Pioneer type (tram Timișoara)

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pioneer
Pioneer car 453 - formerly 153 - after its decommissioning, taken in 1989
Pioneer car 453 - formerly 153 - after its decommissioning, taken in 1989
Number: 26 railcars
Manufacturer: Întreprinderea Comunală Oraş Timişoara
Year of construction (s): 1958 to 1961
Gauge : 1435 mm
Length: 9600 mm
Width: 2170 mm
Power system : Direct current
Power transmission: Overhead line
Number of traction motors: one

Pioneer was the name of an earlier series of tram - railcars on the standard-gauge tram Timișoara in Romania . The name was given based on the name of the members of the socialist mass organization Organizaţia Pionierilor, founded in 1949 . The 26 cars of this series were built in the years 1958 to 1961 by the local tram company, then known as Întreprinderea Comunală Oraş Timişoara (ICOT). The pioneer cars were in use until 1988, they were - together with a few remaining FII cars - the last two-axle vehicles and the last two -way cars in Timișoara .

history

Production and first years of use

In the mid-1950s, the Timișoara tram fleet consisted predominantly of two-axle railcars and sidecars in two-way construction and with a wooden structure. The only exceptions were the seven Gb 2/2 open- plan cars built between 1950 and 1954 , which were also built in the company's own workshops. After the company was able to procure type V54 open- plan cars from Electroputere from 1955 , the capacities that had become available on site were used to modernize the old wagons, some of which were from the time before the First World War . The Bucharest Reko cars of the type V56, which were built from 1956, served as a model . The donor vehicles for the new Pionier type came from the following series:

  • B = 19 pieces
  • DII = 2 pieces
  • C = 3 pieces, formerly a sidecar
  • CII = 2 pieces, formerly a sidecar

This means that five previously unpowered cars were also motorized as part of the conversion. De facto, the pioneering conversion cars were new builds using the old chassis, comparable to the Reko cars in the GDR . Striking modification was the new steel car body in device design with solid Schaffner seat and passenger flow from back to front, wherein the body of design largely corresponded to the Gb 2/2. However, it was 3,600 millimeters shorter and therefore only had five instead of seven side windows and only two instead of three doors, and the car body was 70 millimeters narrower. In the pioneer cars, too, passengers benefited from individual seats instead of the longitudinal bench seats that are common in donor vehicles. The pantographs were also new instead of the pantographs on the original cars. However, these came from a parallel modernization program between 1956 and 1960, when the tram company equipped all of its cars, which were still provided with an old bracket. Two pioneer sub-series were created, which initially still had the numbers of their donor trolleys. The company numbers given in the following table were not given until 1964:

T.4 single railcars
ten pieces
T.5 - twin railcars
16 pieces / eight units
1958: 131, 132, 133 143-144, 145-146
1959: 134, 135, 136 147-148, 151-152
1960: 137, 138 141-142, 149-150, 155-156
1961: 139, 140 153-154

In the twin railcars , the cars 142, 144, 146, 148, 150, 152, 154 and 156 were guided railcars , that is, they had neither a driver's cab nor a pantograph and could therefore only run in a train composition . These fast-moving teams were required for ring line 6, which had no terminal and therefore no buffer times to compensate for delays, but was converted to longer units at that time. Thanks to the powerful motorization, the two-car trains were able to keep up with the two- and four-axle solo cars otherwise used on this route. After the production of the 26 pioneer cars, the workshop finally produced classic railcar and sidecar compositions from T1-62 railcars and R.1 sidecars from 1962 to 1966 - also as a conversion car on its own .

The pioneer cars were initially used on equipment lines 2 (new number 1 from 1962) and 3 (new number 2 from 1962) and ring lines 5 (new number 7 from 1962) and 6. The single railcars mainly pulled the nine R.4 sidecars procured from Bucharest used in 1960 , three-car trains were also formed from one railcar and two sidecars, the last remaining C-sidecars and the two AII sidecars .

Conversion to bidirectional cars and three-car trains

In order to operate the pioneer railcars on the less frequented two-way lines 3 (until 1962: 8), 4, 5 (until 1962: 9) and 7 (until 1962: 5) - the latter only mutating from a ring line to a pendulum line in 1969 To be able to do so, they were converted into bidirectional cars from the end of the 1960s. On the main lines 1, 2 and 6, however, they were gradually replaced from 1972 by the new Timiș 2 large-capacity trains. In some cases, firmly coupled three-car trains were formed with the pioneer cars in order to be able to offer longer units on the outside routes. Because lines 3, 4, 5 and 7 were bidirectional with one-sided doors at that time, the converted wagons still only had access on one side and some of them were still used purely for one-way operation.

First, the workshop 1968 converted the railcar 143 and 144 in non-driving intermediate cars to and lined them up in 1969 between the railcar 103 and 104 of type F (carriage 144) or between the railcar 107 and 108 of the type Fa (carriage 143) a. At least car 144 was removed from this train composition in 1970.

Especially with a view to the new situation on line 7, the seven remaining twin railcars 141–142, 145–146, 147–148, 149–150, 151–152, 153–154 and 155–156 were given a second driver's cab in 1969 on the previous rear side of the guided car. The remaining eleven cars - including the released car 144 - were put together as follows, and the intermediate cars 135 and 138 were now also without a drive:

  • 131-132
  • 133-135-136
  • 134-138-139
  • 137-144-140

End of use

After the remaining two-way lines 5 and 7 were expanded to double-track sections in the mid-1970s, some pioneer cars had to be retrofitted with entrances on the previously doorless side in their final years of use. Lines 3 and 4, on the other hand, were also converted to equipment lines in the mid-1970s and henceforth operated with more modern rolling stock. After line 7 also operated as a ring line again from 1980, the pioneer cars could largely be dispensed with.

However, the tram company, now called IJTL Timiș, reactivated three pioneer trains for Line 5 again in 1985, on which they largely replaced the type FII wooden superstructures in regular traffic. At that time, four courses were in use on this line , which meant that the FII trains could still not be dispensed with. The cars that were put back into operation were trains 105-106 (after renumbering), 153-154 and 180-182 (after renumbering). The original numbers of the two renumbered trains have not survived. Finally, train 153–154 was renumbered and given the new designation 453–454.

After line 5 was finally temporarily shut down in 1988 with a view to the conversion to one-way operation until 1992, the Pionier type ended. None of the 26 cars remained.

literature

  • Dorin Sarca, Gh. Radulovici: Centenarul tramvaielor din Timișoara, monograph 1869–1969 . Timișoara 1969.
  • 1869–1994, 125 de ani de circulație cu tramvaiul în Timișoara, monograph . Timișoara 1994.
  • Regia Autonomă de Transport Timișoara, 130 de ani de activitate, 1869–1999, monograph . Timișoara 1999.