Summer car
As a summer car , a tram - or rail - passenger cars called, the only seasonally and in good weather is used, is open at the side or is covered with tarps or drapes. Usually it is a sidecar , less often a railcar . Accordingly, one also speaks of a summer sidecar or a summer multiple unit . In another version, only the usual glass panes are missing from summer cars, structurally these vehicles correspond to regular closed cars. Also, there were so-called change car or transformation of cars that were rebuilt in the spring and fall - for example, the Convertiblen Cars the Great Berlin tram . Open buses are also sometimes referred to as summer cars. Analogous to the summer wagon, conventional closed wagons were sometimes called winter wagons in the past , although this designation was not that widespread. In the tram Hamm turn the summer car as were Abessinienwagen known in English-speaking countries they were called following the bread slots of a toaster colloquially toastrack .
So-called deck seat cars, i.e. double-deck cars with an open upper deck , are very similar to the summer car . Another variant are only partially open one-story cars. The latter are called California Combination in the English-speaking world , the best-known example being the San Francisco cable cars . In both cases, however, it is a year-round car.
Trams, local and small railways
Use for economic reasons
In the case of trams, summer carriages were widespread around 1900, at that time these were still often operated as horse-drawn trams or steam trams . They could also be found on many secondary and local railways as well as small railways with low speeds and short distances. At that time, there were significantly more passengers to be carried in the summer than in the winter months. Typically, summer cars had transverse bench seats early on instead of the longitudinal bench seats that were largely common at the time. The benches stretched across the entire width of the car, and there was no central aisle as is customary in open- plan cars. Similar to the first compartment cars , people boarded via long running boards that were mounted over the entire length of the car. Thus, entry platforms could be dispensed with.
In addition to the better fresh air supply for the passengers, the lower production costs and the lower weight of a summer car were advantageous . The latter aspect played a particularly important role with the horse-drawn trams. In addition, due to their design, summer cars offered more seats than a conventional tram car. In return, not least for safety reasons, there was usually no or very little standing room available.
Around the First World War , most of the summer cars disappeared from the scene again, and many were converted into regular closed cars. The ever more powerful electric motors let the weight problem take a back seat, and the increasing travel speeds made open cars a safety risk. Occasionally, however, the summer wagons ran even longer. The Basler transport companies about eliminated the last - there Sommerträmli car mentioned - in 1950 on plan operation.
Use for tourist reasons
Today, summer tram cars can only be found in the holdings of tram museums and certain companies that use historical rolling stock. Examples are the Sintra tram , the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway , the Manx Electric Railway , the Blackpool tram , the Tramvia de Sóller or the Spiekerooger Inselbahn . The Pöstlingbergbahn and the Gmunden tram each still have an operational summer railcar. As a rule, these are historical originals.
An exception, however, is the Arad tram in Romania. In the summer she uses a four-axle summer railcar that was built in the 1990s from an older freight tram in its own workshop . Another special feature are the open tour coaches of the Berlin U-Bahn , with these vehicles, known as U-Bahn convertibles , tunnel tours are offered during the night-time break.
- Gallery summer railcars
Two-axle vehicle in Sintra
Four axles in Blackpool
Interior of the Gmundner Wagen
Partially open car of the Adelaide tram
Deck seat car with open upper deck ( Copenhagen )
Modern double decker summer car of the Oranjestad tram in Aruba
- Summer sidecar gallery
Herbrand light horse-drawn tram car
Tourist horse train on the Isle of Man
Museum car of the Copenhagen tram
railroad
Use for economic reasons
In the railway sector, open wagons were particularly common in the cheap wagon classes in the 19th century , which was mainly due to the low-cost production, as was the case with the Ludwigseisenbahn , the first German railway. In the early 20th century, open freight cars with benches were used on many branch lines. This was often the only way to cover traffic peaks, especially if no wagons could be rented from neighboring railways due to different technical standards. There were also wagons whose freight car body could be exchanged for a summer car body in the summer. These were so-called optional cars .
Use for tourist reasons
Today, summer cars are mainly found on tourist railways with heavy summer excursion traffic. These mostly include mountain railways , narrow-gauge railways , park railways , pioneer railways or field railways with running operations .
In the case of the railways concerned , adapted open freight wagons or underframes of former passenger wagons have mostly been used recently , i.e. vehicles with fixed side walls and central aisles. Some of the summer cars on railways are referred to as observation cars or panorama cars , or they are marketed as convertibles . In contrast to the historic summer tram cars, the latter often have no roof to ensure an even better view. For safety reasons, however, this is only possible on routes that are not electrified with an overhead contact line.
One of the pioneers was the Bernina Railway , which provided open freight wagons with benches as early as the late 1920s . In addition, they were given protective arches in order to rule out any risk to travelers in the event of an overhead contact line being torn off. Five of these two-axle wagons are still in use on the Rhaetian Railway today, supplemented by seven more recent conversions made up of two-axle luggage wagons and a four-axle passenger car. In Austria, two former Vienna light rail cars were rebuilt as summer cars for the Mittenwaldbahn in 1932 .
In 1933, five summer coaches were built on the Saxon narrow-gauge railways based on retired passenger coaches. They could be found on the Weißeritztalbahn , the Fichtelbergbahn and the Müglitztalbahn . After the Second World War , they had to be retired due to the flying sparks of the then usual lignite firing.
At present, the Appenzeller Bahn , the Brienz-Rothorn-Bahn , the Schynige Platte-Bahn , the steam train Furka mountain route , the Lößnitzgrundbahn , the Achenseebahn , the Pinzgauer Lokalbahn or the Ligne de Cerdagne use summer cars. There are also funiculars and inclined lifts with open cars, for example the Stanserhornbahn , the Bürgenstock-Bahn , the Gelmerbahn , the Giessbachbahn , the Interlaken – Heimwehfluh cable car and the Oberweißbacher Bergbahn .
French deck seat car with an open upper deck
Summer car in service for more than a hundred years on the Rorschach-Heiden mountain railway , built in 1875
Schynige Platte Railway summer coaches restored according to historical principles
Open freight car of the former Bernina Railway, today the Rhaetian Railway's observation car
Completely open car on the Lößnitzgrundbahn
Modern construction of the Appenzeller Bahnen
Open funicular of the Giessbachbahn
Individual evidence
- ↑ Description of the summer sidecar 49 on linie1-krefeld.de
- ↑ stadtwerke-hamm.de ( Memento of the original from October 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Operating history on www.stuttgarter-bahnen.de
- ↑ Description of the Basel summer carriages at www.tramoldtimer-basel.ch
- ^ Häsler: The Bernese Oberland Railways. [7], Minirex, Lucerne 1990, ISBN 3-907014-04-9
- ^ Gian Brüngger, Tibert Keller, Renato Mengotti: Adventure Bernina Railway. 2010, ISBN 978-3-7298-1169-0
- ^ Alfred Horn: 75 years of the Vienna light rail. "Between the 30s Bock and the Silver Arrow". Bohmann-Verlag, Vienna 1974, ISBN 3-7002-0415-9 , p. 92.
