Twin railcars
A twin railcar , twin car , twin train , double railcar , double car or double train is the name given to two permanently connected railcars of a tram , which are identically constructed, have no transition options and were usually joined together later. This type of construction is no longer to be found today; it has been replaced by articulated vehicles or multiple traction units .
Closely related to the twin tramcars are the so-called twin - powered railcars on railways or subways . However, these are already designed as double wagons when they are built and are therefore designed in mirror image, and they usually offer a transition option between the two halves of the wagon.
principle
From a technical point of view, twin railcars are train compositions made up of two firmly coupled two-axle motor cars. The two or four drive motors are evenly distributed over both cars and connected in series or in parallel . If only one part of the vehicle has a pantograph , the two cars are connected with a power cable. However, not all components are always constructed symmetrically, for example compressors - for example for air brakes - are often only mounted on one part of the car. The two car parts of a twin railcar cannot be separated from each other during operation, they are not individually operational. In addition, the two cab equipment that was no longer needed was often removed.
In this way, twin railcars differ significantly from multiple units, in which all the railcars in the train composition are independent units that are (remotely) controlled from a common driver's cab . The leading railcar gives control impulses, the other units accelerate or brake synchronously.
history
Hungary
Twin railcars were primarily a Hungarian specialty. In addition, they were also able to assert themselves in the neighboring foreign tram companies, including mainly cities that belonged to Austria-Hungary until the First World War . The Budapest tram played a pioneering role, where older railcars were coupled together from 1924 in order to increase transport capacity. In particular, it was possible in this way to serve stump ends without a transfer track or without a turning loop with longer units. On lines that were already served with a sidecar , the transfer at the end points was saved. This development reached its peak in the 1960s, when over 1000 twin railcars were in operation in Budapest. Although there were numerous attempts to do this, these teams could hardly prevail outside Hungary and its neighboring countries. Drive problems often occurred in this special operating mode.
Germany
In Germany, too, there were several attempts with twin railcars in the interwar period, but the principle did not prevail there either. Exceptions were the Berlin tram and the Munich tram .
From 1926 ten one -and-a-half-direction cars initially existed in the capital . These " twin cars " with the company numbers 6201–6210 each had only one driver's cab, so that five rear-to-rear-coupled twin trains were formed with them. In 1931/32 the BVG separated the units and converted the railcars into one-way vehicles.
In 1947/48 , the Josef Rathgeber wagon factory converted a total of 28 class B railcars into 14 twin railcars for Munich . They had previously proven to be too weak for operation with two sidecars due to their low engine power. Before that, there were two Z 4.2 series twin railcars with road numbers 351 and 352 that were built in 1936 and 1937 .
There were other attempts with twin railcars
- in Leipzig , there was an M train with a middle sidecar (1187–601–1188) and another pair of railcars
- in Hamburg , where a two-axle sidecar was motorized as a trial
- in Essen , where the SEG used two decrepit former Wiesbaden railcars
- in Mannheim
- at the Düsseldorf Rheinbahn , which put two twin railcars built by Westwaggon and AEG into operation in 1928 , but converted them into four single cars in 1932.
- on the Hagen tram , in 1951 it formed two teams with the new numbers 40-41 and 42-43 from four old two-axle multiple units built in 1912 (46, 47, 52 and 59). These cars received modernized car bodies with only one driver's cab each. Both cars were scrapped in 1961 after accidents due to brake failure.
- in Würzburg , where the two railcars 25 and 26, taken over from Bad Kreuznach in 1953, were combined in 1954 to form a double railcar with the new numbers 101a and 101b, which later became known under the nickname Max and Moritz and was in service until 1964.
Austria
The Vienna tram experimented between 1929 and 1937 with a twin train consisting of two type H railcars. The two permanently coupled vehicles with the numbers 2164 and 2166 were connected by a multi-pole cable and each had only one motor and one drive switch. They always received their traction current from the pantograph of the leading railcar while the second was withdrawn. It only had to be put on for lighting when it was dark.
Romania
In Romania , the first twin railcars operated on the Timișoara tram from 1931 . Over the years 29 teams were formed there, including twelve of the Pionier type , nine of the FII type , three of the F type , three of the T1-62 type , one of the DII type and a mixed F / FII train. The last twin teams left the stock in 1988. In addition, only a single twin railcar operated in Romania on the Arad tram ; this train with the operating numbers 14 and 15 produced in 1949 was identical to the type FII in Timișoara and was in operation until 1974.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ hko: Twin wagon type 1926 . In: Berliner Verkehrsblätter . No. 3 , 1962, pp. 22-23 .
- ↑ Description of the B railcars on www.strassenbahn-muenchen.de
- ↑ Description of the Düsseldorf railcar 244 at www.tram-info.de ( Memento of the original from May 4, 2014 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.
- ↑ tram-info.de
- ↑ The history of the Würzburg tram on wuerzburger-strassenbahn.info
- ↑ strassenbahnjournal.at
- ↑ Hans Lehnhart, Claude Jeanmairie: tram operations in Eastern Europe. = Tramway Systems of Eastern Europe. Volume 2. Verlag Eisenbahn, Villigen 1977, ISBN 3-85649-032-9 .
