Sputnik (railway)
Sputnik were popularly called the local trains that ran on the Berlin outer ring between 1958 and 1991 and bypassed West Berlin , which were included in the Berlin S-Bahn tariff. Based on the first Soviet satellite , they were called "Sputnik" because they moved in a kind of circular orbit around West Berlin.
history
The main route was the DR timetable route 120 Werder (Havel) - Potsdam Hbf (today: Potsdam Pirschheide ) - Bergholz - Saarmund - Genshagener Heide - Schönefeld Airport - Berlin-Karlshorst (- Berlin Ostbahnhof ). This was served every hour, which was briefly compressed to half-hourly during rush hour. The trains were very busy and due to the political background of this route, relatively modern locomotive and rolling stock were always used. The train stations, some of which are far away from the localities, were connected by trams (Potsdam Hauptbahnhof) or several bus routes (Genshagener Heide from Ludwigsfelde, Teltow and Stahnsdorf). The Bergholz station in the middle of the forest (near Potsdam) served the transfer traffic to the southeast of Potsdam and in the direction of Belzig .
In addition to the Sputnik of the Deutsche Reichsbahn , VEB Kraftverkehr Babelsberg offered direct buses from downtown Potsdam via Stahnsdorf, Teltow and Mahlow to the Grünau S-Bahn station, later to the Schönefeld Airport S-Bahn station, at frequent intervals.
In 1988 there was a serious train accident with six seriously and 28 slightly injured, in which a city express ran into a Sputnik near the calibration frame in Berlin.
With the restart of the S-Bahn traffic to Potsdam Stadt (later: Potsdam Hbf ) and the further completion of the Berlin S-Bahn and regional train network, this relation was downgraded in importance. Today the regional train line RB 22 takes over the traffic on the southern outer ring between Potsdam and Schönefeld Airport, but without stopping at today's Potsdam-Pirschheide train station.
Vehicle use
The vehicle material used was:
- Class 62 and 65.10 steam locomotives with two four-part double - decker units until the early 1960s
- Class V 180 diesel locomotives with two four-part double - decker units , at times with DDg [e] baggage cars , until the mid-1980s
- As an alternative, four-axle Reko cars and later Halberstadt center entry cars were used in the car park . The class 52 steam locomotives held as a reserve were not used.
- Electric locomotives of the 242 series and eight double-decker standard seat cars dominated the scene from the mid-1980s, with the 132 series being used on non-electrified sections. From 1986 the delivery of the new class 243 electric locomotives , which from then on ran mostly with eight double-decker standard seat cars in a special paint scheme. The color scheme was based on the paint scheme on the Berlin S-Bahn , which had been in use since the 1980s, and from then on determined the appearance. From 1991 the just delivered class 212.0 locomotives were used on the Berlin outer ring. Since the opening of the border, passenger numbers have fallen to a lower level, as more and more direct traffic routes between Potsdam and Berlin have been reopened. The train lengths were shortened, whereby mostly only two double-decker cars, most recently in 1999 even single diesel multiple units of the DB class 628 , were sufficient.