Post tram Berlin
The Poststraßenbahn Berlin was a branch of the Great Berlin Tramway (GBS) or its successor company Berliner Straßenbahn (BSt; from 1920) and Berliner Verkehrs-Aktiengesellschaft (BVG; from 1929), which existed from 1917 to 1935.
history
Before 1914, around a fifth of all parcel shipments in the German Reich were transported within Berlin. For the transport between the individual railway post offices and the parcel post office in Oranienburger Straße , the Reichspost horse-drawn carriages and occasional trucks were available.
As a result of the First World War , most of the horses and carriages were confiscated by the Supreme Army Command . At the same time, the number of parcel shipments posted increased, as the Prussian State Railways no longer accepted general cargo shipments up to five kilograms. During the Christmas holidays in 1916 the problems that arose as a result were so great that the Oberpostdirektion Berlin considered trying to transport parcels by tram .
| year | Number of post offices |
Wagon km (Tw) |
Wagon-km (Bw) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1917 | 4th | 75,773¹ | 92,262¹ |
| 1918 | 12 | 461,588¹ | 567,137¹ |
| 1919 | 462,836¹ | 505,136¹ | |
| 1920 | 15th | ||
| ... | |||
| 1926 | 294,524 | 403,538 | |
| 1927 | 287.315 | 409,861 | |
| 1928 | 9 | 291,363 | 416,798 |
| 1929 | 7th | 253.193 | 382,878 |
| 1930 | 7th | 219,452 | 334.119 |
| 1931 | 7th | 206.741 | 299.504 |
| 1932 | 6th | 198,594 | 293,611 |
| 1933 | 3 | 102.287 | 186.067 |
| 1934 | 3 | 97,432 | 179,425 |
| ¹ all goods traffic of GBS (including newspapers and other goods) | |||
On February 6, 1917, the GBS carried out a first test drive with an attached horse-drawn carriage from the Post. Shortly afterwards, the capacity was increased to 1,500 pieces of luggage by coupling up to three covered wagons plus railcars. The special design of the coupling made it possible for the car to be driven almost in the right direction, but a speed of 10 km / h was not allowed to be exceeded.
On the night of February 10th to 11th, GBS again increased the capacities of the trains by using their own summer wagons instead of covered wagons . Two trains consisting of a multiple unit and three sidecars commuted between the post offices O 17 at the Schlesisches Bahnhof and SW 77 in Luckenwalder Strasse and carried a total of 13,000 pieces of luggage. From the loading points, the onward transport took place with freight mail wagons. Since the post office O 17 could only be reached using the tracks of the Berlin East Railways , a track connection was set up for this purpose.
In order to be able to carry out the mail traffic during the day, the installation of sidings at the respective post offices was necessary. The first permanent connections went into operation from November 1917; the traffic with covered wagons was stopped the following month. By the end of 1917, in addition to the post offices O 17 and SW 77, the offices N 3 (parcel post office) in Oranienburger Straße and NW 40 at Lehrter Bahnhof were provided with siding. In 1918, the offices C 2 followed in Heilig-Geist-Straße, N 4 at the Stettiner Bahnhof , the post office in Dessauer Straße and in the surrounding communities the post offices Charlottenburg 1, Wilmersdorf, Schöneberg 1, Steglitz and Neukölln. In 1920 the post offices in Friedenau, Tempelhof and Lichterfelde were added. In the latter case, the trains could only run as far as Kranoldplatz, as there was no transition to the network of Teltower Kreisbahnen .
By the mid-1920s, a total of 24 post offices were connected by the tram. Due to the increasing motorization at the Reichspost, the transport performance of the tram fell steadily and the number of connected post offices decreased again. From 1933, only three post offices were still served. On January 1, 1935, the BVG finally stopped operating the postal tram.
During the Second World War , mail was again carried out by tram as part of city freight transport. However, this was not a separate branch of business, and no new rail connections were made.
vehicles
| year | Number of Tw |
Number of Bw |
|---|---|---|
| 1924 | 16 | 35 |
| 1925 | 18th | 33 |
| 1926 | 23 | 35 |
| 1928 | 23 | 38 |
| 1929-1930 | 23 | |
| 1931-1934 | 23 | 38 |
Berolina railcars from GBS's inventory were used to transport mail . The vehicles initially kept their numbers and were included in the BSt numbering scheme in 1920. The fir green or ivory paintwork from 1920 was also retained. The side windows were initially covered by signs attached to the side, from 1922 the window panes were replaced by sheet metal. At that time, the cars were painted gray with yellow decorations and car numbers. The cars themselves were renumbered preceded by P . The number as well as the origins of the cars used is unclear; it is known that the number P 52 was assigned.
From 1925, for example, the BSt used other vehicles in postal traffic, which were also of the Berolina type. These cars were given the numbers P 1 to P 23 throughout and differed from their predecessors in that they had a different paintwork, in which the ribbon windows were also painted in yellow.
Initially, a post horn on the round line board served as a mark . From around 1924, the railcars received corner lanterns with an attached imperial eagle and directional signs with the words "Reichspost".
Horse-drawn vehicles from the Reichspost and summer wagons from GBS were initially used as sidecars. The side benches were removed and the open side walls closed. From 1922 onwards, 20 new freight cars with the numbers G 101 to G 120 were procured, which had no platforms and were completely closed. In 1924 they were supplemented by further cars with the numbers G 121 to G 150. Since the annual reports indicate a smaller number for this period, there is a possibility that the numbers were not assigned consistently. Car G 128 is known.
In contrast to the railcars, which still belonged to the Berlin tram, these freight cars were owned by the Reichspost. From 1925 the sidecar received instead of G also the letters P .
Little information is known about the whereabouts of the mail wagons. Some vehicles were transferred to the work vehicle inventory after 1935, while others were retired.
literature
- Reinhard Demps: Mail delivery by tram in Berlin . In: Verkehrsgeschichtliche Blätter . No. 5 , 1990.
- Siegfried Münzinger: Post tram in Berlin . In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter . No. 5 , 1965.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f Reinhard Demps: Mail delivery by tram in Berlin . In: Verkehrsgeschichtliche Blätter . No. 5 , 1990, pp. 108-109 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Siegfried Münzinger: Post tram in Berlin . In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter . No. 5 , 1965, pp. 57-60 .
- ↑ Rubble tram. In: epoche3.de. 2004, accessed July 29, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c The work cars of the Berlin tram from 1920 . In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter . No. 6 , 1967, p. 78-113 .