Zhytomyr tram

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Zhytomyr's tram network (Ukrainian language)

The Zhytomyr tram is a tram company in Zhytomyr in northern Ukraine . For a long time it consisted of a single line that crossed the city from the power station - located southeast below the city on the road to Berditschew - across the center from east to west. A sideline led from the center to the train station, which was then northeast and a little outside of the narrower urban area.

history

Zhytomyr's tram in 1910

The meter-gauge tram was one of the first in Tsarist Russia and was put into operation on September 3, 1899. As a result of the acts of war during the conquest of the city by German troops, it was shut down for a year because overhead lines were damaged, but also because the coal-fired power station, which is essential for the power supply, was temporarily out of order.

At the end of 1942, the German administration of the area within the then Reichskommissariat Ukraine initiated the resumption of operations. Initially, however, the means of transport was not accessible to the population, as only a motor vehicle without a trailer was available. It was not until the middle of 1943 that there was regular traffic with stops ( ostanowka tramwaja ), but this was stopped again in autumn 1943 because the reconquest of Zhytomyr by the Red Army again caused war damage.

Gotha T57 in Zhytomyr

After the end of the war, the fleet of vehicles had to be renewed. From 1957 onwards, T57 trams and matching B57 sidecars were procured from Waggonbau Gotha in the GDR . Other vehicles of the same type followed in 1969 from Dnipropetrowsk (today Dnipro), which had to be changed from broad gauge (1524 mm) to meter gauge (1000 mm) for use in Zhytomyr. These vehicles were initially used with lyra bar and with pantographs . In the 1960s and 1970s, developments began to convert Zhytomyr's tram network almost entirely to trolleybuses . In 1964 line 3, the following year line 1 and thus the route to the station and in 1974 line 3 were discontinued and switched to trolleybuses. To this day, only line 5 has remained, which runs continuously on two tracks from the city center in an easterly direction to the power station.

Despite the extensive suspension of routes, the first of a total of 18 Tatra T4SUs from the former Czechoslovak manufacturer ČKD Tatra came to Zhytomyr from 1978 onwards . In 1981 the first two vehicles of the type Tatra KT4SU , more were to follow in 1985 and 1988, increasing the number of KT4SU to a total of 20.

business

T4SU of the Zhytomyr tram
A KT4SU in action

Vehicles of the type KT4SU are mainly used today. Occasionally in 2016 also T4SU.

Web links

Commons : Zhytomyr tram  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files