Two-axle vehicles of the Paris Métro
The stock of two-axle vehicles of the Paris Métro included the multiple units - series 100 and 200 as well as the corresponding trailer cars .
history
In July 1900, on the first stretch of the Paris Métro , the Line 1 opened. The railcars of the trains initially used by the operating company Compagnie du chemin de fer métropolitain de Paris (CMP) were built in 1899 at the Ateliers de construction du Nord de la France (ANF), the sidecars at Société Franco-Belge de Matériel de Chemins de Fer ( Raismes plant ) built. They were largely similar to the trams of the time , but the railcars were more powerful with two 125 hp engines .
First railcars and sidecars
Line 1 was provided with end loops at both ends of the line, which the trains could use to turn without changing the direction of travel. 34 railcars, each with a driver's cab (vehicle numbers M 1 to M 34) and bearing the class designation 100, were purchased for them. The two short routes to Porte Dauphine and Trocadéro from the Etoile underground station , each with a coupling terminal , received 12 class 200 railcars with driver's cabs on both sides (MM 1 to MM 12). There were also 115 sidecars, including 31 1st class (A 1 to A 31), 74 2nd class (B 1 to B 74) and 10 mixed-class (AB 1 to AB 10).
The vehicles had two axles fixed in parallel in the chassis, the distance between axles was 2.50 meters for the powered and 3.75 meters for the sidecar. The railcars were 8.15 meters (100 series) and 7.68 meters (200 series) long, the sidecars 8.88 meters (types A and B) and 7.44 meters (type AB). The weight of the class 100 railcars was 18.5 t, that of the 200 series 16.5 t; the sidecar weighed 8.5 t. The railcar and sidecar were 2.40 meters wide and 3.30 meters high.
The superstructures with single sliding doors were made of wood. There were two 73 centimeter wide door openings on each side of the vehicle, one of which was intended as an entry and the other as an exit. The railcars had another door in the driver's cab on the right in the direction of travel. To accelerate the change of passengers, the second series delivered from 1901 (railcars M 51 to M 56, side cars A 1001 and B 2001 to B 2004) received wider door openings and double sliding doors; the older vehicles were modified accordingly in 1902. The mixed-class sidecars became vehicles of the first (A 32 to A 38) and second (B 75 to B 77) vehicle class as early as 1901.
The railcars were controlled by a drive switch of the type used in tram vehicles . The driving current with a direct voltage of 600 volts flowed through the driving switches located in the driver's cabs, with which the driving speed was changed directly through series or parallel connection . To ensure safety, the vehicles were equipped with a triple brake system: a compressed air brake based on the Westinghouse system for normal operation, a handbrake and an electric brake for emergencies. The vehicles had central buffers and were coupled by means of screw couplings .
The seats were arranged in the form of an open compartment on both sides of a central aisle: 30 (type 100) or 26 (type 200) seats in the railcars, 40 in the sidecar of the second carriage class. In the first class cars, the seats were upholstered and covered with red-brown leather, the second class benches were made of wooden sticks. The backrests were 65 centimeters high in both cases. Electric heaters were installed in the car floors. A display operated by the driver of the train showed the passengers the next station in each vehicle.
In the beginning, it was possible to keep the two-minute trains with a 30-second stop in the stations during rush hour. As the number of passengers increased, however, it turned out that the number of cars per train was too small and the narrow width of the doors prevented rapid passenger changes.
Railcar for double traction
Initially, there were only trains made up of a multiple unit plus sidecar on the main line, and only solo vehicles (MM) on the two branch lines. Longer train sets soon led to the need to hire a second railcar per train. From then on, the driver had to operate another from the leading railcar, which required multiple controls. The Thomson double equipment made it possible to control the four electric motors of two railcars from one drive switch. The driving current was in this case from the leading railcar busbar removed and passed through a cable along the side-car to another rail car.
To accommodate the electrical equipment, the driver's cabs of the Thompson double railcars were extended by 80 centimeters. Apart from the double sliding doors, the wagons resembled the existing material. The following were delivered between late 1901 and May 1903:
- 44 one-way railcars from ANF, 8.45 m long and 18.5 t in weight, numbers M 101 to M 144
- 33 bidirectional railcars from ANF, numbers M 201 to M 233
- 73 First class sidecar, 8.35 m long and 8.5 t in weight, numbers A 101 to A 153 and A 161 to A 180
- 147 Second class sidecar, numbers B 101 to B 247
End of use
The high frictional resistance of the two-axle vehicles in the narrow curves of the route (radius 38 meters at the Bastille station ) and the two end loops of line 1 (radii of 30 meters each) soon led to the idea of purchasing cars with bogies in the future . In spite of this, in 1903 another 284 two-axle motor coaches and 211 sidecars were ordered for line 3, which was planned with larger radii .
The accident at the Couronnes station in August 1903 led to a rethinking of the railcars and the routing of power cables along the trains. 84 people were killed in the fire, the M 139, M 202 and M 233 railcars and nine trailer cars were destroyed. First of all, the two railcars were then coupled one behind the other at the start of the train in order to avoid power cables along the entire train. Due to the existence of two-sided end loops, this measure could be implemented quickly on lines 1 and 2 .
From then on, bogie railcars with driver's cabs made of metal were acquired, and the first corresponding vehicles of the 300 series were put into service in 1904. Each railcar now obtained its own traction current from the conductor rail, and unoccupied railcars were controlled using an unproblematic low voltage . In September and October 1905, the two-axle railcars were parked and then converted to bogie vehicles. Only the railcars MM 1 to MM 12 remained on line 2 Sud (section of today's line 6 ) until May 14, 1906 and were then used as work vehicles.
In 1904 nine, in 1905 another 56 two-axle trailer cars were taken out of service and converted into four-axle railcars. In December 1913, there were still 263 two-axle trailer cars that were used on lines with elevated sections. The last two-axle sidecars ran in the summer of 1932.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Jean Robert: Notre Métro . 2nd Edition. 1983, p. 268 ff .
- ↑ a b c d e Clive Lamming: Le métro parisien 1900–1945 . Éditions Atlas, Évreux 2011, ISBN 978-2-7312-4739-8 , pp. 68 f .
- ^ Jean Tricoire: Un siècle de métro en 14 lignes. De Bienvenüe à Météor . 2nd Edition. La Vie du Rail, Paris 2000, ISBN 2-902808-87-9 , p. 85 .
- ^ Jean Tricoire: Un siècle de métro en 14 lignes , p. 91.
- ^ Christoph Groneck: Metros in France . 1st edition. Robert Schwandl, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-936573-13-1 , p. 10 .
- ^ Jean Tricoire: Un siècle de métro en 14 lignes , p. 131.
- ↑ Clive Lamming: Le métro parisien 1900–1945 , p. 70 f.
