Schaffhausen tram

Schaffhausen tram
Route length:	7.88 / 8.69 km
Gauge :	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Power system :	600 volts = Scheidegg – Hochrheinbahn: 900 volts  =
Maximum slope :	77  ‰
Dual track :	Freyastrasse – Scheidegg Kreuz – Depot
Legend from Oberwiesen-Stühlingen Hochrheinbahn Neuhausen Rheinhof Neuhausen center Neuhausen Freyastrasse Neuhausen Scheidegg Neuhausen Sonnenweg Rhine Falls Railway District boundary cross Mill gate Rifle house promenade Rheinfallbahn and Hochrheinbahn Upper gate railway station Eagle Lake line and Hochrheinbahn Felsentäli Pilgrim fountain Birch depot Sea line Freight depot Schönenberg Ebnat Forest cemetery Ebnat industrial district

The Schaffhausen tram was a meter-gauge tram network in the Swiss canton of Schaffhausen . It was operated from 1901 to 1966 for passenger traffic and from 1905 to 1993 for freight traffic and provided the development of the city of Schaffhausen and the connection with the neighboring community of Neuhausen am Rheinfall . In passenger transport, the Schaffhausen trolleybus , which still operates today, replaced the tram.

The transport company responsible for passenger transport was Schaffhauser Strassenbahn (SchSt), this company has been operating as Verkehrsbetriebe Schaffhausen (VBSH) since the switch to trolleybuses . The freight tram - which from 1911 onwards transported standard-gauge freight wagons using roller stools - was operated by both SchSt and the industrial company Georg Fischer AG (GF). Furthermore, between 1905 and 1964, the overland trains of the Schaffhausen – Schleitheim tram (StSS) also ran in the city; this company also operated goods traffic on the tram network.

history

After Schaffhausen and Neuhausen had been linked by the Rhine Falls Railway since 1857 , construction work began on the tram from Schaffhausen station to the center of Neuhausen on November 3, 1900 . It first operated on April 13, 1901, the official opening ceremony took place on May 11, 1901. On July 1, 1901 of the same year, a second route followed from the train station to the Schützenhaus in the higher district of Breite, another two weeks later the scheduled passenger service on the train station-depot section began. The latter was located on the site of today's fire station .

On August 8, 1905, the 780 meter long branch line between the Neuhausen Scheidegg stop and the viaduct of the Hochrheinbahn went into operation together with the overland route to Oberwiesen-Stühlingen . Unlike the rest of the tram network, this section was electrified with the 900 volts direct current that is common on the overland route. The route between Scheidegg and the viaduct of the Hochrheinbahn was not handed over by the SchSt to the StSS until 1908, but from the beginning it was only used by the StSS trains. Initially, the property line was exactly at the viaduct, and this is where the overland route began to be kilometered. However, the cross-country trains did not serve all intermediate stops of the city tram, they only stopped at the Schaffhausen Kreuz and Neuhausen Rheinhof stations. With the opening of the overland route, freight traffic on the tram network began, the StSS transported its freight wagons beyond the Schaffhausen passenger station, past the SchSt depot, to the freight station.

On April 3, 1911, the southern expansion took place between the freight yard and the forest cemetery on the one hand and the Ebnat industrial quarter on the other. With the latter branch of the route, roller bolster traffic on tram tracks began, including the Rauschenbach machine factory.

Following the example of freight traffic to Ebnat, Georg Fischer AG also wanted to have its steelworks (Plant IV) in Mühlental connected to the rail network. The company took the initiative for this itself and built a meter-gauge and electrified factory railway that was operated with its own vehicles. This connected to the tram network at the Adler stop at Schwabentor and thus established the connection to the freight station. The works railway began operations on June 10, 1913, and regular passenger traffic began eight days later on this route leading to Birch. From then on, SchSt vehicles ran on GF infrastructure, the city of Schaffhausen thus acquired and enjoyed a new tram line at no significant cost, which would be necessary sooner or later anyway . With that, the Schaffhausen tram had reached its greatest extent of 8.69 kilometers. The Breitelinie and the Mühlentalinie were linked to a diameter line on October 24, 1915 .

On August 1, 1928, the SchSt converted the Obertor – Schützenhaus section (line 3) to bus operation . The private entrepreneur Albert Rattin took over the operation of the width. The next switch to bus was on April 13, 1957, on the Adler – Birch section (line 2), although the goods traffic to the Mühlental, which Georg Fischer AG carried out on its own, was maintained. However, a new roller stool system was built on the site of the old cantonal hospital and the former Talrose restaurant, which was then served from the Schaffhausen passenger station. From then on, the GF factory railway was operationally separated from the VBSH rail network.

On October 1, 1964, the StSS also ceased its rail traffic, before the trolleybus traffic commenced on September 24, 1966, and the remaining tramway passenger traffic between Neuhausen center and Waldfriedhof also ended (line 1).

On March 6, 1970, the roller bogie operation between the freight yard and the Ebnat industrial quarter was finally replaced by a standard-gauge siding for Georg Fischer AG, which has also had a production site since the takeover of the Rauschenbach machine factory in Ebnat. This also ended the rail traffic of the Schaffhausen transport company.

The last remaining section of the meter-gauge network around Schaffhausen then disappeared on August 6, 1993, when the remaining factory railroad traffic between the Mühlental roller stool, which opened in 1957, and the steel foundry was abandoned. It has been operated since 1980 with a diesel locomotive , which Georg Fischer AG had previously taken over from the construction company of the Arlberg road tunnel .

vehicles

The locomotive Ge 4/4 75 belonged to Georg Fischer AG and took care of the freight traffic in the Mühlental

Over the years, 20 passenger railcars , nine sidecars , four electric locomotives , a freight railcar and a work car have been procured for the Schaffhausen tramway and the Georg Fischer AG works railway :

Manufacturer	Years of construction	Art	Type	Numbers	Remarks
SIG / MFO	1901	Railcar	Ce2 / 2	1-9	retired between 1943 and 1966
SIG / MFO	1907-1908	Railcar	Ce2 / 2	10-11	Retired in 1966
SIG / MFO	1912	Railcar	Ce2 / 2	12-17	retired between 1956 and 1966
SIG / MFO	1921	Railcar		18-20	Retired in 1966
SIG	1903	sidecar	C2	21st	Summer car , sold to Poland in 1942
SIG	1913	sidecar	C2	52-57	Retired in 1966, 55 at the Trammuseum Zurich
SWS	1929	sidecar	C2	60-61	Taken over from Winterthur in 1951, retired in 1958
SIG / MFO	1911	Freight railcars	Fe4 / 4	71	Retired in 1968
SIG / MFO	1913	Electric locomotive	Ge4 / 4	73	Retired in 1971
SIG / MFO	1930	Electric locomotive	Ge4 / 4	74	1970 Solothurn Niederbipp railway sold
SIG / MFO	1913	Electric locomotive	Ge4 / 4	75-76	owned by Georg Fischer AG, 75: 1980 to the Blonay – Chamby museum railway , 76: scrapped in 1981
SWS / MFO	1925	Work car	Xe4 / 4	157	Taken over from Winterthur in 1951, retired in 1972

Web links

• Tram film Schaffhausen on Youtube
• City archive Schaffhausen: historical photos
• Schaffhauser Strassenbahn on www.bahndaten.ch, accessed on February 25, 2012
• The Schaffhausen tram on www.eaks.ch, accessed on February 25, 2012

Individual evidence

1. ↑ length 1957
2. ↑ Maximum extent 1913–1914
3. ↑ Strassenbahn Schaffhausen – Schleitheim on www.vergessene-bahnen.de
4. ^ History of the Schaffhausen public transport company at www.stadtarchiv-schaffhausen.ch, accessed on February 25, 2012
5. ^ The vehicles of the Schaffhausen tram on www.pospichal.net