Rail bus

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The series VT 95 , VT 97 and VT 98 (picture; with control car ) from the Uerdingen wagon factory were the epitome of the rail bus at the time of the Deutsche Bundesbahn

In the German-speaking world, light, two-axle combustion railcars for the railways , which were developed for cost-effective operation primarily on branch lines, are referred to as rail buses , rail buses or rail buses . At the Deutsche Bundesbahn there was the abbreviation Schom for him . Rail buses are not to be confused with the rarer rail-road omnibuses , which can run on rails as well as on the road.

term

: 1908 trolley , then the New York Central Railroad as Gasolene Rail Omnibus referred

Rail buses originally emerged from conversions of road vehicles . In contrast to these, vehicles that were designed from the outset for rail traffic usually have two driver's cabs and can travel in both directions at the same speed. In the German-speaking world, rail buses are classified as light-combustion railcars (LVT). The term light-combustion railcars includes other types of vehicles, for example some of the four-axle railcars. According to Bertelsmann's Universal Lexicon, a rail bus can have either two or four axles.

In addition to the short form rail bus , other terms such as rail bus or rail car are or were common. The expression rail car existed for a "motor vehicle with a combustion engine for freight and passenger traffic with rim wheels for driving on rails, unsuitable for being placed in trains".

Similar names for rail buses exist in other languages, for example the New York Central Railroad referred to a draisine in English as a railbus as early as 1908 . Furthermore ferrobús or buscarril ( Spanish ), autobus su rotaia ( Italian ), autorail or autocar sur rails ( French ), rälsbuss ( Swedish ), skinnebus ( Danish ), kiskobussi ( Finnish ), kolejový autobus ( Czech ), šinobus ( Serbo-Croatian ), sínautóbusz or sínbusz ( Hungarian ), autobus szynowy or szynobus ( Polish ) or Relsowye Awtobus ( Russian ). However, the so-called vehicles do not have a common, consistently uniform design.

Development history

“Autorail” from Saurer at the Voies ferrées du Dauphiné , 1920

The first rail buses were converted omnibuses with railway wheels . Even today, this type of construction is typical in Latin American countries. The main advantages over a classic railcar were the lower investment and operating costs as well as the reduced weight. This way vehicles sometimes have mutual entrances and partly fixed under the chassis-mounted equipment for lifting and turning the whole vehicle, with which the Reversal is possible to route tracks.

Originally, rail buses were therefore similar to the hooded omnibuses that were typical in the 1920s and 1930s. It was only after the Second World War that selected components from the commercial vehicle industry , such as engines , transmissions or bodywork elements, were adapted and combined with railcar elements. Advances in vehicle construction led rail buses to underfloor engines and self-supporting car bodies . Another common feature of rail buses is the large-scale construction without partition walls between the entry area and passenger compartment and without a separate driver's cab . The generous glazing gave passengers a panoramic view, which contributed to the popularity of the time.

Older vehicles also often had a roof rack.

Rail buses typically have no or simplified couplings , as they are mostly used alone or with identical auxiliary , intermediate or control cars . If, on the other hand, they are equipped with normal pulling and buffing devices, normal passenger or freight cars can be carried.

Europe

German language area

Germany

Nacke rail bus of the Royal Saxon State Railways , around 1912
T1 of Eckernförde Kreisbahnen , built in 1929
T 01 ( WUMAG ) of the Schönermark – Damme circuit , later VT 133 512 of the DR
Wismar rail bus of the OHE
VT 95 with sidecar in Dillenburg station

A first rail bus was tested by the Royal Saxon State Railways shortly before the First World War . A street bus from the Nacke company in Coswig was fitted with flange wheels and signaling devices typical for railways (compressed air whistle, warning bell). The vehicle with track number 9015 had a Saurer engine and had space for 18 people. The outbreak of war probably ended its mission.

In 1927 a meter-gauge vehicle was created - also from a street bus - as a joint production of the Werdau wagon factory and VOMAG . From 1929 it was used on the Gera-Meuselwitz-Wuitzer Railway . The one-way vehicle had 38 seats and had an air brake. The 44 kW four-cylinder gasoline engine enabled a top speed of 35 km / h. Because of the large wheelbase of 5700 millimeters, the front axle was designed to be movable; it could be turned using the steering wheel like a road vehicle. Opportunities to turn have been created at four points on the runway. To turn, the front wheels were lifted with a hydraulic lifting device and the vehicle swiveled in a semicircle around the rear axle. In 1948 it was relocated to the Franzburger Kreisbahnen , which was taken over by the Deutsche Reichsbahn in 1949 . The rail bus was given the road number VT 133 521, was parked in 1950/51 and scrapped in 1962.

In August 1931, the Henschel company put the first rail bus on the tracks at the nearby Grifte-Gudensberger Kleinbahn . Although the railway was satisfied with the unidirectional vehicle, which looked more like a "real" railway vehicle without a protruding engine front end, follow-up orders were largely absent. Only the Deutsche Reichsbahn ordered three railcars in the same year - but in a bidirectional design to avoid the uneconomical turning at the terminus. The vehicles, designated as 133 006–008 and weighing only 11.9 t, were stationed at the RBD Regensburg . They were considered to be at risk of derailment , were only used by the overhead line maintenance service during World War II and are considered lost.

From the 1930s, the Wismar wagon factory built rail buses. Its best-known representative was the Hanover- type Wismar rail bus , which was first advertised as a "rail bus". Officially, it was first referred to as a 2-axle lightweight rail bus , later as a light railcar . The wagon and engineering Görlitz (WUMAG) built mid-1930s similar vehicles .

In 1933, the Uerdingen wagon factory built a “rail bus” with an Opel engine for the Lübeck-Segeberger Railway and in 1936 another multiple unit (with trailer) for the Lübeck-Büchener Railway . In retrospect, the two vehicles anticipated many elements of the later Uerdingen rail bus of the Deutsche Bundesbahn . In the same year, the Gardelegen-Haldensleben-Weferlinger Eisenbahn acquired nine used double-decker buses from the Berliner Verkehrsgesellschaft and converted them into rail buses. Between 1939 and 1941 these deck seat cars were replaced by modern railcars.

In the post-war period, the Uerdingen rail buses of the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) were used nationwide and in large numbers in West Germany. It distinguished between the single-engine series VT 95 , the twin-engine series VT 98 and the gear variant VT 97 . In the 1950s, the Deutsche Bundesbahn temporarily introduced four new types of train especially for these series , with the "t" standing for multiple units and the "o" for omnibus:

In many non-federally owned railways came MAN railcars used. Limited financial resources forced small railways to find idiosyncratic solutions from their own workshops. The Württembergische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft converted an old Büssing omnibus into a T35 multiple unit .

In the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the Deutsche Reichsbahn had been using the VT 2.09 series since the 1960s . They were technically classified as light-combustion railcars (LVT) and often also referred to as rail buses.

In addition, some prototypes and small series existed. These include the five SVG light railcars of the Sylter Inselbahn , which were converted from semi-trailers (1953-1970, from Borgward B 4000 ). In addition, the T 35 railcar, a one-off converted from a bus, ran on the Amstetten – Laichingen railway line . There was also a firmly coupled three-part Uerdinger unit with bellows transitions at the Hersfeld circular path .

In the 1990s, various manufacturers introduced successor designs for the now outdated rail buses. For example, six copies of the 670 series, known colloquially as the double-decker rail bus , were produced. Deutsche Waggonbau then used the experience gained in building these vehicles to develop the LVT / S series of light railcars , of which around 20 were built.

Austria

Railcar of the series 5081 of the ÖBB in the Attnang-Puchheim station

In Austria, too, attempts were made from the mid-1920s to rationalize traffic on secondary lines by using inexpensive light railcars. In 1932/33 the four VT 60 series rail buses, converted from Perl L6 buses , were built, which were mainly used on the local railways in the Weinviertel . The Austro-Daimler light railcars with 80 HP AD 640 petrol engine and fluid transmission, built from 1932 onwards, are also classed as rail buses, as they used a large number of structural elements from automotive engineering, such as: B. pneumatic car tires running in railway wheels. However, they did not prove themselves.

From the 1950s, Uerdingen rail buses were also used in Austria. In 1953 the first twin-engine Uerdingen rail bus went to the Graz-Köflacher Eisenbahn (GKB) , and in 1968 the VT 10.09 was the last Uerdingen rail bus to be built in Germany . The nine railcars of the class VT 10 corresponded to the VT 95 of the DB, but had two engines. From 1970, GKB acquired four single-engine VT 95s from DB, which they classified as VT 50. There were also a total of 21 sidecars.

In 1955, the Montafonerbahn procured the two single-engine railcars VT 11 and VT 12, which differed from the VT 95 series only in the lowerable side windows. The matching VS 21 control car was added in 1956.

Uerdingen rail buses were run by the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) as the 5081 series . Most of them were licensed buildings manufactured by Simmering-Graz-Pauker and Jenbacher Werke . Apart from a few deviations such as lowerable side windows and lowered steps, they largely corresponded to the VT 98. 30 such railcars as well as the same number of control and trailer cars were acquired by the ÖBB.

In addition, assignments took place at the Montafonerbahn , the Steiermärkische Landesbahnen (StLB) and the Südburgenland Regionalbahn (SRB).

Switzerland

Saurer rail mobile on the Rorschach-Heiden mountain railway , 1908
Loner Be 2/2 14 of the Orbe-Chavornay Railway

The Swiss railway companies do not have any vehicles that have been referred to as rail buses. However, German rail buses ran across the border into Switzerland on the Koblenz – Waldshut railway line . The Saurer company built a “rail mobile” for running low-traffic trains, which was tested in the winter of 1908 on the Rorschach-Heiden mountain railway . The safety regulations prevented it from being put into operation on the rack and pinion line . In 1920, an adapted Saurer tram ran for advertising purposes on the rails of the French narrow-gauge railway Voies ferrées du Dauphiné .

In 1932, during the planning phase for the Red Arrows , the Swiss Federal Railways made plan sketches of light two-axle railcars in an electric and a diesel version. These ideas were not followed up.

The non-electrified Sursee-Triengen-Bahn (ST) made attempts in 1953 with a Uerdingen rail bus. There was no procurement, in 1971 passenger traffic was shifted to the road.

In 1955, the Oensingen-Balsthal-Bahn (OeBB) asked the Swiss Lokomotiv- und Maschinenfabrik (SLM) to offer an electric rail bus that, according to the drawing, would have weighed around five tons and would have been 9.5 meters long. The costs exceeded the company's financial capabilities.

As part of a review of the operating mode of the Wohlen-Meisterschwanden-Bahn (WM), SWS offered two four-axle electric rail buses in 1977. Since they had no normal pulling and pushing devices, separate trains would have been necessary for the general cargo traffic, which is why this variant was discarded as uneconomical.

The Orbe-Chavornay-Bahn (OC) examined the procurement of a used Uerdingen rail bus, which was to receive electrical equipment from a trolleybus . The Stadler company , which was still small at the time and, in addition to conversions, was involved in the production of custom-made products, offered a two-axle new-build vehicle of comparable dimensions, which went into operation in 1990 as Be 2/2 number 14 .

Western Europe

Luxembourg

Prototype vehicle Z 151 (formerly CFL) at the museum railway AMTF Train 1900 in Bois de Rodange

The Chemins de Fer Luxembourgeois (CFL) acquired ten railcars and ten sidecars of the VT 95 prototype series in 1951 , which were given the road numbers 151 to 160 and 1051 to 1060. One set was preserved on the AMTF Train 1900 museum railway in Fond-de-Gras . An eleventh car with the number 161, which corresponded to the series vehicles, followed to Luxembourg in 1956.

Belgium

Rail bus of the NMBS / SNCB series 553 in Löwen , 1992

Four series of rail buses were in use in Belgium, manufactured between 1939 and 1952 and equipped with Brossel engines. The NMBS / SNCB Series 551 was about 16 meters long; 56 units were produced in the course of 1939. In contrast to the other Belgian rail bus series with four axles, the 551 series only had two axles. In the same year, six vehicles from the NMBS / SNCB series 552 followed, which was significantly shorter with a length of only 11 meters. Both series received a 127 kW diesel engine with mechanical power transmission . In 1942 50 railcars of the NMBS / SNCB series 553 with a length of 16 meters and a 166 kW engine were delivered. After the end of the Second World War , this engine was also installed in the 20 railcars of the NMBS / SNCB series 554 built in 1952 .

The 553 series rail buses were renamed series 49 in 1971 and were in service until the mid-1970s; the 554 series vehicles were given the designation series 46 and were not retired until the late 1990s. Many railcars have been preserved in museums and are kept operational by various private museum railways or associations and used for special trips.

France

The first rail buses in France were created by the engineer Georges Tartary , manager of the Tramways des Deux Sèvres railway company . After the First World War he bought 20 former ambulance buses of the United States Army and converted them into meter-gauge rail vehicles. The two-axle one-way vehicles of the type "A" offered 16, the ten copies of the extended type "Ai" 24 passengers. In the following type "B", the engine was already integrated into the interior. In 1934 some of the railcars, some of which operated with single-axle sidecars, received new “streamlined” bodies, and at least one was converted into a windowless freight railcar. The vehicles were also used by six other French railway companies.

JM4 of the Chemins de fer des Côtes-du-Nord turning the vehicle
"Autocar on rails": Autorail Floirat X 5700
An A2E from Soulé

Other early examples illustrate the series YES, JM1, JM2, JM3 and JM4 in facility construction in the type of Hood buses with the wheel arrangement 1A and the series JB and KG (the latter in the manner of a forward-control -Autobusses) with the wheel arrangement 2'A , d. H. a kind of leading bogie (Tartary-De-Dion track guidance system) and a trailing driven axle. They were built by De Dion-Bouton between 1923 and 1932. The JA, built in ten copies for eight railways, was a copy of the Tartary A in many ways. a reinforced chassis and a rotating device under the floor of the car, they could pull two-axle sidecars.

In francophone-speaking areas, including France, there is no common adequate term for the German designation rail bus. Rail buses, light railcars and railcars with thermal drive are usually referred to as autorail . Occasionally, for example in the SNCF series X 5700 (Autorail Floirat), the term “autocar sur rails” is also used. This is a vehicle that was used practically in the same design in road traffic.

In the historical context, the term Micheline exists in this regard , even if it was not actually a Michelin multiple unit.
Although only a little more than 100 copies were built, the Micheline railbuses equipped with air-filled tires, developed by the tire manufacturer Michelin in cooperation with several railway companies, found widespread use in France and its areas of influence . The Michelines were available in five, six, eight and twelve-axis designs. Other manufacturers of French rail buses were Saurer , Berliet , De Dion-Bouton , Verney and Renault .

Soon after the Second World War, ten Floirat road buses were converted into rail buses. The two-axle X 5600 series was built in 63 copies, which , like the four-axle "Picassos" ( X 3800 series ), had an asymmetrically arranged, raised operator's platform. For the routes operated by the CFTA in Brittany , Soulé delivered three innovative two-axle type A2E railcars in 1990 , but they found no successors.

Great Britain

Former British Rail Uerdinger Railbus

Rail buses already existed in Great Britain in the 1920s. The Derwent Valley Light Railway (DVLR) put two vehicles on a Ford truck chassis into service in 1924 , which were sold to Ireland in 1926 .

As early as 1958, there were again small series of rail buses. These included five vehicles built in Germany, which largely corresponded to the Uerdingen rail bus, but were adapted to the British vehicle gauge. Other deviations from the German model included the center entry and the target sign below the headlamp. The railcars built by WMD in Donauwörth for British Rail had, in contrast to their British counterparts, normal pulling and pushing devices. Four of the five vehicles survived, including No. 79964 on the Keighley and Worth Valley Railway from Keighley to Oxenhope in West Yorkshire .

After several second-generation prototypes, such as the two-axle BRE- Leyland Railbus R3, developed from 1976 onwards , the two- and three-part series 140 to 144 called Pacer were procured from 1984 to 1987 . With the application of technical solutions from the bus sector, costs should be saved on branch lines. Unlike in other countries, British rail buses are built just as tall as other rail vehicles due to the higher platforms. The poor running properties of the two-axle bogies have proven to be disadvantageous. Some of the railcars, which are designed for a service life of twenty years, are still in use. They should be phased out by 2019.

Ireland

GNR Railbus in the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum

The Great Northern Railway (GNR) built a series of rail buses in the 1930s, including: also for other companies such as the Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway (SL & NCR). The vehicles were road buses adapted for rail traffic, which ran on the rails with gas-filled rubber tires (Howden-Meredith patent wheels) similar to the French Michelines . The front axles were later given normal railway wheels in order to be able to influence the signaling circuits.

Narrow-gauge railways also use vehicles derived from street buses. As early as 1926, the County Donegal Railway (CDR) procured two used, two-axle gasoline-powered rail buses from the English Derwent Valley Light Railway (DVLR) and gauged them. They were in service until 1934. In 1930, GNR in Dundalk built the first diesel-powered railcar, which ran on the British Isles, with the No. 7 rail bus for the CDR.

Southern Europe

Spain

Two-part Ferrobús by RENFE, 1981

A first rail bus was delivered to Ferrocarril de Valencia a Villanueva de Castellón in 1933 as Autovía nº 1 , and in the following year it was given road number 4. The narrow-gauge , three-axle one-way vehicle had a three-cylinder engine licensed by Junkers with 75 hp under the front end . The railcars 2, 3 and 5 followed in 1934, in the same year all four vehicles were re-designated as 102 to 105. They could pull sidecars, and in 1935 the more powerful motorized railcar 106 was added. The meter-gauge rail buses - with engines integrated into the interior - of the types A-1 (eleven vehicles, including one freight railcar) and A-2 (two vehicles) of the Ferrocarril de Villena a Alcoy y Yecla (VAY) also came from the 1930s . The externally similar vehicles were all made in the VAY workshops. In 1974, seven railcars of the A-1 came to the Ferrocarriles de Vía Estrecha (FEVE).

The Spanish state railway Red Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Españoles (RENFE) had acquired a three-part train consisting of a twin-engine railcar and two trailer cars from the Uerdingen wagon factory in 1954 for its broad-gauge network (gauge 1676 millimeters). Like the VT 95, it had light Scharfenberg couplings , but most of the side windows were designed as translation windows. The upper thirds of the toilet window and the front window were hinged. The wheelbases of the two sidecars were 6 meters.

As early as 1953, Uerdingen had designed an articulated multiple unit with bellows transitions, of which RENFE received 15 trains from Germany in 1962. At the beginning of 1963 another 15 such trains were ordered, which were delivered by January 1964. In the meantime, 30 identical trains have been built under license in local production. These were compositions of a railcar and a control car based on the VT 98, each with only one driver's cab and a non-powered sidecar in the middle. The trains had translation windows and hinged windows in the windshields and could be coupled to other railroad cars due to the normal pulling and pushing devices. All railcars initially had Büssing U 10 engines .

After 1966, RENFE procured further half trains in the VT-VM series and individual VTs, including 30 from the Uerdingen wagon factory. From now on, the hinged windows in the windshields were dispensed with. A total of 229 railcars (VT), 136 intermediate cars (VM) and 101 control cars (VS), which were lined up as VT-VM-VS or VT-VM-VT. Most intermediate cars were converted to control cars in the 1970s. More and more two-part trains were used, but 20 four-car trains were also formed.

The Spanish rail buses were temporarily used in express train services subject to a surcharge over distances of more than 300 kilometers. Its regular service ended in 1991, two trains reconditioned for the Saragossa Railway Museum were temporarily used again by a regional railway company until 1992.

Portugal

Portugal: One-way rail bus of the MEyf series

The three AR 101 to 103 rail buses for Linha do Vouga were built from three street buses from the French company Panhard in the early 1940s . The front of the meter-gauge vehicles was given a bogie, the front-mounted motor drove the rear axle via a truck cardan shaft . Initially, the railcars, which were equipped with a toilet, had 23 seats exclusively in 1st  class . They were renamed AMyf 101 to 103, followed in 1944 with the AMyf 104, a fourth vehicle with a Chrysler gasoline engine. With the nationalization of the line in 1946, they came to the CP and - after a fifth unit had gone into operation in 1947 - received the numbers MEyf 51 to 55. Later all engines were replaced by Chevrolet truck engines. They were in use until 1979, and in the early 1980s two of the railcars were scrapped.

The Spanish State Railways sold 16 sets of Uerdinger rail buses consisting of multiple units and control cars to Portugal in 1979 and 1980 ; the last three of these trains were in service until 1985.

Italy

M1c No. 82 of the MCL

The Mediterranea-Calabro-Lucane (MCL) railway company acquired a total of 32 narrow-gauge M1 series rail buses with diesel engines. The two-axle one-way vehicles for the track width 950 mm were delivered between 1933 and 1953 in the form of four series, including two (with the suffix "c" for cremagliera - rack) with gear drive . The first 17 railcars were built on truck chassis from Officine Meccaniche (OM), the superstructures came from Carminati & Toselli .

Seven railcars and four control cars of the Uerdinger design ran in Italy. The vehicles built under license by the Macchi-Fer company in Varese corresponded largely to the VT 98, but were single-engine. The railcars designated as ALn 1201–1205 and the RP 2001 and 2002 control cars ran at the Azienda Consorziale Trasporti (ACT) in Reggio nell'Emilia , two motor cars (AD 21 and 22) and two control cars (RP 221-222) at the Ferrovie del Sud Est (FSE) in the Bari area .

Yugoslavia and successor states

Šinobus from Gosa in Banatsko Miloševo , 2011

In view of the acute shortage of railcars, the Yugoslav state railway Jugoslovenske Železnice (JŽ) resorted to the Uerdingen rail bus. In the spring of 1955 she received ten railcars from Germany that corresponded to the VT 95 series and were given the road numbers Dmot 126 001 to 009. Unlike the DB version, the ten matching sidecars had an axle base of 6 meters.

Since the vehicles known as “Šinobus” proved their worth, up to 1967 264 multiple units and just as many sidecars and control cars were reordered. These were built under license by the Gosa company in Smederevska Palanka and - in contrast to the red original Uerdingen - painted silver. Its side windows could be lowered up to half, and the entrances were provided with an additional lower step. In the course of time, all existing sidecars were converted into control cars, the series designation changed to B 812 (railcar) and B 818 (control and sidecar).

In today's Serbia , some of them were still in use in Vojvodina until the 2010s.

Northern Europe

Denmark

VGJ SM 6

The locomotive factory and wagon manufacturer Scandia in Randers built rail buses for the Danish private railways from 1947 to 1952, which were designated as the SM series. They were powered by the 8-cylinder Scania-Vabis diesel engine D802 or the Frichs diesel engine 8115cc. From 1949 the 6-cylinder Hercules diesel engine was also installed. The gearshift took place with a mechanical four-speed gearbox and braking was carried out with compressed air. A rail bus had 48 seats and was 14,200 mm long. Its weight was mainly 13 t and the maximum speed was 70 km / h. There were deviations in individual rail buses; at a weight between 12.9 and 14 t, at a speed of 60 to 75 km / h. The 6 rail buses built in 1952 for Lyngby - Nærum Jernbane had 52 seats with a length of 14,280 mm.

Sweden

From 1932 onwards, Hilding Carlsson produced many copies of the vehicle known as Umeå-bussen in Sweden . It was a railcar that consisted of a sheet-metal-clad wooden structure. In the 1950s, the shape was modernized with rounded corners. This model is made entirely of metal. From 1953 to 1961, a total of 378 light standard-gauge diesel multiple units of the Y6 and Y7 series were built - originally YCo6 or YBo6 and YBo7, some later converted to Y8. They were called "rälsbuss". There were also 321 sidecars and control cars. From 1955, 30 electric railcars of the same dimensions were built, originally as YBoa6 and YBoa7, later designated as X16 and X17. They weighed only 21 tons with 55 seats and reached a top speed of 110 km / h; the diesel version was two tons lighter and reached 115 km / h. As early as 1952, the narrow-gauge version of the diesel rail bus was built as the YP and the NKIJ had an electric rail bus train "rälsbusståg" built in two, the three cars of which weighed 41 tons.

Finland

Finnish Dm7 in Helsinki Central Station

The “Kiskobussi” of the pre-series Dm6 series, built by Valmet under a Swedish license, had four axles and were delivered in 1954. The trains of the improved version Dm7 were used from 1955 to 1988 by the Finnish state railway Valtionrautatiet in local traffic.

Central Europe

Czechoslovakia and successor states

Rail bus of the ČSD series 810

The Czechoslovak State Railways (ČSD) acquired two types of rail bus in 1927 and 1928, which were based on converted buses. The vehicles built by the Czechoslovak manufacturers Škoda ( ČSD M 120.001 ) and ČKD / Praga ( ČSD series M 120.1 ) proved their worth . They were no longer procured because of their design-related disadvantages.

From 1928 onwards, the ČSD obtained from Tatra railcars with a central driver's cab on the vehicle roof, where only the engine and gearbox came from the automotive industry. These vehicles, known as the Tatra tower railcars , already had mostly normal pulling and buffing devices, so that they could be freely coupled with normal railroad vehicles. This line of development was continued after the Second World War with the railcars of the ČSD class M 131.1 . The youngest representatives of this design are the railcars of the ČSD series M 152.0 , today the series 810. They are still in use - largely modernized - in the Czech Republic , Slovakia and Hungary .

Hungary

Two-axle rail bus of the DSA type from 1925/26, 1941
Railcar of the MÁV series Bzmot in Makó

In 1925 and 1926, a small series of rail buses were built in Hungary for local traffic along Lake Balaton . The two-axle one -way vehicles of the Duna-Száva-Adria Vasút (DSA), resembling a street bus , had a four-cylinder gasoline engine from Ganz & Co. , which drove the rear axle via a cardan shaft. At 5700 mm, the distance between the axles of the standard-gauge railcars was unusually long. In the two Bmot 7 and 8 railcars built in 1934 , the engine was already integrated into the interior.

With the type Bmot built between 1928 and 1931 , five two-axle diesel-mechanical rail buses for bidirectional operation came to the DSA. The railcars, initially referred to as DSA 1-5, developed 70 hp and had a top speed of 75 km / h.

Under the MÁV series Cmot , two-axle railcars from Czechoslovak production, which had come to Hungary as a result of the Second World War , were included in the Magyar Államvasutak (MÁV). They belonged to the ČSD series M 120.1 (Cmot 201–202), M 122.0 (Cmot 210–215), M 130.2 (Cmot 220–224), M 130.3 (Cmot 225), M 131.0 (Cmot 230–232) and M 242.0 (Cmot 250).

The Bzmot series rail buses acquired in the 1970s were built at Vagonka Tatra in Czechoslovakia. The two-axle railcars are identical to the ČSD series M 152.0

Developments on other continents

North America

In the USA , a "rail bus" was probably created for the first time with a railbus from New York Central Railways from 1908, and other similar vehicles, derived primarily from truck construction, followed.

One manufacturer was the Mack company , which was building rail buses in Allentown in the US state of Pennsylvania as early as the 1920s. A prototype came to the New Heaven Railroad in 1951 and from 1954 to 1957 another nine four-axle Mack FDC Railbuses , of which only two were used in the Providence area . Six of these vehicles were sold on to the Langreo Railway in northern Spain.

South America

The Uruguayan state railway Administración de Ferrocarriles del Estado (AFE) acquired 16 single-engine and twelve twin-engine rail buses as well as a total of 27 side cars and one control car from the Deutsche Bundesbahn in the early 1980s. Their use ended in 1987 when all rail passenger transport in the country was discontinued. In 1993, two refurbished rail buses were used in the resumed suburban traffic in the capital Montevideo .

Asia

Japan

Railbus 101 of the former Nanbu Jūkan Railway (Japan)

During a visit to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1953, the President of the Japanese state railway company JNR got to know the Uerdingen rail buses. In 1955, Fuji Heavy Industries presented the prototype of a Japanese rail bus for a track width of 1067 mm ( Cape gauge ). The JNR rail buses were parked in the 1970s.

In 1982 Fuji began developing a rail bus for private branch lines that took many elements from street buses.

India

  • Indian three-axle narrow gauge rail bus

  • Rail bus of the Indian narrow-gauge railway Kalka-Shimla Railway

Australia

The British company Associated Equipment Company (AEC) built 19 two-axle rail buses called "Railmotors" for one-way operation and 24 sidecars for the Australian Victorian Railways between 1922 and 1925. The track width of the railcars equipped with a 34 kW petrol engine was 5 ¼ feet ( Irish broad gauge , 1600 mm). During the 1950s, the vehicles were parked.

  • Of AEC -built rail bus no. 10 in the station Mornington

  • AEC Railmotor No. 9 at Fawkner , 1953

literature

  • Axel Ertelt : Mobility on the siding , NIBE-Verlag, Alsdorf, 1st edition, 2017, ISBN 978-3-947002-51-1
  • Bernd Friedrich, Andreas Stange: The low combustion railcars (LVT) Deutsche Reichsbahn: VT 2:09 (BR 171/172, 771/772) and 12.4 VT (BR 173) . 1st edition. EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-88255-231-7 .
  • Jürgen Krantz, Roland Meier: Everything about the rail bus . Transpress-Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-613-71313-0 .
  • Christoph Riedel: Rail buses and battery-powered railcars - the last years of operation in West Germany . Verlag Podszun, Brilon 2009, ISBN 978-3-86133-496-5 .
  • Joachim Seyferth: Memories of the Rail Bus ( Rail Photo Volume 1) . Joachim Seyferth Verlag, Wiesbaden 1987, ISBN 3-926669-01-2 .
  • 50 years of Uerdingen rail buses . Eisenbahn-Kurier Special number 56, EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2000. * Jürgen Krantz, Roland Meier: Everything about the rail bus . Transpress-Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-613-71313-0 .
  • WJK Davies: The Light Railway Railcar in Western Europe . Plateway Press, East Harling 2004, ISBN 1-871980-52-6 .
  • Rolf Löttgers: The Uerdingen rail bus . Franckh'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-440-05463-2 .

Web links

Commons : Rail buses  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c rail bus. In: Lexicon of the Railway. Transpress, Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-344-00160-4 , p. 658.
  2. ↑ a b c d Eisenbahn JOURNAL special edition 1/2012: VT 95 - 98: Uerdinger rail bus (PDF; 3.9 MB)
  3. ↑ Abbreviations from the railway sector on www.bahnseite.de
  4. ↑ The DB classics V 100 and rail bus at www.eisenbahnwelt.de
  5. ^ US Library of Congress
  6. ↑ Light combustion railcars. In: Lexikon der Eisenbahn , Transpress, Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-344-00160-4 , p. 490.
  7. ↑ Bertelsmann Universal Lexicon. Bertelsmann Lexikon-Verlag, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-577-10496-1 .
  8. ↑ Diesel light railcars. In: Meyer's New Lexicon. VEB Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1961–64.
  9. ↑ Rail car. In: Meyers Neues Lexikon , VEB Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig 1961–64.
  10. ↑ Langenscheidt's concise dictionary of French. ISBN 3-468-05159-X .
  11. ↑ Image representation on the website freneydoisans.com ( Memento from March 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ Pictures 16, 19, 20, 23, 26 on the website of "passion-metrique.net"
  13. ↑ a b c The rail buses of the DB - VT 95 / VT 98 , in: Eisenbahn Kurier Special 16, p. 18 f.
  14. ↑ a b c d Omnibuses on rails in: VT 95–98 Uerdinger Eisenbahnbus, Eisenbahn Journal special issue 1/2012, p. 14 f.
  15. ^ Deutsche Reichsbahn: Decommissioned Wismar rail bus type "Hanover". In: Eisenbahn-Jahrbuch 1970 , Transpress, reprinted in: Horst Regling (Ed.) : Eisenbahnverkehr in der DDR , Volume II, transpress, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-613-71174-5 , p. 56.
  16. ↑ Prussia financed the construction of the Neuhaldensleben - Gardelegen railway at volksstimme.de, accessed on August 5, 2018
  17. ↑ Die Nebenbahnretter on www.epoche-3.de ( Memento from October 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  18. ^ Eisenbahn Kurier Special 16: The rail buses of the DB - VT 95 / VT 98 , p. 21.
  19. ^ Hans-Joachim Kirsche, Hans Müller: Railway Atlas GDR. 1st edition, VEB Tourist-Verlag, Berlin / Leipzig 1987, ISBN 3-350-00293-5 , p. 73.
  20. ↑ syltiges.de
  21. ↑ Rolf Löttgers: The Uerdingen rail bus . Franckh'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-440-05463-2 , p. 121 ff .
  22. ^ Peter Eggenberger: Pioneering work 110 years ago . In Appenzeller Zeitung (online edition) from January 5, 2018
  23. ↑ Une étrange machine arrive en gare du Bourg-d'Oisans. (No longer available online.) In: freneydoisans.com. Formerly in the original ; accessed on January 31, 2013 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / freneydoisans.com
  24. ^ Semaphore magazine . Summer 2006, pp. 27 and 28.
  25. ^ Daniel Zumbühl: 75 years of the Sursee – Triengen Railway (official commemorative publication). Railway portrait 2, Ernst B. Leutwiler, Verlag, Zurich 1987, ISBN 3-906681-05-X .
  26. ↑ Semaphor magazine, special edition 2012, pp. 34, 35 and 38.
  27. ^ Ernst B. Leutwiler: Wohlen-Meisterschwanden-Bahn; History of rolling stock. Verlag Ernst B. Leutwiler, Zurich 1986, ISBN 3-906681-02-5 , p. 25.
  28. ↑ David De Neef: Autorails du type 551 on belrail.be (French), accessed on December 25, 2014.
  29. ↑ David De Neef: Autorails du type 552 on belrail.be (French), accessed on December 25, 2014.
  30. ↑ David De Neef: Autorails du type 553 on belrail.be (French), accessed on December 25, 2014.
  31. ↑ David De Neef: Autorails de la série 46 (type 554) - Fiche technique on belrail.be (French), accessed on December 25, 2014.
  32. ↑ David De Neef: Autorails de la série 46 (type 554) - Description on belrail.be (French), November 1, 2004, accessed on December 12, 2014.
  33. ↑ David De Neef: Autorails de la série 46 (type 554) - Attribution des dépôts on belrail.be (French), November 6, 2004, accessed on December 12, 2014.
  34. ^ WJK Davies: The Light Railway Railcar in Western Europe . Plateway Press, East Harling 2004, ISBN 1-871980-52-6 , pp. 85 f .
  35. ^ WJK Davies: The Light Railway Railcar in Western Europe . Plateway Press, East Harling 2004, ISBN 1-871980-52-6 , pp. 103 ff .
  36. ↑ passionlocos.e-monsite.com, Autorail X 5700 ( memento of February 26, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) accessed on January 31, 2013.
  37. ↑ www.leo.org micheline corresponds to railbus or railcar accessed on January 31, 2013.
  38. ↑ Stefan Hooß, Gabriel Emde, Jean-Louis Rochaix: Meter gauge in the Corrèze, From Tulle to Ussel. Zweispur-Verlag, 2012, DNB 1028602588 . Quotation of a caption from De Dion-Bouton ML on page 140: The Micheline in Tulle […]
  39. ↑ New Micheline rail bus. In: Schweizerische Bauzeitung , Volume 102 (1933), Number 8.
  40. ↑ X 97150 A2E at autorails.free.fr, accessed on December 23, 2017
  41. ↑ a b The Derwent Valley Railway at irsociety.co.uk, accessed December 19, 2017
  42. ↑ Railways Illustrated , February 2012, p. 66.
  43. ↑ New rail bus for local traffic in: Stadtverkehr 3/1982 p. 122 f.
  44. ↑ Tom Ferris: Irish Railways in Color: From Steam to Diesel 1955-1967 . Midland Publishing, 1995, ISBN 1-85780-000-1 , pp. 44 and 68 .
  45. ↑ Kevin McCormack: Irish Railways in the 1950s and 1960s: A Journey Through Two Decades , p. 15 at Google Books, accessed December 18, 2017
  46. ↑ Tom Ferris: Irish Railways in color: From Steam to Diesel 1955–1967 , p. 111.
  47. ↑ El Ferrocarril de Valencia a Villanueva de Castellón. 100 Años (III) at caminosdeferro.blogspot.com, accessed June 3, 2018
  48. ^ WJK Davies: The Light Railway Railcar in Western Europe . Plateway Press, East Harling 2004, ISBN 1-871980-52-6 , pp. 97 .
  49. ↑ a b c Rolf Löttgers: The Uerdinger rail bus , p. 135 ff.
  50. ^ WJK Davies: The Light Railway Railcar in Western Europe . Plateway Press, East Harling 2004, ISBN 1-871980-52-6 , pp. 99 f .
  51. ^ WJK Davies: The Light Railway Railcar in Western Europe . Plateway Press, East Harling 2004, ISBN 1-871980-52-6 , pp. 133 ff .
  52. ↑ Rolf Löttgers: The Uerdingen railcar , pp 118 et seq.
  53. ↑ Rolf Löttgers: The Uerdinger rail bus , p. 113 ff.
  54. ↑ Fernexpress 1/2010 Vojvodina - its railways - its rail buses (PDF; 73 kB)
  55. ↑ [1] , locomotive factory and wagon manufacturer Scandia (Danish)
  56. ↑ www.jarnvag.net, guiden till Sveriges tåg och järnväger, Y6 / Y7 / Y8 med släp- och manövervagnar (accessed on November 8, 2012)
  57. ↑ goals Nordin: Svenska Elmotorvagnar. Svenska Järnvägsklubben (SJK), Stockholm 2003, ISBN 91-85098-97-3 .
  58. ↑ Från Ånghästen till Uddeholmaren, pictures from NKLJ. Hagfors Järnvägs- och Industrial Museum 1987.
  59. ↑ Description of the M 120.0 and M 120.1 series on www.pshzd.cz (Czech)
  60. ^ WJK Davies: The Light Railway Railcar in Western Europe . Plateway Press, East Harling 2004, ISBN 1-871980-52-6 , pp. 118 .
  61. ↑ Mack Railbus Model AC at wvrailroads.net, accessed on March 19, 2016
  62. ^ Peter E. Lynch: New Heaven Railroad . MBI, St. Paul 2003, ISBN 0-7603-1441-1 , p. 97 ff .