Private railway NPZ
A number of Swiss locomotives, control cars and intermediate cars for the formation of shuttle trains, which were built between 1981 and 1992 for Swiss private railways , are grouped together under the name Privatbahn-NPZ .
overview
The Federal Office of Transport (EAV) made the payment of federal subsidies dependent on the private railways agreeing on rolling stock that is as standardized as possible on the basis of their specifications, as was the case with the EAV railcars , so that cost savings could be achieved through joint orders. For this second generation of coordinatedly procured rolling stock, the designation “Privatbahn-NPZ” ultimately prevailed, based on the “ New Shuttle Trains (NPZ)” of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). These were delivered to the SBB as prototypes in 1984, and then as series vehicles from 1987 onwards, and externally are very similar to the slightly older private railway vehicles.
The joint order was initiated by the BLS Group - consisting of the operational Berner Alpenbahn-Gesellschaft Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon (BLS), the Spiez-Erlenbach-Zweisimmen-Bahn (SEZ), the Gürbetal-Bern-Schwarzenburg-Bahn (GBS) and the Bern-Neuchâtel-Bahn (BN) - and the Bodensee-Toggenburg-Bahn (BT). This was immediately followed by the Chemins de fer fribourgeois Gruyère-Friborg-Morat (GFM) and the Chemin de fer Régional du Val-de-Travers (RVT), which was finally followed by the EBT group - consisting of the operational Emmental -Burgdorf-Thun-Bahn (EBT), the United Huttwil-Bahnen (VHB) and the Solothurn-Münster-Bahn (SMB).
Of the original ten railway companies that private railway NPZ procured, none of them exist in their former form. The four companies of the BLS group have merged to form BLS Lötschbergbahn AG (BLS), the three companies of the EBT group to form Regionalverkehr Mittelland AG (RM); since another merger between BLS and RM, these now form BLS AG . GFM and RVT are now part of the cantonal transport companies Transports publics fribourgeois (TPF) and Transports Régionaux Neuchâtelois (TRN); BT has merged with the Swiss Southeast Railway (SOB) while retaining the name of the latter.
Railcar
Between 1981 and 1992 a total of 49 railcars were delivered to the ten railways mentioned, 22 of which went to the BLS group, 13 to the EBT group, six to the BT and four each to the GFM and RVT.
The railcars are basically designed for operation with a control car, with the exception of four railcars with two driver's cabs each, which were delivered to GFM and RVT and can be used as single drivers; Motorcar 104 of RVT was sold to GFM and classified as motorcar 173. Railcar 315 (ex 105) was sold to TRAVYS in 2013.
The six railcars of the BT also have a different design, which have a low-lying interchange and can only be coupled with suitable wagons with a tunnel transition. They were delivered in fixed three-part compositions, consisting of a railcar, intermediate car and control car, and referred to as the "multiple unit" RABDe 4/12. With the delivery of a further six intermediate cars, the trains were extended to RABDe 4/16; As these were too long for certain missions, the new intermediate wagons were retrofitted with conventional wagons on one side so that surplus wagons can also be used in pairs in conventional trains. With this change, the formation of fixed multiple units and thus the special designation was dropped again.
| Type | Numbers | Type | Numbers | annotation | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BLS | RBDe 4/4 | 721-722, 731 | BLS | RBDe 565 | 721-742 | |
| SEZ | RBDe 4/4 | 723-724, 732-733, 739 | ||||
| GBS | RBDe 4/4 | 725-729, 734-736, 740 | ||||
| BN | RBDe 4/4 | 730, 737-738, 741-742 | ||||
| BT | RBDe 4/4 | 71-76 | SOB | RBDe 566 | 071-076 | RABDe 4/12 |
| EBT | RBDe 4/4 II | 227-233 | BLS | RBDe 566 | 230-242 | |
| VHB | RBDe 4/4 II | 262-265 | ||||
| SMB | RBDe 4/4 II | 282-283 | ||||
| GFM | RABDe 4/4 | 171-172 | TPF | RBDe 567 | 171-173 | two driver's cabs |
| 181-182 | 181-182 | a driver's cab | ||||
| RVT | RABDe 4/4 | 104-105 | TRN | RBDe 567 | 315 | two driver's cabs |
| RBDe 4/4 | 106-107 | 316-317 | a driver's cab |
Railcar predecessor
Even before the private railway NPZ, the Federal Office of Transport (EAV) coordinated grouped purchases of locomotives:
- 15 high-performance railcars for BT, SOB and EBT group (BDe 576)
- 12 EAV railcars around half the capacity for MThB, MO, RVT, GFM and WM (today Thurbo, TMR, TRN, TPF and BDWM)
- 7 low-power, top-speed railcars for the Sihltalbahn (today SZU) and CJ
Individual evidence
- ↑ Railway Amateur No. 1/2014, page 20