Articulated bus
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A trailer bus , also saddle bus , Sattelbus or on Cuba also camello ( Kamelbus called), is a hybrid between a truck and a bus . It combines a conventional tractor unit with a special semi-trailer for passenger transport . Due to their length, they have a greater transport capacity than solo buses , further advantages are the design-related application of the low-floor technology and the possibility of using the tractor units also for transporting goods.
The so-called combination buses , which can transport goods and people at the same time, are also a combination of trucks and buses .
history
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The first vehicles of this type were built around 1900, a semi- trailer bus with a French De Dion Bouton tractor is known. Such vehicles were built in the Netherlands and Germany from the 1920s. Van Doorne's Automobiel Fabriek (DAF) in Eindhoven designed a bus trailer in 1928 that was towed by a US Federal tractor unit. In Germany, semitrailers from bodywork companies such as Käßbohrer in Ulm or Lindner in Ammendorf (near Halle ) with semitrailer tractors of the Büssing types SS and DS or other commercial vehicle manufacturers such as Ford , Hanomag , Opel , Daimler-Benz . The 1930s were the prime time for articulated buses.
There were also a few two-story variants. Thus, in 1938 in the Werdauer Fahrzeugfabrik Schumann an idea by Alfred Bockemühl and Mr Zehnder for the urban traffic Dresden a double-deck bus semi-trailer made for 100 passengers whose tractor an Opel flash with 3.5 t chassis with special big cabin was. The unladen weight of the semi-trailer was 10.9 t, that of the tractor only 1.9 t. From today's point of view, this bus can also be considered a low-floor vehicle, so the floor of the lower deck had no steps, the height of the two doors was 350 mm. The trailer had two flights of stairs, one straight to the left above the rear of the two axles, the other angled above the saddle plate. By May 1940 the prototype had covered 51,600 km. There were still some possibilities for improvement. The series production of double-deck articulated buses was commissioned, but was not carried out because of the Second World War that was now taking place . Only four single deck semitrailers that were also ordered were still delivered to Dresden around 1941. On the roof of these also low-floor trailers, containers (balloon envelopes) for uncompressed town gas were mounted, which, due to the lack of petrol, served to drive the internal combustion engines of the towing vehicles. These buses burned down during the bombing raids on the city .
Immediately after the war in 1945, the Dutch railway company ordered 250 tractor units with 6-cylinder diesel engines from the British commercial vehicle manufacturer Crossley and 240 bus semi- trailers from DAF with bodies from Verheul in Waddinxveen and Werkspoor in Utrecht . Since Crossley's towing vehicles were not yet available when the first semi-trailers were delivered in 1946, other tractors ( Volvo ) were initially used. 170 trailers were delivered in 1946, and a further 70 in 1947. A few additional deliveries followed later, but this large number of articulated buses was taken out of service in 1950. Some of these distinctive vehicles were brought to Germany as chapel wagons via the “Ostiesterhilfe” .
Alternatives to the articulated buses were the bus trailers , which could be attached to the motorized bus depending on the number of passengers, and the articulated buses that appeared later . From July 1, 1960, passenger transport in trailers was prohibited in the Federal Republic of Germany , until 1963 there was a transition period during which old teams could continue to be used.
Articulated buses in the GDR
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At the beginning of the 1950s, 30 used articulated buses were procured from the Netherlands for SDAG Wismut works traffic . These were the PT42 tractor units from Crossley Motors, built from 1946 onwards, with trailers from DAF and Werkspoor . At the end of the 1950s, the vehicles were worn out. The trailers were rebuilt in the Wismut Motor Vehicle Repair Company (KRB) and were given 52 seats and 28 standing places. Used Z6 semi-trailers, derived from the IFA H6 , were used as tractors . The vehicles were used in various large companies in factory traffic until the mid-1960s. However, not all 30 buses purchased were converted, some remained in use in the original configuration. As early as 1955, some of these formerly Dutch articulated trucks came to the Dresden transport company , where they were renovated and converted (sliding doors in the back and in the middle). The tractors were gradually given diesel engines, gearboxes and axles from GDR production, and one vehicle received a complete H6 driver's cab after an accident. These semitrailers were mainly used on the line to the Klotzsche industrial area. Around 1965 these special buses were retired.
Building on the experience gained in 1938 with the double-deck semitrailer of the Werzeit Schumann-Werke for Dresden, the VEB motor vehicle plant "Ernst Grube" Werdau created a double-deck omnibus semitrailer, which from 1953 in East Berlin with a Z6 semitrailer from the IFA Horch plant Zwickau was used. This tractor was equipped with a 120 hp 6-cylinder diesel engine of the type EM 6-20 , which was later also used in the Do 56 . The type designation of the team was DoSa . In 1955 there was a small series delivery of seven more tractors and trailers, but this time the trailers were supplied by Waggonbau Ammendorf . They had a capacity of 38 seats above and 26 below. There were 3 standing places above and 33 below. The length of the vehicle was around 15 meters. They were mainly used on line 27 (Kaulsdorf – Köpenick – Müggelheim S-Bahn station). One vehicle was delivered to Moscow in 1959. The others were used or scrapped in the 1960s as horse transporters or changing rooms. The tractor engine was often viewed as too weak with this trailer capacity. With the same trailer, an overhead line double-decker semitrailer was also put into service in 1955 , this was the type designation ES6 .
Articulated buses in Cuba
Until the 1980s, urban bus transport in Havana was mainly carried out with Leyland- branded buses imported from Great Britain . However, the Cuban economic crisis resulted in a shortage of foreign currency, which from then on also showed itself in the country's local public transport . In order to remedy the shortage of buses, which had to be imported at great expense, semi-trailers were designed to transport people in the capital. Usually these were pulled by US truck tractor units.
Due to the shape of these trailers, the articulated bus is called Camello (Spanish for camel ) in Havana , although in the Spanish- speaking Caribbean and the Canary Islands a bus is otherwise known as a guagua . The name results from the "humps" at both ends of the trailer. Originally planned as a temporary measure, the Camellos were part of the cityscape of the capital for many years. Photographed with pleasure by tourists, the “Habaneros” regarded the vehicles as an unpopular symbol of the economy of scarcity . They were perceived as not very comfortable, were not air-conditioned and mostly overcrowded. They had 58 seats, but often carried up to 400 people. From 2005 the Camellos were gradually replaced by other buses, mostly from the Chinese manufacturer Yutong . You can still see them here and there in several provinces.
At the same time as the Camellos, numerous conventional buses acquired second-hand were converted into semi-trailers in Cuba.
Articulated buses in South Africa
The South African state railways SAR maintained numerous articulated buses, among other things. Mainly International and Oshkosh tractors were used.
Articulated rail buses
Another special feature were the five Borgward - railbuses of Sylt Island Railway , officially called light railcars. These were also based on the semi-trailer principle. Similar vehicles on a GMC basis were also used by the Bolivian state railway Empresa Nacional de Ferrocarriles del Estado (ENFE), the trailers being former trolleybuses from Buenos Aires .
Stoll trolleybuses
In addition to the above-mentioned GDR prototype ES6 , the early trolleybuses based on the Stoll system were also based on the semi-trailer principle. They had a two-axle drive unit on which a single-axle trailer was placed. Such vehicles were used at the beginning of the 20th century on the Dresdner Haide Railway , the Gleislose Bahn Poprád – Ótátrafüred , the Gleislose Bahn Hermannstadt and the Gleislose Bahn Niederschöneweide – Johannisthal . However, the principle did not work.
literature
- In a good mood and almost forgotten - the history of articulated buses . In: Last & Kraft , Issue 2/92, Edition Diesel Queen, Berlin 1992, ISSN 1613-1606 , pp. 10-21.
- In a good mood and still on my mind! In: Last & Kraft , Issue 3/92, Edition Diesel Queen, Berlin 1992, ISSN 1613-1606, pp. 45–51.
Web links
- Saddle buses, it was worth the try
- DoSa S6 , the double-decker articulated truck of the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe
Individual evidence
- ↑ In a good mood and still on my mind! In: Last & Kraft , Issue 3/92, Edition Diesel Queen, Berlin 1992, ISSN 1613-1606 , pp. 45-49.
- ↑ In a good mood and still on my mind! In: Last & Kraft , Issue 3/92, Edition Diesel Queen, Berlin 1992, ISSN 1613-1606, pp. 49/50.
- ↑ Mercedes-Benz Classic: The bus goes its own way
- ^ Christian Suhr: Typenkompass DDR-Omnibusse 1945-1990 , Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 2007, ISBN 978-3-613-02709-1 .
- ↑ In a good mood and still on my mind! In: Last & Kraft , Issue 3/921, Edition Diesel Queen, Berlin 1992, ISSN 1613-1606, pp. 50/51.
- ↑ Berliner Verkehrsblätter - Edition 6/1987, pages 141–145, Working Group Berlin Local Transport