhof to Robert-Koch-Platz near the Walter Ulbricht Stadium . The route largely corresponded to the former route of tram line 1.

Railcar 1510 of the type W602 in front of the Alexanderhaus on Alexanderplatz, 1956

The second line was the O30 between January 1953 and April 1954, which replaced the previous tram lines 14 ( Bersarinplatz - Loeperplatz ) and 65 ( Spittelmarkt - Loeperplatz). The first section went into operation as line O14 on January 15, 1953 between Loeperplatz and Lichtenberg station . On March 27, the line was given the number O30 and was extended to the Ostbahnhof. On September 2, 1953, the extension followed to the intersection Grunerstraße corner Klosterstraße . With the extension via Alexanderplatz , Greifswalder Straße , Dimitroffstraße (today: Danziger Straße ), Leninallee (today Landsberger Allee ) and Forckenbeckplatz to Loeperplatz on April 29, 1954, the line to the Ostring was closed. The final stop of the line was in both directions on Klosterstrasse, where passengers had to change to the cars waiting there.

The next change took place on November 1, 1956 and affected the bus routes A41 (Leninallee corner Dimitroffstraße - Bürknersfelde ) and A37 (Lichtenberg - Marzahn, Kirche ), the latter being extended to Bürknersfelde, creating a continuous route. For operational trips, the BVG set up a single-lane overhead contact line in Siegfriedstrasse between Herzbergstrasse and Landsberger Chaussee (today: Landsberger Allee). The trolleybus network reached its greatest extent with 45.5 kilometers. Both lines were combined on August 1, 1960 to form a continuous line O37.

Line O37 passed a total of four level crossings in its course . Coming from Leninallee, it first crossed the Tegel – Friedrichsfelde industrial line and the Berlin outer ring and, after Bürknersfelde, the Wriezener Bahn . The fourth crossing was on Oberfeldstrasse in Biesdorf and led over the Ostbahn . At the end points, the line was connected to the rest of the network. In night traffic , the line ran differently over the operating line in Siegfriedstrasse as a ring line .

Trolleybus train at Lichtenberg station, winter 1965

In the course of the redesign of Dimitroffstraße in 1958, the Ostring was given a new route over the parallel traffic routes Thorner Straße and Kurische Straße (both today Conrad-Blenkle-Straße ). During this measure, the line was temporarily interrupted between Klosterstrasse and Leninallee at the corner of Dimitroffstrasse.

The BVG intended to expand operations to the eastern part of the Lichtenberg district and the Köpenick district until the 1960s . It was planned to convert tram lines 83 ( Mahlsdorf - Wendenschloß station ) and 84 ( Friedrichshagen - Altglienicke waterworks ) as well as the A27 ( Kaulsdorf - Müggelheim station ), A36 ( Grünau - Diepensee station ), A38 ( Grünau - Waltersdorf station ) and A44 ( Mahlsdorf - Hönow station ). Furthermore, the bus lines A8 ( U-Bf Friedrichsfelde - Waldesruh ) and A43 (U-Bf Friedrichsfelde - Bürknersfelde) should be included in the plans. While the expansion plans for Köpenick were soon abandoned because of the poor road conditions and the need to reorder additional vehicles, the conversion of the latter lines continued until the mid-1960s.

The extensive redesign of the East Berlin city center led to the shortening of the O30 line from 1964. From June 25, 1964, the line between Küstriner Platz (today: Franz-Mehring-Platz) and Klosterstraße was interrupted, because in the affected area north of the Stadtbahn, in addition to the construction of apartments, the street layout was also changed. Line O30 now went to Ostbahnhof. The redesign of Alexanderplatz resulted in the closure of the section between Klosterstrasse and Königstor on September 27, 1966. From October 1, 1966, the route of the O30 continued to Robert-Koch-Platz.

Contact lines for trolleybuses and trams at Alexanderplatz , 1964

The fundamental decision to primarily use buses from the Hungarian manufacturer Ikarus in East Berlin in the future meant the closure of the trolleybus network. On July 1, 1972, BVB switched the section from Leninallee at the corner of Dimitroffstrasse to Bürknersfelde back to bus operation. Line O40 was discontinued on December 1, 1972, and line O30 at the beginning of 1973. The last line was the O37 until January 31, 1973.

Line color and labeling

The BVG-Ost used its own marking in green with the letter 'O' in front of the line number for its trolleybus routes. The stops were also marked separately. The BVG-West route network plans, on the other hand, dispensed with a distinction and displayed the routes accordingly in purple with the code letter 'A'.

vehicles

O37 line timetable

Initially, railcars and sidecars from VVB LOWA were available for operation. The Busanhänger should it have been partly used in bus and coach transport.

The first five railcars were monoplane of the type W601 , which ran until 1965. The monoplane supplied up to 1956 was a monoplane of the types W602 and W602a. The trailers of the type W700 also came from LOWA, which delivered 40 pieces to the capital of the GDR. In 1959 a W602 and W602a as well as two W700s from the Eberswalde trolleybus were added.

The semitrailer of the type ES6 remained a loner . This tractor from the semi-trailer 201 2001 and the existing train leaned against the used at the same time double-deck truck buses of the type Dosa on. The ES6 ran exclusively on the O40 line and was retired in the mid-1960s.

As a replacement for the 1965 decommissioned W601 BVG received in the same period of six Škoda -Obusse type 9Tr . In 1966 another eleven railcars of this type were added, replacing other older LOWA cars.

In 1971, BVB introduced a new EDP- compatible numbering scheme for its entire fleet, which provided 300 numbers for the trolleybuses. The remaining LOWA railcars were given the number series 301, the Škoda trolleybuses the number series 303, and the sidecars the number series 351.

After the cessation of operations, the older LOWA wagons were presumably all retired and some were used as tool sheds and the like. The Škoda trolleybuses were used instead on the Eberswalde trolleybus and the Potsdam trolleybus .

The 1520 railcar and the 120 sidecar are historical vehicles. The 1520 car was in use until 1972 and then served as a chicken coop in Birkholzaue until 1989 . After it was taken out of service, the sidecar 120 served as a storage room for a laundry in Berlin-Malchow until 1988 .

Vehicle overview
Years of construction Manufacturer Type number Numbers EDP ​​numbers Remarks
1951 LOWA , LEW W601 5 1501-1505 - Retired in 1965
1952-1954 LOWA W602 24 1506-1529 301 001-301
021- 		1506, 1509, 1521 retired before 1971; 1520 historical vehicle
1955 LOWA, LEW ES6 1 2001/201 - Double-deck semitrailer, retired in 1967
1956 LOWA W602a 17th 1530-1546 301 022-301
037- 		Retired in 1533 before 1971
1956 LOWA W602a 1 1547 - 1959 ex Eberswalde 4 III , retired in 1971
1952 LOWA W602 1 1548 301 038- 1959 ex Eberswalde 9 II , retired in 1973
1964-1966 Škoda 9Tr 17th 1101-1117 303 001-303
017- 		303 003, 016 to Eberswalde 28, 29
LOWA W700 40 101-140 351 001-
351 039- 		140 retired before 1971; 120 historic vehicle, 129 left for refurbishment
1951 LOWA W700 2 141-142 351 040-351
041- 		1956 ex Eberswalde V II , VI II

Depot

The vehicles were parked in the Lichtenberg depot , which before that was only used by trams. After giving up the trolleybus operation, the BVB used the yard for their buses. Before the O30 line was set up, the O40 wagons had to be transferred to the depot by tractor, as there were no overhead lines to the depot.

If the trolleybus planning for the Köpenick district had been implemented, a second depot would have been built on Wendenschloßstraße at the corner of Dregerhoffstraße near the Köpenick tram depot. Even during the planning phase, a poster on the planned property announced the implementation of the project from 1959.

See also

literature

  • Karl-Heinz Gärtner: The last trip of the O37 . In: Verkehrsgeschichtliche Blätter . Volume 3, 2003, pp. 78 .
  • Heinz Jung, Carl-Wilhelm Schmiedecke: The trolleybus in East Berlin . In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter . Issue 1, 1973.
  • Carl-Wilhelm Schmiedecke: The trolleybus in Berlin . In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter . Issue 3, 1965.

Web links

Commons : Trolleybuses in Berlin  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Heinz Jung, Carl-Wilhelm Schmiedecke: The trolleybus in East Berlin . In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter . Issue 1, 1973, pp. 1-8 .
  2. ↑ a b Monument Preservation Association for Nahverkehr Berlin (ed.): Tram history (n). Around the "Alex" . Verlag GVE, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-89218-065-2 , p. 38 .
  3. ↑ Sigurd Hilkenbach, Wolfgang Kramer: The tram in the Berlin Transport Authority (BVG East / BVB) 1949-1991 . 2nd Edition. transpress, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-613-71063-3 , pp. 85-125 .
  4. ↑ a b Rudolf Gensch, Lutz Stumpf: History from the Berlin local traffic. Episode 12: History - The trolleybus in Berlin. (PDF; 76 kB) Berlin Heritage Preservation Association, accessed on April 21, 2012 .
  5. ↑ a b c Monument Preservation Association for Nahverkehr Berlin (ed.): Tram history (s). 100 years of "electrical" in Köpenick . Verlag GVE, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-89218-082-2 , p. 52 .
  6. ^ A b Carl-Wilhelm Schmiedecke: The trolleybus in Berlin . In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter . Volume 3, 1965, pp. 27-37 .
  7. ^ Carl-Wilhelm Schmiedecke: Bus and trolleybus sidecars of the BVG . In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter . Volume 4, 1960, pp. 15-16 .
  8. ^ Trolleybus 1520 of the BVG-Ost. Trailer 120 of the BVG-Ost . In: Denkmalpflege-Verein Nahverkehr Berlin (Ed.): Historic local transport vehicles. Berlin and Brandenburg . Verlag GVE, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89218-027-X , p. 99-100 .
  9. ↑ a b c Hartmut Bülow: Vehicle list trolleybuses. In: The trolleybus town of Eberswalde. Retrieved April 22, 2012 .
  10. ↑ Hartmut Bülow: Vehicle list of historical trolleybus trailers. In: The trolleybus town of Eberswalde. Retrieved April 22, 2012 .
  11. ^ Depot Lichtenberg , Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe ( Memento from July 20, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  12. ^ Karl-Heinz Gärtner: The last trip of the O 37 . In: Verkehrsgeschichtliche Blätter . Volume 3, 2003, pp. 78 .