Demonstration drives with an electric vehicle near Chillon on December 17, 1900

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The demonstration drives with an electric vehicle near Chillon on December 17, 1900 were carried out by the Compagnie française de traction par trolley automoteur Lombard-Gérin on a short route between Villeneuve and Chillon Castle in the Swiss canton of Vaud .

history

In 1900 the Compagnie française de traction par trolley automoteur Lombard-Gerin set up trolleybus test routes in the Paris suburb of Issy-les-Moulineaux and at the world exhibition in Paris . The pantograph on two lines used for this was based on a technology developed by the French engineer Louis Lombard-Gerin .

Because the company wanted to expand into Switzerland, on the afternoon of December 17, 1900, it carried out demonstration drives with a two-seater electric vehicle on a specially equipped overhead line , which was probably taken over by the route near Issy-les-Moulineaux. The overhead line of the electric vehicle began at Chillon Castle, then the eastern terminus of the Vevey – Montreux tram , and connected to it. Around 50 people were present when the chief engineer of the canton of Vaud, a representative of the Department of Public Transport , the professor of industrial mechanics at the University of Lausanne and a representative of the Gazette de Lausanne carried out test drives. In its December 18 edition, the newspaper criticized the fact that the delightful drive along the “most beautiful street in the canton” would not have shown the practical usability of the system: The demonstration made it clear that a light vehicle on a level route with a smooth surface and little Traffic volume can be used with the system, however, asks whether it would also work with a large bus on graveled slopes or with icy overhead lines. She criticizes that it was not worth the effort to persuade so many men of honor to give such a poor presentation.

The demonstration drives were unsuccessful. According to recent findings, there are no indications for the establishment of an actual trolleybus route. Victor von Röll had reported in his Encyclopedia of Railways , published between 1912 and 1923 , that the test system had been "transferred" from the Paris World Exhibition to Chillon, where it was the first "trackless railway" - the former name for trolleybus systems - to handle traffic "mediated" with the Hôtel Byron in Villeneuve. On the occasion of the “reconstruction” of the Vevey – Montreux tram from a slotted pipe overhead contact line to an ordinary overhead wire, the trolleybus operation was replaced by a conventional tram . After all, the first regular trolleybus operation in Switzerland was the Freiburg – Farvagny trolleybus, which opened in 1912 . The Vevey – Villeneuve trolleybus has been running along Lake Geneva since the 1950s .

See also

literature

  • Jean-Philippe Coppex: The Swiss overland trolleybuses . Verlag Endstation Ostring, Geneva 2008, ISBN 978-3-9522545-3-0 , pp. 7 and 46-47.
  • Patrick Kupper: Chemins de fer sans rail en Suisse - a contribution to the history of the trolleybus / Gleislose Bahnen in Switzerland - a contribution to the history of the trolleybus. In: Endstation Ostring, issue 23 (12 / 98-03 / 99), pp. 3–19 (bilingual).
  • Trolley Automoteur . In: Gazette de Lausanne, December 18, 1900 edition, page 2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Troley Automoteur . In: Gazette de Lausanne, December 18, 1900 edition, page 2 .
  2. ↑ a b c Patrick Kupper: Chemins de fer sans rail en Suisse - une contribution à l'histoire des trolleybus / Gleislose Bahnen in Switzerland - a contribution to the history of the trolleybus. In: Endstation Ostring Heft 23 (12 / 98-03 / 99), pp. 4-6 (bilingual, here quoted from the German text).
  3. ^ A b c Jean-Philippe Coppex: The Swiss overland trolleybuses . Verlag Endstation Ostring, Geneva 2008, ISBN 978-3-9522545-3-0 , pp. 7 and 46-47.
  4. ↑ Trackless railways. In: Victor von Röll: Encyclopedia of the Railway System. Volume 2. 2nd edition. Urban & Schwarzenberg Verlag, Berlin / Vienna 1912–1923.