RhB ABDe 4/4

ABDe 4/4 is the type designation for four-axle electric multiple units without running axles with first-class, second-class and luggage compartments in Switzerland. Until 1956, such vehicles were called BCFe 4/4. The Rhaetian Railway (RhB) and its predecessors procured different types of them.

ABDe 4/4 38

Xe 4/4 9922

Type sketch

→ Section railcars of the Bernina Railway (BB) in article RhB ABe 4/4 I.

The ABDe 4/4 38 was created in 1949 as the BCFe 4/4 38 through the modernization of the BCFe 4/4 21 . He received the same electrical equipment as the ABe I 4/4 35–37. The starting and braking resistors previously arranged under the floor of the car were moved to the roof and one of the two outdated Lyra bars was replaced by a pantograph .

The BCFe 4/4 21 was put into operation together with the numbers 22 and 23 in 1911 by the Berninabahn (BB). The vehicles, which were yellow when they were delivered, corresponded electrically to BCe 4/4 1–14 , but had a longer car body with a luggage compartment in the middle. With the merger of the BB with the Rhaetian Railway in 1943, the railcars got a new owner. In 1948 the BCFe 4/4 21 was painted green / cream.

In 1962, the railcar was repainted red. In 1992 it was converted to the Xe 4/4 9922, painted yellow and assigned to the Poschiavo catenary service. In December 2016 it was canceled.

ABDe 4/4 451-455

ABDe 4/4 451 in Bellinzona

BCe 4/4 2 in its original state

The Bellinzona-Mesocco-Bahn (BM) opened in 1907 with three BCe 4/4 1–3, which two years later received support from the two more powerful BCe 4/4 4 and 5. When the BM merged with the RhB in 1942, the new owner gave them the numbers 451–455. In the following years the Landquart RhB workshop replaced various components. For example, instead of the two pantographs for towing, all BCe 4/4 received a pantograph , new starting and braking resistors arranged on the roof and new multi-stage controllers . The original traction motors of the railcars 451–453 were replaced by 90 hp motors from the BCe 4/4 of the former Bernina Railway . With the abolition of the third car class in 1956, the railcars were given the designation ABDe 4/4 451–455. It was originally painted green / cream, green from around 1956 and red since around 1963.

Factory photo of the Fe 4/4 501

In 1969, shortly before passenger traffic ceased, the ABe 4/4 451 and 455 traction units were badly damaged in accidents and had to be demolished. With the ABe 4/4 41 a suitable replacement vehicle could be found at the Appenzeller Bahn . As early as 1984, the ABe 4/4 452 was no longer available. The association Pro Misoxerbahn wanted to use railcar no. 453 for a future museum railway. When these plans failed, the car body in Mesocco was burned out. The ABe 4/4 451 came to the Club del San Gottardo in 1982 and was sold to France in 2000.

De 4/4

In addition to the BCe 4/4 1–3, Ferrovia Bellinzona – Mesocco acquired the Fe 4/4 501 baggage railcar, the electrical part of which corresponded to the three railcars, for the opening of operations. He had a simple wooden box without sheet metal cladding. The vehicle and the rest of the rolling stock came to the RhB in 1942, where it was given the number 471. In 1945 the two tow bars were replaced by a pantograph and the axle compressor by a motor compressor. The railcar, which is mainly used in general cargo traffic, was painted red in 1963 instead of the green one. On September 17, 1969, the De 4/4 between Lumino and San Vittore collided with the ABe 4/4 451 and was then canceled.

ABDe 4/4 481-486

ABDe 4/4 483 at the Chur Stadt stop

In 1969 the RhB procured three ABT 1701–1703 control cars that go with the ABDe 4/4 . They were rebuilt and re-used when switching to AC operation.

From 1957 to 1958, the RhB received six new BCFe 4/4 481-486 railcars for the Arosabahn , in which individual components (auxiliary equipment, motor housing ) from the old 481-485 railcars were installed. From 1956 the series designation was ABDe 4/4. The railcars 483 and 484 were switchable and could also run in the Misox . Since the RhB on the Arosaline suffered from a lack of locomotives, deployments in the Misox only occurred in the summers of 1959, 1965 and 1966. The newly wound traction motors were designed for a voltage of 1500 volts, now had an output of 500 kW and were permanently two connected in series on the Chur-Arosa railway . The railcars were equipped with remote and multiple controls , a powerful recuperation brake , a resistance brake and a rail brake. The compressed air brake acted on the locomotive, the vacuum brake on the trailer.

When the Arosabahn was finally converted to alternating current in 1997, the eight railcars on the RhB were superfluous. The ABDe 4/4 484 and 486 came to the French museum railway Chemin de fer de La Mure .

BDe 4/4 491

BDe 4/4 491 with a freight train at the Val Moesa steelworks

An almost identical type BDe 4/4 491 multiple unit was built in 1958 for the Misoxerbahn operated with 1500 volts direct current . It had a different interior layout without a first-class compartment, but with a larger luggage space. The vacuum brake could be omitted because the Misoxerbahn was braked with compressed air. The installation of a recuperation brake and the multiple control were dispensed with.

The use of the railcar concentrated the longer the more on roller bolster traffic for the Val Moesa steel works. The vehicle was taken over at the end of 2003 together with the Misoxerbahn by the Società Esercizio Ferroviario Turistico (SEFT), which changed the lettering from RhB to Ferrovia Mesolcinese .

ABDe 4/4 487

BCFe 4/4 1 of the Chur-Arosa Railway

For the opening of the Chur-Arosa-Bahn , SWS and BBC delivered four BCFe 4/4 1-4 multiple units. The 17.49 m long vehicles had 16 seats in the second and 24 in the third class , plus a 5.25 m² luggage compartment. The power was 280 kW at 25 km / h , which was the maximum speed allowed on the winding route at the time. The vehicles had a wooden box structure and a cam switch with 11 driving and 6 braking levels. In 1925 and 1929, a railcar with road numbers 5 and 6 was added, which differed significantly from the first delivered. The latest example had more powerful engines with a total output of 380 kW from the start; the rest were rebuilt accordingly in 1931–32. Together with the Chur-Arosa-Bahn, the railcars were transferred to the RhB in 1942, which they referred to as BCFe 4/4 481-486.

The drive motor housing , converter group and brake vacuum pump of the BCFe 4/4 481–485 were used in 1957/58 in the construction of the new ABDe 4/4 481–486 railcars . The sixth old-style multiple unit was renamed ABDe 4/4 487. In 1956 the second pantograph was removed and the starting and braking resistors were moved to the roof of the car. In 1961 the electrical equipment was modernized and the traction motors were rebuilt, so that their performance could be increased to that of the new railcars. The paintwork was originally gray / white, from 1950 green / cream and from 1966 red.

After the railcar was involved in a collision with a road vehicle in 1969, it was parked and then broken off.

Technical specifications

RhB ABDe 4/4, (De 4/4, BDe 4/4)
Type designation:	ABDe 4/4			De 4/4	ABDe 4/4		BDe 4/4	ABDe 4/4
Numbering:	38	451-453	454-455	471	481, 482, 485, 486	483, 484	491	487
Manufacturer:	SIG , SAAS , MFO	Ringhoffer , Rieter			SWS , BBC
Construction year:	1911	1907	1909	1907	1957	1957/58	1958	1926
Modification:	1949	1945–1951		-	-			1960
Retirement:	2016	from 1969		1969	from 1997		-	1970
Axis formula :	B 0 'B 0 '
Length over buffers:	14,660 mm	15,100 mm		11,100 mm	17,770 mm			17,650 mm
Total wheelbase:	10,750 mm	11,500 mm		7,500 mm	13,950 mm			13,920 mm
Service mass:	30 t	30 t		26 t	43 t		41 t	40 t
Top speed:	55 km / h	55 km / h			65 km / h			30 km / h
Hourly output :	427 kW	265 kW	294 kW	156 kW	500 kW	ChA : 500 kW BM : 677 kW	677 kW	500 kW
Starting tractive effort:	102 kN	69 kN		61 kN	129 kN			129 kN
Hourly traction:	56 kN at 27.2 km / h	39 kN at 24.8 km / h	30 kN at 18.5 km / h	41 kN at 25.8 km / h	72 kN at 25 km / h	ChA: 72 kN at 25 km / h BM: 62 kN at 39.5 km / h	62 kN at 39.5 km / h	73 kN at 24.8 km / h
Drive wheel diameter:	850 mm	850 mm	920 mm
Power system:	1000 V = (Bernina Railway)	1500 V = (BM)			2400 V = (ChA)	2400 V = (ChA) 1500 V = (BM)	1500 V = (BM)	2400 V = (ChA)
Number of drive motors:	4th
Transmission ratio:	1: 5.75	1: 3.09	1: 4.5		1: 4.83			1: 4.88
1st class seats: 2nd class: Folding seats: Total:	12 24 7 43	6 39 4 49		-	12 24 4 40		16 4 20
Loading area:	4.88 m²	3.86 m²		17.74 m²	3.5 m²		11 m²	3.34 m²
Source:

literature

Peter Willen: Locomotives in Switzerland 2 - narrow-gauge traction vehicles. Orell Füssli Verlag, Zurich, 1971
Claude Jeanmaire: The electric and diesel traction vehicles of Swiss railways. Fourth part: The direct current lines of the Rhaetian Railway. Archive No. 20, Verlag Eisenbahn, Villigen AG 1975, ISBN 3-85649-020-5
Franz Skvor: Chur - Arosa Railway - Development and the DC era. In: Swiss Railway Review , No. 12/1998. Minirex, ISSN 1022-7113 , pp. 534-550
Ferrovia Elettrica Bellinzona - Mesocco. Past and present On the Rhaetian Railway website, accessed on December 20, 2018 (PDF; 20.4 MB)

Web links

Commons : Bernina ABe 4/4 I - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Commons : RhB Arosa-Tw 481-488 - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Peter Willen: Locomotives of Switzerland 2 - narrow-gauge traction vehicles.

[Willen-1] Peter Willen: Locomotives of Switzerland 2 - narrow-gauge traction vehicles.