Tram Eberswalde

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Railcar 2 at the main train station, around 1921

The Eberswalde tram served inner-city traffic in the city of Eberswalde in the Prussian province of Brandenburg from 1910 to 1940 .

history

The city of Eberswalde, which had around 25,000 inhabitants at the beginning of the 20th century, initially wanted to set up a " trackless tram ", the forerunner of today's modern trolleybus operations. This so-called Gleislose Bahn Eberswalde was opened on March 22, 1901, but had to be closed again after three months due to technical defects. From 1904 a horse bus drove on the connection . This quickly proved to be inadequate. The main points of criticism were the low travel speed of the means of transport as well as the fact that it had to be driven regularly with a leader on steep inclines . The city initially favored replacing it with a horse-drawn tram , but then decided in favor of an electric tram.

On October 9, 1909, the city council of Eberswalde asked the regional council in Potsdam for approval to build and operate a tram. The AEG worked out the project , the costs for the route construction and the electrification should amount to 148,100  marks . For the crossing of the station bridge over the Berlin - Stettin railway line , the magistrate was authorized to negotiate with the responsible Royal Railway Directorate (KED) Stettin . On February 24, 1910, the Prussian Minister of Public Works, Paul von Breitenbach , approved the project. District President Rudolf von der Schulenburg then granted the license on March 31, 1910.

For the project, the city borrowed 250,000 marks from the city savings bank, which included the cost of vehicles. The construction was tendered in several lots, of which Siemens-Schuckertwerke was awarded the contract. He also included the electrical equipment of three railcars of Gottfried Lindner AG . The route should run from the market over Alsenplatz and the station bridge to the Eberswalde small train station of the Eberswalde - Schöpfurth small railway . The Eberswalder station was connected via a branch line. At the end stops there were coupling terminals to enable operation with sidecars . On Alsen-Platz was a turnout provided. An operating route led from Alsenplatz via Zimmerstrasse to Bergerstrasse, where the depot was located on the site of the municipal power station. The car shed had space for six cars, connected to it was a workshop, an equipment room, a forge, a crew room and a toilet. The tracks were laid in the pavement with grooved rails . Construction of the standard gauge railway began at the end of May 1910 and was completed after a good three months.

The police inspection took place on August 27, 1910. Operations began on September 1 with three railcars on the 1.2 kilometer route from the market to the station. The line to the Kleinbahnhof went into operation a few days later, as the station bridge had not yet been opened for tram traffic. The total route length was 2.6 kilometers. The car sequence was 15 minutes during the day, the fare was ten pfennigs. In the first year of operation, the staff comprised four wagon drivers, two reserve wagon drivers, a track cleaner (two in winter), a repair fitter and an inspector. As a rule, the wagons ran without a conductor; the passengers paid the fare to the driver in a payment box .

Track remains on the depot, 1990

Shortly after commissioning, the Deutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (DEG), as the operator of the small railway, and the municipality of Heegermühle intended to extend the tram from Eberswalde to the west. DEG's plan was to run the tram over a switch connection along the small railway line to the Eisenspalterei station. There the two routes should separate and the tram should continue on the Chaussee to Heegermühle and Biesenthaler Strasse, where it met the small train again. At the same time, it was intended to separate passenger and freight traffic on the connection. The KED rejected mixed operation. The community of Heegermühle, for its part, criticized the insufficient number of passenger trains on the small railroad and insisted on its own tram. DEG then complained to the district administrator of the district of Oberbarnim Georg von Müffling, called Weiss, and threatened to raise its tariffs in the event of a rival line. The district committee rejected the community's plan shortly afterwards for reasons of cost.

On October 29, 1912, the city decided to extend the tram over the Chaussee to Heegermühle to the Eisenspalterei in order to better connect the industrial companies in the west of the city. Minister von Breitenbach gave his approval on February 20, 1915, District President von der Schulenburg his on January 14, 1916. In the same year, women were used for the driving service. At the end of the war, the tram was used for city freight transport. To this end, a siding at the freight station and two siding at the gas works were put into operation to transport coal for town gas production . The connections went into operation on November 30, 1918.

The use of women in the driving service ended on May 5, 1919. The concentration of the city then lay in the construction of the route to the iron splitting plant. This could be removed by the police on December 8, 1920 and put into operation a short time later. An exact opening date is not known. The line was laid on its own track body with Vignole rails and crossed the small railway line in two places. At the end point there was a coupling point with a 30-meter-long transfer track, which made it possible to operate with three-car trains. At the same time, the siding at the Kleinbahnhof was extended to 40 meters and that at Alsenplatz to 50 meters. The railway expanded its fleet of vehicles in 1920 by purchasing five multiple units and four trailer cars. Due to the increasing inflation there were several shutdowns during this time. In May 1920 the traffic was completely idle, later on the route to the iron splitting works until April 13, 1921. On April 16, 1921, the city applied for the conversion of the final stop on the market to a turning loop . The regional council gave its approval on December 17th of the same year. Due to the expansion measures, the company reached its financial limits during the inflationary period. The vehicles delivered in 1920 were therefore sold to the Utrecht Tramway in 1922 . On November 22, 1922, operations were completely shut down.

After two years of inactivity, the first trains started running again on November 14, 1924. The line to the ironworks did not go back into operation and was later dismantled. The connection was only heavily used during rush hour. As in 1910, the cars drove one-man every 15 minutes, the fare was now 15 pfennigs. From the mid-1920s plans for a tram extension to the west came up again after setting up a power line post fell silent. At this time new settlements were being built in the east of Eberswald, for the development of which the city submitted an application to extend the railway on November 25, 1925. District President Wilhelm Momm approved the project on March 27, 1927. The 1.3-kilometer single-track connection had a turnaround at Brautstrasse, Gertraudenstrasse and Saarstrasse, where the terminus was. The length of the sidings was 25 meters each and allowed the use of two-car trains. On August 22, 1927, the line was removed. The railway procured two more railcars for the extension.

In 1933, plans came up to extend the route by 800 meters to the Ardelt works , but the project was not implemented. Due to the expansion of the armaments industry after the National Socialists came to power, the number of passengers rose steadily. From April 1, 1936, the trains were driven with conductors and the train of cars was reduced to ten minutes. This pushed the railway to its limits. In addition, there was the fact that the line urgently had to be renovated 25 years after it was put into operation. Complaints also came from the Wehrmacht , which viewed the train running in the middle of the street as an obstacle to troop movements. A completely two-track expansion was not possible due to the narrow streets in the old town of Eberswalde. Since the Ardelt settlement in Westend, which was built by 1937, was not yet connected to the railway, considerations led to the abolition of the tram and its replacement by the trolleybus.

The company BBC from Mannheim was commissioned to set up the trolleybus network in Eberswalde . The changeover took place during ongoing operations; the new means of transport sometimes used the tram masts. This ran until the end of operations on November 2, 1940. On the following day, diesel buses started to run from eight o'clock, and at the same time the tram catenary began to be removed at the points of contact with the trolleybus catenary. The changeover was completed in the afternoon. The remaining vehicles were sold to the companies in Brandenburg , Rostock and Krakow , and the tracks were later removed. Until the 1990s, there were traces of track on the former depot.

vehicles

Vehicle overview
number Construction year Manufacturer
(mech.) 		Manufacturer
(el.) 		Remarks
Railcar
1 1910 Lindner SSW 1941 to Cracow series 150–153; Retired in 1959
2
3
4th 1916 Lindner SSW 1916 ex Bw 2; 1941 to Cracow series 150–153;
Retired in 1959
6th 1920 Lindner SSW 1922 to Utrecht series 58-62;
Platforms closed in 1923,
converted into one-man car in 1933; retired approx. 1938
7th
8th
9
10
5 II 1927 Lindner AEG 1941 to Rostock 18 II ; 1952 in 24 II ; Retired in 1961
6 II 1941 to Rostock 17 III ; 1952 in 25 II ; Retired in 1958
sidecar
1 1910 Lindner - 1941 to Cracow 546; Retired in 1959
2 1916 conversion to Tw 4
2 II 1920 Lindner - according to other information series 11–14;
1922 to Utrecht series 63–66, remodeling in Tw;
Platforms closed in 1923;
1933 conversion to a one-man car; retired approx. 1938
3
4th
5
Work car
o. no. 1910 - Salt truck
o. no. 1916 - Tipper truck, later working truck
o. no. 1916 - Tilting lore, later grinding trolley;
1941 to Brandenburg an der Havel
o. no. - Tower car, horse-drawn
o. no. - Tower car, manual operation

At the time of opening, the Eberswalder tram fleet comprised three railcars , which were manufactured by Gottfried Lindner AG in Ammendorf . The electrical equipment was supplied by Siemens-Schuckertwerke (SSW). The wagons with the numbers 1–3 were painted ivory, ramming piles and lettering were set off in dark blue. The car body was made of all-steel construction, the entry platforms were open. In the passenger area there were 18 seats and 14 standing places. The 21 kilowatt motors in each case were controlled via a slip ring drive switch. The current was drawn via a hoop pantograph , the contact wire voltage was 550 volts direct current . A short time after the opening, the Stadtwerke Eberswalde felt compelled to add two trailer cars with the numbers 1–2 to the fleet. A salt cart was also procured, followed later by a horse-drawn and a hand-operated tower car .

In order to save the time-consuming coupling process at the terminal stops, sidecar 2 was converted into a railcar in 1916. The conversion took place at the manufacturer in Ammendorf, the electrical equipment was also supplied by SSW. Compared to the older railcars, the car already had half-open platforms; after the renovation, it was given the number 4. From 1918, the Stadtwerke started using the railcar with two additional tipping lorries for freight traffic . After the end of the war, one cart was converted into a salt and transport wagon, the other into a grinding wagon.

Tw 66 (ex Eberswalde) and Tw 38 in Utrecht, 1933

For the extension of the tram to the Eisenspalterei, another five railcars and four trailer cars were procured in 1920. They bore the numbers 5-10 (railcars) and 2-5, according to other sources 11-15 (sidecars). The vehicles had car bodies ten meters long and half-open platforms. The capacity was 24 seats and 32 standing places. Gottfried Lindner AG and Siemens-Schuckertwerke again acted as manufacturers. In order to enable use with three-car trains, the output of the two traction motors was 50 kilowatts. The large wheelbase of three meters turned out to be problematic for the wagons. Although it ensured smooth driving behavior on the outside routes, it increased the wear and tear of the wheel tires disproportionately in the narrow inner city . Rising costs as a result of inflation prompted the company to sell the cars to Utrecht just two years after commissioning . The sidecars were converted into railcars and the platforms were completely closed. From 1933 onwards, the cars were used as one-man cars (without a conductor ). They were retired around 1938.

From November 22nd, 1922 to November 14th, 1924 the Eberswalder tram was inactive. It was probably at this time that the platforms of railcars 1–3 were glazed. For the extension to Saarstrasse, two railcars were again procured from Lindner. The vehicles with the numbers 5 II and 6 II already had closed platforms. Folding windows were installed for ventilation, but instead of the lantern roof , the wagons had a barrel roof . This time the electrical equipment came from AEG . The drive power was 2 × 40 kilowatts, which was sufficient for hanging with a sidecar.

After the changeover to trolleybus operation, the tram vehicles were subsequently sold. A grinding car came to the Brandenburg tram . The railcars from 1927 came to the Rostock tramway in 1941 and remained in service there until 1958 and 1961, respectively, after being converted. The cars from 1910 came to the Krakow tram , where they were in service until 1959. One car was used as a work car from 1945 and ran until 1972. It is probably the surviving railcar 2 that is to be refurbished in Kraków .

Remarks

  1. ↑ from 1918: Railway Directorate (ED) Stettin, from 1922: Reichsbahndirektion (RBD) Stettin
  2. ↑ from the mid-1920s: Eberswalde West
  3. ↑ from April 1, 1939: Eberswalde Hbf
  4. ↑ today: Heegermühler Strasse and Eberswalder Strasse

literature

  • Monument Preservation Association Berlin Local Transport (Ed.): Stadtverkehr Eberswalde. "Gleislose Bahn" - tram - trolleybus . GVE, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89218-058-X .
  • Albrecht Bandow: The urban tram in Eberswalde . In: Tram magazine . No. February 23 , 1977.
  • Klaus Reichenbach: Successful in Eberswalde . In: Tram magazine . No. 102 , April 1996.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Monument Preservation Association Berlin Local Transport (Ed.): Stadtverkehr Eberswalde. "Gleislose Bahn" - tram - trolleybus . GVE, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89218-058-X , p. 8-13 .
  2. ^ Monument Preservation Association Berlin Local Transport (Ed.): Stadtverkehr Eberswalde. "Gleislose Bahn" - tram - trolleybus . GVE, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89218-058-X , p. 14-15 .
  3. ↑ a b c d Monument Preservation Association for Nahverkehr Berlin (ed.): Stadtverkehr Eberswalde. "Gleislose Bahn" - tram - trolleybus . GVE, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89218-058-X , p. 16-19 .
  4. ^ Monument Preservation Association Berlin Local Transport (Ed.): Stadtverkehr Eberswalde. "Gleislose Bahn" - tram - trolleybus . GVE, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89218-058-X , p. 19-20 .
  5. ↑ a b Monument Preservation Association Berlin Local Transport (Ed.): Stadtverkehr Eberswalde. "Gleislose Bahn" - tram - trolleybus . GVE, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89218-058-X , p. 20 .
  6. ↑ a b c d e Monument Preservation Association for Nahverkehr Berlin (ed.): Stadtverkehr Eberswalde. "Gleislose Bahn" - tram - trolleybus . GVE, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89218-058-X , p. 21-24 .
  7. ^ Monument Preservation Association Berlin Local Transport (Ed.): Stadtverkehr Eberswalde. "Gleislose Bahn" - tram - trolleybus . GVE, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89218-058-X , p. 25-26 .
  8. ^ Monument Preservation Association Berlin Local Transport (Ed.): Stadtverkehr Eberswalde. "Gleislose Bahn" - tram - trolleybus . GVE, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89218-058-X , p. 27-29 .
  9. ^ Monument Preservation Association Berlin Local Transport (Ed.): Stadtverkehr Eberswalde. "Gleislose Bahn" - tram - trolleybus . GVE, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89218-058-X , p. 30-31 .
  10. ↑ a b Monument Preservation Association Berlin Local Transport (Ed.): Stadtverkehr Eberswalde. "Gleislose Bahn" - tram - trolleybus . GVE, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89218-058-X , p. 31-32 .
  11. ↑ a b Monument Preservation Association Berlin Local Transport (Ed.): Stadtverkehr Eberswalde. "Gleislose Bahn" - tram - trolleybus . GVE, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-89218-058-X , p. 97 .
  12. ^ Rüdiger Grabowski, Norbert Enenkel: Trams and buses in Rostock . Kenning Verlag, Nordhorn 2006, ISBN 3-933613-81-7 , p. 225 .
  13. ^ Hartmut Bülow: Eberswalder Tram. In: www.obus-ew.de. Retrieved September 7, 2015 .