SSB GT6
| SSB GT6 | |
|---|---|
| Number: | 5 railcars |
| Manufacturer: | Waggonfabrik Fuchs , Maschinenfabrik Esslingen |
| Year of construction (s): | 1953-1958 |
| Axis formula : | B'2'B ' |
| Length over coupling: | 24,960 or 25,000 mm (depending on the version) |
| Width: | 2,200 mm |
| Empty mass: | 23.1 or 24.4 t (depending on the version) |
| Top speed: | 60 km / h |
| Hourly output : | 4 × 48 kW = 192 kW 4 × 60 kW = 240 kW (depending on the version) |
| Seats: | 57–61 (depending on the version) |
The GT6 of the Stuttgarter Straßenbahnen (SSB) was a six-axle meter-gauge articulated multiple unit with two motor bogies and a centrally arranged Jakobs bogie , on which the vehicle halves and the bellows-like transition were supported. There were five prototypes, which were designed in the 1950s at the suggestion of the then technical director of the SSB, Prof. Alfred Bockemühl (1896–1992), based on the design of the Dresden “ Hechtwagen ” , also designed by Bockemühl, and were consciously technical and visually differentiated.
Subtypes, design and features
The fact that Alfred Bockemühl was an anthroposophist played a role in the design . Avoiding sharp corners by means of curves on the car body and on the window frames, however, corresponded to the trend at that time (cf. Duewag standard car ). The streamlined exterior with the tapering front sides was considered modern and had already proven itself in the Hechtwagen to limit the space required by the vehicle in curves. The interior was designed with different combinations of pastel shades:
- Type 1: seats made of red synthetic leather, green paint on the ceiling
- Type 2: seats made of green synthetic leather, yellow ceiling paint
- Type 3–5: seats made of blue synthetic leather, pink ceiling paint
The wagons were designed for one-way operation and solo traction (but with an emergency coupling for towing) and had four air-operated, external sliding doors, known as "egg timers" because of their slow movement, no internal doors, they had a driver's cab with a driver's seat separated by a glazed wooden wall and two conductors' cabins in the middle of the vehicle.
Development and technology
The GT6 was developed because the number of passengers in Stuttgart rose by leaps and bounds from the 1950s , even the subsequent procurement of 30 two-axle vehicles according to tried and tested pre-war plans for the 1950 German Garden Show and the 1952 Evangelical Church Congress hardly brought any noticeable relaxation. In Germany, especially after the then Association of Public Transport Companies (VÖV) had presented its "type of association car" (which was out of the question for Stuttgart for technical reasons), there was a trend towards modern large-capacity railcars without intermediate doors. SSB director also pleaded Bockemühl and other local transport scientists for a largely streamlined network of diameter lines, which should be guided on the entry and exit routes on special railway bodies and at up to 60 km / h, for which powerful six-axle articulated vehicles were to be procured.
The types 1 to 3 delivered in 1953 and 1954 had four motors with 48 and 58 kW respectively, the types 4 and 5 had two motors with 120 kW each. Also eye-catching were the bogies used for the first time, the roof, which was kept completely free from superstructures, and the new type of pantograph, which was used for the first time in an SSB vehicle instead of the conventional roller pantograph and type 1. The principle of passenger flow was also new : Passengers should get on at the middle doors and, depending on which half of the car they were in, walk forwards or backwards past the respective conductor's cabin towards the end of the vehicle. Not least because of the classy equipment and the elegant exterior, the SSB car was something special; the drivers even had to do their duty in white gloves at first.
commitment
With their width of 2.20 m (instead of the previous 2.10 m), combined with their excess length of almost 25 m or 2 × 12 m, the GT6 had an unusually wide clearance profile and a curve deflection that came close to that of rigid four-axle vehicles . On the SSB rail network that existed at the beginning of the 1950s, operations without bans on train encounters would only be possible on the section Hauptbahnhof - Neue Weinsteige - Möhringen (southern section of Line 5), which had been expanded to a large profile since the 1930s through mixed operation with Filderbahn vehicles, and on some single-track sections in the outskirts (if reversible loops were available) were possible. However, as already became clear when the order was placed for the GT6, an expansion or, if necessary, the discontinuation of the narrow-profile inner-city network could only be achieved in the medium term. Out of necessity, but also with the requirement to continue to benefit from the new technical achievements of the GT6 and to be able to assemble trains from multiple units and sidecars as required, the SSB and the Maschinenfabrik Esslingen (ME) also developed the T2 from 1954 as “ small pike ”which brought it to 123 copies plus 146 type B2 sidecars.
However, with the (late) delivery of the last two GT6s in 1958, Bockemühl continued to emphasize that the company had to switch to larger units, i.e. the GT6, the short four-axle vehicle announced by the ME in the meantime (the later GT4 ) and twin railcars to be constructed from older two-axle vehicles . However, with the latter it was also just a prototype.
From autumn 1958, official trial operations began on the meanwhile expanded lines 5 and 6 (Gerlingen -) Hauptbahnhof - Möhringen in scheduled courses and as an amplifier on line 16 Feuerbach - Nordbahnhof - Charlottenplatz. Technical "teething troubles", the incorrectly designed sliding doors and the passenger flow, which is difficult to understand for the passengers, caused displeasure among them and the staff, and swear words such as "Bocke-Mühle" and "Stefanie" (= "always stands, never drives") were circulating. . So everyone involved reacted with relief to the delivery of the first GT4 in 1959, which ME had since released independently of the development of the GT6. Although this took over the pleasing external attributes of the predecessor railcars, it was characterized by its innovative articulation design and compatibility with T2 and B2 through high flexibility and immediate usability on most routes. Due to the clear passenger passage from back to front, functionally reliable swing doors with step contact and the saving of a conductor, the GT4 had become the preferred vehicle type at the SSB, the GT6 had proven to be inefficient in terms of personnel and operations and thus lost their importance. As early as 1959, the cars disappeared step by step from planned use, several broken frames and fire damage led to the final decommissioning and subsequent scrapping of the six-axle vehicles in 1965, when the last of the total of 350 GT4s were delivered.
Re-use
After they were scrapped in 1968, the well-running bogies for cars 4 and 5 went to the Esslingen-Nellingen-Denkendorf (END) tram , which they used as a spare part donor for their new trains 12 and 13. The bogie of car 3 was built into the SSB snow plow 2097 (sold in 1990) in 1970, its two drive frames were used in 1973 in the base for the rail crane ("track construction crane") with company number 2032 (sold in 2000 after damage).
Six-axle and later eight to twelve-axle Jakobs articulated wagons provided u. a. The Düwag company started in large series in 1956, they were used in many cities in West Germany for decades and in some cases to this day, just not in their developing city of Stuttgart.
literature
- Gottfried Bauer, Ulrich Theurer a. Claude Jeanmaire: The vehicles of the Stuttgart trams = Tramcars of Stuttgart . - Verl. Eisenbahn, Villigen (Switzerland) 1979, ISBN 3-85649-033-7
- Over mountain and valley - news sheet of the Stuttgarter Straßenbahnen AG / Stuttgarter Straßenbahnen AG (ed.)
- Sinntalkurier 10 - information sheet of the Sinntalbahn interest group (further information on the whereabouts of the rail crane in 2032 after 2000, see page 80 ibid.), PDF