Trolleybus Thun – Beatenbucht

Trolleybus Thun – Beatenbucht
The trolleybus followed the right bank of Lake Thun
Timetable field :	44 (1981/82) 43 (1952)
Route length:	13.44 km
Power system :	1100 volts  =
Legend depot 0,000 Thun Bf Thun Lauitor 2,530 Hunibach Hilterfingen Oberhofen village Oberhofen Ryder Gunten - Sigriswil Merligen 13.440 Beatenbucht Not all intermediate stops are shown in this overview

The trolleybus Thun-Beatenbucht was a trolleybus - overland route in the Swiss canton of Bern . The 13.44 kilometer connection along Lake Thun existed from 1952 to 1982 and led from Thun via Hünibach , Hilterfingen , Oberhofen am Thunersee , Gunten , Ralligen and Merligen to Beatenbucht , which, like the three aforementioned places, belongs to the municipality of Sigriswil .

The trolleybus replaced the Steffisburg – Thun – Interlaken tram , which opened in 1913, and was in turn replaced by buses . The trolleybus operation belonged to the STI transport company , which until 1958 was called AG Rechtsufrige Thunerseebahn, Elektro Bahn Steffisburg-Thun-Interlaken . The same transport company is still the concession holder for the bus routes between Thun and Beatenbucht.

history

After the Beatenbucht – Interlaken tram line had already been converted to a bus in 1940 , trolleybus traffic began on August 19, 1952 on the central section of the Thun – Beatenbucht railway station . The tram on this section had previously been discontinued in three steps: Merligen – Beatenbucht on January 31, 1952, Gunten – Merligen on April 6, 1952 and Thun – Gunten on August 10, 1952. At the terminus Beatenbucht, the trolleybuses had a connection to Lake Thun -Beatenberg-Bahn . Alternating with the trolleybuses to Beatenbucht, there were continuous bus routes to Interlaken. Between Thun and Steffisburg , however, the tram continued to run, and from 1958 buses too.

Trolleybus 8 with trailer 23 at Thun train station, 1979

A local peculiarity was the high voltage of 1100 volts direct current , which was taken over from the tram along with the associated infrastructure. For safety reasons, the trolleybuses had an earthing claw , which was lowered onto the street before the doors were opened. The overhead contact line was consistently two-lane, with reversing loops at both ends . Likewise at the intermediate terminals in Hünibach, Oberhofen Ryder (today Oberhofen Wichterheer Gut) and Gunten-Sigriswil (today Gunten Dorf) - where each of the reinforcement courses coming from Thun used. The depot was located in the Thuner Grabenstrasse in the Schwäbis district and was connected to the actual route via an approximately 800-meter-long operating route through the old town.

After the Oberhofen – Beatenbucht section had already been converted to bus on February 22, 1982, the STI transport operations ended on March 14, 1982 with the shutdown of trolleybus operations between Thun and Oberhofen. The reason for this was the end of the service life of the trolleybuses purchased in 1952 and the associated abandonment of trailer operation in favor of articulated buses . To make matters worse, the trolleybuses available as standard at the time were designed for a voltage of 600 volts direct current. As an alternative, the STI transport company would have had to procure a small series for 1100 volts or switch the power supply to 600 volts. Today the bus line 21 runs from Thun to Interlaken station, and between Thun and Gunten also line 25 to Sigriswil. In contrast to this, the trolleybuses did not have a line number, instead the section being traveled was indicated by signs in the side windows, with each relation having its own line color :

• Thun – Oberhofen Dorf: green
• Thun – Beatenbucht without bus connection to Interlaken: yellow
• Thun – Beatenbucht with bus connection to Interlaken: red

The Saurer buses , which were procured to replace the trolleybuses, used the same color system without a line number, and the route traveled was signaled by means of roller displays . The color signaling, as with the trolleybus, was retained until the Mercedes-Benz O 405 G was retired in 2006, which also included the line number.

vehicles

The former trolleybus trailer number 23, here in 2003 in Zaffaraya

A total of nine two-axle motor vehicles were available for the Thun – Beatenbucht trolleybus. They had the company numbers 1 to 9 and came from Berna , Ramseier & Jenzer and Gangloff , the electrical equipment was supplied by SAAS . The vehicles had a battery emergency drive , which enabled them to cover short distances without a power supply. The pantographs could be lowered automatically from the driver's cab. The trolleybuses initially had 40 seats and 33 standing places. In 1968, the door arrangement was changed on all vehicles by adding an additional entry in the middle of the car and, in return, converting the double entry at the end of the car into an easy entry. The removed left half of the double entry at the stern initially served as access to the smoker's compartment, but the partition wall was removed between 1964 and 1968. After the renovation, the vehicles had 33 seats and 50 standing places.

The motor vehicles were supplemented by five two-axle passenger trailers with the numbers 21 to 25, two also two-axle mail trailers with the numbers 71 and 72 and several single-axle luggage trailers that were used behind tram cars as early as 1940. The post tags were owned by PTT and had P numbers 31509 and 31510. The passenger trailers also ran behind buses on the route to Interlaken; Car 21 was procured for it as early as 1949. After the trolleybus operation was discontinued, the mail trailers were still used behind buses from Thun until the timetable change on May 22, 1982.

Trolleybuses 1 and 7 and trailers 23 and 71 of the vehicles have been preserved. They belong to the Bern Tramverein , which plans to make car 1 an operational historical vehicle. Car 7 serves as a spare part dispenser. Post trailer 71 is now on display in the Museum for Communication in Bern .

literature

• Jean-Philippe Coppex, Die Schweizer Überlandtrolleybusse , (bilingual: French and German), Verlag Endstation Ostring, Geneva 2008, ISBN 978-3-9522545-3-0
• Sandro Sigrist: Electric traction on the right bank of Lake Thun . Prellbock Druck & Verlag, Leissigen 1997. ISBN 3-907579-06-2

Web links

polier.ch:

• Picture gallery part 1
• Picture gallery part 2
• Picture gallery part 3

Individual evidence

1. ↑ More than 90 years of STI for the region on www.stibus.ch ( Memento of the original from March 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ The history of the right bank Thunerseebahn on www.strassenbahn-europa.at
3. ↑ Chronological overview of the disused tram, subway and trolleybus routes of international transport companies from 1950 on www.sufk-koeln.de
4. ↑ Bienvenue chez les STI in ÖV Panorama No. 7 (autumn 2014), pp. 4–13, ISSN  2296-4797
5. ↑ The trolleybus train STI 1 and 23 on www.trittbrett.ch ( Memento of the original from September 23, 2013 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. 
6. ↑ Jean-Philippe Coppex, Die Schweizer Überlandtrolleybusse , (bilingual: French and German), Verlag Endstation Ostring, Geneva 2008, ISBN 978-3-9522545-3-0 , page 36