Tow car

The 187 025 railcar of the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways is a typical representative of a tow car . For this purpose it has a transition option at the front and tows two additional passenger cars here.

A NE81 of SWEG in use as a freight towing railcar without passenger transport, 2016

Towing railcar or freight trailing railcars in Germany usual terms for special railway - vehicles , a combination between a railcar and a locomotive represent.

Definition and description

The VT 30 built in 1956 by Waggonfabrik Fuchs as a towing car on the Brohltalbahn

According to a definition from 1931, a distinction was made between rail motor cars with 30 to 60 hp, single multiple units with 60 to 180 hp (also known as single driver or single driver multiple units) and towing multiple units with 180 to 650 hp.

In general, however, almost every railcar can function as a tow car, provided it is equipped with the appropriate couplings or buffers . Therefore, a tow truck is on the one hand a designation for a certain type of operation, on the other hand a term for vehicles that have certain structural features that make it easier or even make it possible to carry additional trailer loads. These include, for example - in addition to the significantly more powerful drive - higher braking power, more complex gears or, in individual cases, transition devices to the next car - which, however, are generally only approved for the accompanying staff. However, series railcars such as the VT 98 or the ETA 150 , which occasionally pull one or two passenger or freight cars, are not considered to be tow cars. This also applies to passenger railcars that have intermediate cars , sidecars or control cars built exclusively for this purpose .

It is therefore difficult and sometimes fluid to make a specific distinction between towing vehicles and “normal” railcars. The same applies to the delimitation of the baggage rail car or mail rail car . Characteristic for the first electric towing cars, which emerged from around the end of the 19th century, was a relatively powerful motorization, a large packing / mail compartment and relatively small or completely missing passenger compartments. Pure goods railcars differ in that they have no passenger compartments, but instead have post / packing compartments that take up the entire usable area and are mostly designed as towing railcars, which is particularly related to the engine power. High -level standard - gauge control buffers with screw couplings , in addition to the central buffer couplings common on many narrow - gauge railways, were also typical of narrow - gauge railcars .

Areas of application and examples

The mostly one-piece and two- or four-axle tow cars used to be found mainly on private , small , local , circular or narrow-gauge railways. They enabled more economical and flexible operation there, because no separate locomotives had to be kept for freight traffic, even though tow cars are more expensive to purchase and operate than conventional railcars. The mixed trains , which are no longer common today, were often driven with them. An example of a diesel multiple unit also used in freight transport by private railways is the “ Esslinger multiple unit ” built between 1951 and 1961 by the Esslingen machine works .

Typical examples of electric railcars in Germany are the freight railcars 21 and 22 of the Extertalbahn , the railcars T3 of the Trossinger Eisenbahn , the railcars 772 , 891 and 895 of the Lokalbahn Aktien-Gesellschaft , the baggage railcars GT 1 and GT 2 of the Schleizer Kleinbahn or the goods railcars 18–20 of the OEG .

On the other hand, the concept could not prevail on the state railway and on main lines . Exceptions were the combustion railcars 10 004 and 10 005 of the Deutsche Reichsbahn , which were procured in 1941 and which were officially classified as freight towing cars, as well as the test vehicle VT 92 501 procured by the Deutsche Bundesbahn in 1951 .

It happens that railcars are used as towing railcars at the end of their service life in passenger transport. The Wittfeld-Akkumulatortriebwagen ETA 178,112 moved in the 1960s in the work train wagons of "Jumbo" of the Berlin S-Bahn was doing to December 2004 corresponding services.

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  MAN Schienenbus the Hohenzollerischen Landesbahn in use as a mixed train 1985

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  Towing railcar Härtsfeldbahn with Mittelpuffer- and usually clutch, the latter was used to transport jacked standard gauge freight cars

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  The shunting and towing car 478 701 "Jumbo" of the S-Bahn Berlin functioned as a work car for internal purposes

Trivia

In addition, some consider tram - depots before towing railcar that wrecked if necessary trams can tow. Here, however, the name is primarily a short form of tow truck .

literature

• Dieter Riehemann: Freight and towing cars for German small and narrow-gauge railways . Zeunert, Gifhorn 2005, ISBN 3-924335-44-3 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Description of the NWE T3 on hsb-wr.de, accessed on July 3, 2016
2. ↑ Operational and traffic rationalization in passenger traffic , published by the Federal Railway Directorate in Münster by Federal Railway Councilor Krause, 1954, page 18.
3. ^ Organ for the progress of the railway system , Volume 86, Edmund Heusinger von Waldegg, CW Kreidel-Verlag, 1931, page 190.
4. ↑ Eisenbahn Magazin 6/2018, p. 116.
5. ↑ Lok Magazin 3/2016, p. 56.
6. ↑ Riehemann, p. 40 ff.
7. ↑ Riehemann, p. 5.
8. ↑ Riehemann, p. 50.
9. ↑ Riehemann, p. 6.
10. ↑ On the TWE in: Lok Magazin 11/2015, p. 76 ff.
11. ↑ Lok Magazin 8/2015, p. 59.
12. ↑ Lok Magazin 1/2018, p. 80.
13. ↑ The Jumbo at stadtschnellbahn-berlin.de, accessed on December 20, 2017