Cheers, everyone!
I had to wait far longer than I would have preferred, but this Friday, I finally did get instructed on our new NGT10 trams. Type rating for our staff had been significantly slowed due to the flu outbreak in late winter but is now being caught up on.
The procedure consists of one day of theory, one day of individual driving instruction, and one shift of passenger service with a trainer in attendance. I'll now have to accomplish only the last step and would then be rated
Cheers again, everyone!
This is just to post a selection of photos I took at a publicity event having taken place at Dölitz this morning. This was a symbolic handover of keys for the new NGT10 trams to our driving staff.
Driver instruction for our new rides is scheduled to commence immediately after the upcoming Whitsun weekend, with two days - one for theory and technical aspects, one for driving practice - being planned for each instruction group.
Anyway, I shall mainly let the pho
Cheers once again!
Today, I should like to entertain you with a bit of a photo strip from a short trip to Berlin we made on Friday and Saturday – the occasion being a slightly different sort of excursion on the city's underground.
Specifically, BVG offer excursions on open flatcars equipped with passenger chairs, intended to illustrate the enormity of the planning and engineering work which an underground system as large as this embodies. And in my impression, that goal is well and truly
Cheers again!
As I promised this morning, I was able to snap a few photos of NGT10 1002 presently on display at the Exhibition Centre – with us also taking the opportunity of actually visiting the House and Garden Fair also as we wanted to collect some ideas for our garden as well.
So, this…
…is what the NGT10 looks like sans test mule camouflage.
The asymmetric design principle is something of a Solaris trademark, as some of you might already be aware of
Cheers everyone…
I may have mentioned before that LVB have committed themselves to renewing their tram and bus inventory, which process has begun taking shape by the end of 2016. Concerning our new trams, with the procurement contract having been signed on 26 March, 2015, Polish bus and (more recently) tram builder Solaris had been declared the winning bidder, having proposed a 20-wheel, four-segment articulated vehicle from their Tramino series. Per common practice in Germany, this tram is
Morning all (which it is, however early!) …
This here's intended to be just a very brief follow-up to my earlier post, The Secret Weapon of the Urban Rail Special Forces.
As indicated there, the majority of our NGT8s is scheduled to be upgraded as 1101 "Johann Sebastian Bach" has been, with 33 out of the 56 units specifically being planned for the trailer mod. Of these, 31 are slated to be in revenue service with trailers at any time, and two forming an operational reserve.
As a matt
Hello again!
Having posted a handful of night-time images from the grounds of Dölitz Depot in this entry, I was able to shoot an additional set of images in daylight, and would like to share these with you.
This tram depot opposite the "agra" exhibition centre primarily used for national agricultural exhibitions in the GDR era was originally built and operated by LVB's predecessor GLSt (Große Leipziger Straßenbahn AG), and was first opened in 1900. Originally comprising only two car shed
Morning all!
I was thinking that I might just as well utilise this blog for also posting trip reports centred on other tram systems aside from my usual front line dispatches, as I felt this approach might be well suited for allowing a comparative view of technical specifics and operational parameters in other cities.
So, may I just start with a photo strip from my recent visit to Frankfurt, where I was also able to try out my new camera which had arrived just the day before we left for o
Morning all!
As I'm sure I mentioned at one point or another, I had let our shift planners know that aside from preferring getting shifts throughout our network in order to stay proficient on all routes and tram types, I'm always happy to take shifts out of the ordinary soon after having joined the tram. I thus was delighted when for yesterday, I found I had been booked on a shift on Line 16, which line has been temporarily cut at the Eutritzsch, Krankenhaus loop for track renewal further no
A'noon everyone…
It's been several months since I last got to drive the particular tram which I intend to illustrate in today's post, but now that I did do so during yesterday's shift, I was thinking it might be of interest to you.
With a procurement programme for a new low floor tram – derived from the Solaris Tramino design and per its intended configuration with ten wheelsets designated NGT10 – having been launched last year and a phase-out of our Tatras thus being scheduled to occur
Morning all!
Long time no see on here but now, the engineering works campaign going on this summer yielded a traffic pattern sufficiently out of the usual to merit a blog post. I should also mention I gladly volunteered for this specific service and have been booked on corresponding shifts several times, so I may also amend this post with additional photos!
The engineering project I was referring to concerns track renewal and water piping renewal at Lindenauer Markt and on Kuhturmstraße,
Evening all!
As promised elsewhere on RMweb, I should like to regale you with a selection of photos taken during a special charter which me, several colleagues and a number of public transport enthusiasts from Leipzig and Berlin attended yesterday.
This charter was arranged on the occasion of plans for taking Leoliner 1302 – the second of the two prototypes – out of passenger service this summer and refitting it as our new training car to replace the Tatra T4D car 5001 in this role in o
Afternoon all!
I realise it's been a while since my last stock profile from our tram, so given that I'll be driving one later today, may I just post a few paragraphs about our NGT8 type trams.
As I'm sure I pointed out on another occasion, the general pattern of designation for trams in Germany is not specific to any one city, so other tram systems may also have cars commonly designated NGT8 but completely unrelated to other vehicles. So, for what I hope will be clarification, I'll need
Morning all!
I wouldn't want to withhold this little overview for which I took a couple of photos during my shift yesterday, illustrating possible means for how engineering works on tram lines may be safeguarded while keeping traffic flowing.
At present, the Landsberger Straße terminus at the north end of Line 4 is undergoing refurbishment, to which end various temporary signalling measures for road and rail have been put in place. This is made doubly interesting by the fact that this te
Morning all!
During my shift last night, I felt the situation was ideal for taking a couple of illustrative photos of the practice we refer to as "Interchange Node" or, in German, "Sammelanschluss". I hope you don't mind these being snapshots from my phone, but I believe they will visualise the concept.
During those periods of longer timetable intervals in the late evening and early mornings – especially on Saturdays and Sundays – our traffic pattern on the tram is designed such that eve
Morning all, just…
I think a while ago, I promised to provide a bit of an illustration of how the onboard ITCS terminals on our trams work, intended to allow a bit of insight into the workings of public transport today. There are, of course, numerous different types of ITCS equipment available, though their functional principles are, largely, identical, I suppose.
Covering a bit of terminology first, I'd like to begin by outlining that in German, the traditional term for that which in En
Afternoon all!
Following up to my earlier portrait of our NGT6 "Leoliner" trams by HeiterBlick, I would like to continue this series of showcases with a few paragraphs about our NGT12 trams, which at present are the largest steeds in our stable, if you will.
To provide up-to-date and accessible rolling stock on those lines characterised by particularly high ridership numbers and earmarked for gradual upgrade to light rail equivalent standard with large proportions of grade-separated trac
Morning all (just)!
Aside from matters of infrastructure and practical application of operating regulations, I should also like to provide outlines of our rolling stock inventory, amended by personal impressions from actual driving. This is what I'd like to start doing in today's posting, commencing with what as of now is – though only by a narrow margin over the NGT12 – my favourite type from our inventory!
Approximately fifteen years ago, LVB were evaluating options for renewing the co
Evening all!
I originally posted the following text on my "Bw Leipzig Hbf West" blog in April but, in light of, shall we say, personal professional experience collected since that time, I thought it might be worthwhile reposting and amending it on here!
In any case, I suppose a bit of a preface should be sensible
German trams most commonly run under what could be called line-of-sight operating conditions, meaning that cars proceed on sight from one signal to the next, and that no tra
Evening all!
As I'm having a weekend off, I thought I might begin filling this blog with some content, and start with a bit of an illustration of how my decision to re-orient myself professionally for essentially reasons of personal sanity and the preservation thereof – which some of you reading this may already know about in some more detail – took shape over the course of this summer!
The short version is, I had signed up for a posting as a tram driver with our local public transport o
