[Eppur si muove!]

Glad to see your employer decided to purchase new vehicles based on a bogie design and not like what's now in fashion over 'ere: trams with fixed undercarriages (Citadis, Combino-II and "Combino-3" aka Avenio) and their corresponding atrocious running characteristics

 

Hmm, just thinking: given the similarities between the NGT12 and this new NGT10*, one could swap each of the short 'floating' sections of the NGT12 and replace them with the centre sections of the NGT10. That'll probably end up as a single vehicle right on/over the limits for BoStrab (75m-ish)

 

*I doubt that's only the electronics and drive-train, surely the same goes for mechanical parts like the articulations, doors, drivers controls, etc.

Vincent, as a matter of fact, a Combino from Erfurt - adapted to our gauge, of course - had been tested ahead of the procurement of what would eventually be the NGT12. The gist of the findings from this trial was that it did ride alright - as long as no curves needed to be negotiated. Which is to say, this evaluation had quickly led to the fundamental decision not to procure any trams with fixed running gears as these would most likely never be a good match for the parameters of our network!

 

However, while the drive units and indeed the controller handle are essentially identical between the NGT10 and NGT12, I don't think the types as a whole are sufficiently similar to each other for the intermediate segments to be easily swapped. Essentially, the NGT10 is a unique design tailored for Leipzig, and not really similar even to other variants of what on paper would be the Solaris Tramino family. The Braunschweig Tramino, for example, is an entirely different vehicle, and does, in fact, utilise independent wheel running gears. Likewise, the Tramino variants operating in various Polish cities are not significantly similar to the Braunschweig and Leipzig variants.

[1001: An Urban Rail Odyssey]

Interesting. For comparison, can you provide a similar entry for the other types (NGT12, NGT8, etc) perchance? TIA! Found them in the archives

 

I just saw you found my previous articles, Vincent . I admit I haven't got around to posting one about the Tatras, mainly because there's a bit more history to these trams to digest. What I can say at this point is that even though they took me the longest to get acquainted with, I have really come to appreciate them by now. Compared to the NGT8 specifically, they are much more of a "driver's vehicle", and very good for getting lots of people moving – a quality shared with the NGT12s and a double unit of NGT6s, of course.

 

 

 

Excellent pictures, those look very smart comfortable vehicles. 

 

Makes me annoyed to think that so many UK cities ripped out tram systems which could have been upgraded to that standard and instead went for diesel buses and too many cars. 

 

I certainly agree that trams definitely remain a viable type of urban transit medium, and have a lot of easily visible presence due to operating (mainly) on the surface. The challenge we are currently facing in Leipzig is how, in the light of rapidly growing numbers of inhabitants, traffic can be structured in such as way as to not end up in a major infarction, if you will! That, of course, is mainly a political question I'd rather not get started with…

[Dölitz Details]

Sorry for the belated reply, folks. DM, I understand the idea is not to allow the depot area to become submerged but for the drainage to be sufficiently capable of dispersing inflowing water from the surrounding area in a controlled way.

[The Western Shuttle]

I have a few additional images to post from yesterday's shift on the Western Shuttle…

 

 

 

In bright Sunday morning sunshine, 1333-1326, which I had just made ready for sortie, is sitting in the Home Loop at Leutzsch Depot.

 

 

 

A colleague had had bad luck with a malfunction on the set headed by 1325 the day before, which thus was set aside on the pit and waiting for technicians to arrive.

 

 

 

 

That would be the view from the cab, with an agreeably high seating position to offer excellent view – which to my mind is a definite bonus for driving rail vehicles through urban traffic. Taken, I should add, while stationary prior to leaving the depot…

 

 

 

…much as this was taken while waiting for the route to turn left at Rathaus Leutzsch, having travelled up Rathenaustraße and Hans-Driesch-Straße. The signal, as you can see, was cycling to Clear Left at that moment, so I was good to go immediately afterwards!

 

 

 

 

 

Later at Miltitz.

 

 

 

The Lindenau Bus Depot is the usual break location. As the Leipziger Group had numerous electric company cars by now, chargers are provided at all key facilities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the second half, which actually was a bit longer than the first half, I had 1341-1318.

[The Western Shuttle]

Those cobbled street surfaces are just crying out for an oleopneumatic suspension to travel over them.

 

They do indeed, Ivan. This particular type of cobblestone was, I understand, made from waste slag obtained during copper production, and was a cheap and abundant building material in the GDR. It can be quite treacherous when wet or frozen over, though!

[Farewell to Arms (sort of) – A leaving charter for Leoliner 1302]

Yes, VEB Leipziger Bekleidungswerk "Vestis". I understand the company survived the Wende for at least a few years – no longer as a VEB (People-Owned Enterprise), of course – , but I'm not entirely sure what exactly became of it.

[Can we cope with the excitement?]

Hi Richard, only just noticed how you're building a tram layout. If I can offer you any advice from my own work on the Leipzig tram (see my corresponding blog), do feel free to ask!

 

Cheers, Dom

[The "Interchange Node" practice in Leipzig]

Mark, Halling did do the NGT12 several years ago but it has now been out of production for a long time and is almost unobtainium. I asked Halling about whether they might be considering a new production run, but they told me they would need a guaranteed number of at least 100 orders.

 

I'd also be very happy about a H0 scale NGT6 but I'm hearing HeiterBlick are reluctant to provide the necessary blueprints for designing the tooling.

[It's a Harz Life, or, A Day Out on the Harzer Schmalspurbahnen]

Thanks, guys! Birthday was actually on 31 October, but I needed to take my remaining holiday for this year and early December was the best possible option. Certainly a nice kind of present to do a trip like this!

 

I suppose that HSB will se a lot of ridership during the warm months, autumn and the snowy season. The Harz definitely offers a lot of options for vacationing and it also has a rather interesting history of mining

[Yellow as the Sun: Bombardier Flexity Berlin, Type GT6-08/F6Z of BVG, by Halling]

Hi Grahame,

 

I can't speak for all Halling models but I think it is safe to say that the majority of their trams at last are designed like that. As for the motor units, I cannot really say anything about this either but you might be able to find videos of motorised Halling models on Youtube which might give you an idea.

 

Cheers,

Dom

[Freight stock ruminations – concerning coil carriers, more precisely...]

Hi. Go to http://www.renfe.com/empresa/mercancias/siderurgicos/parque_vagones.html and select the "Cerrados(PDF)" link at the top right of the page. It goes to a pdf of wagon data sheets, including number ranges. "Cerrados" are covered wagons, including coil wagons; "Abiertos" are opens and "plataforma" are flats. I developed a minor side interest in Renfe after a trip to Port Bou a few years ago. It never went anywhere but I did find some interesting wagon data! Jim

 

Very useful resource there, Jim, thank you! Given that some information on the Spanish railway scene seems to be a bit more difficult to come by, it somehow never appeared to me that Renfe themselves might have published such data...

[The Distant Cousins: Renfe Series 250 electric locomotive by Roco]

Hi Ivan,

 

The Iberian broad gauge of 1,668 mm would indeed yield 19.2 mm (19.17, to be very exact). I'm not aware of any Spanish themed layouts which are built to that gauge, though I admit I am drawing on inspiration from the first iteration of the Chipauquil layout from Argentina which Diego de Bunder outlined in the previous iteration of RMweb. ISTR he utilised self-made broad gauge track there.

[EF66's Big Sister: Renfe Mercancías Series 251 electric locomotive]

Thanks, guys!

 

Do you know if anyone has produced the 319.2 in HO - the variant with the 3 window cab, similar to the CIE 071 'Big GMs'? Very handsome beasts I think!

Yes, Roco have the 319 - both the three-window and the later two-window cab versions. IIRC, they do, in fact, have a new batch of 319.2s in Renfe Mercanc

[Illustrations of German tram infrastructure and signals – Part 1]

The signal heads themselves, both F-signals and the point indicator, are the same types as used for road traffic. The F-signal heads appear to be a standard Siemens product, whilst the point indicator is the "Global" design formerly made by Signalbau Huber, which was taken over by Swarco-Futurit. The LED aspects / inserts are 200mm diameter, and are a Swarco-Futurit product - these are also gaining popularity in British traffic signals.

 

 

Interesting, I admit I never looked that closely at different makes and types of such traffic signalling! LED lighting is indeed gaining in popularity in this field.

 

You may also notice that LED daytime running lights have been fitted to the earlier production NGT12 (Flexity) as well as the NGT8 cars, and have been factory fitted to the NGTW6L (Leoliner) cars and the 2nd batch NGT12 cars. There are also some Tatra cars which have been equipped with LED turn indicators, though I doubt the remaining fleet will be completely refitted with these, given the recent order for Solaris Tramino cars.

[Time for Plattenbau!]

Now where's the Halling catalogue?      

 

You mean for the Flexity XXL model they produced? ISTR that this was distributed only through LVB, but I could be wrong. It is no longer listed in their souvenir store, though.

[Rail and Rail Replacement]

Thanks for the explanation, I could imagine that using OHLE current draw to set points could have problems as street traffic did unpredictable things!

 

That may well have played a role!

 

Tram points can usually be set manually by way of a lever (actually called a "spear" in literal translation of the common German term) carried in the cabs of each car if the automatic route setting should not be working for any reason.

[Rail and Rail Replacement]

Hi Dom,

 

It would be great to see pictures of the engineering works themselves.  On the Tatra Gro

[(A) Streetcar (Named) Desire]

As for that rail/tramway crossing, the difference between BoStab and EBO standards are quite clear to see. Something most dreamers have no clue about when they propose yet another wild public transport fantasy

 

 

There also is the fact of the Leipzig tram system having the peculiar, and, technically, broad gauge of 1,458 mm which would make any tram-train ideas rather difficult to implement. That is the broadest gauge of all German tram systems.

[The Red-and-Blue Bo'Bo': SBB Cargo Re 421 from Roco]

Peter, SBB Cargo do provide domestic services in Germany as well as they have a separate German company branch and also cooperate with some German TOCs. The cab ride video was on one of these domestic services. Their locomotives but do need to be diagrammed such that they return to Switzerland regularly. 

 

The video was filmed by Timo Albert who is a TX Logistik driver. TX Logistik are teamed with SBB Cargo in the German market.

[Setting Trends: Deutsche Bahn class 120.1 electric from ACME]

I can echo your impression, actually. Odd, as the 120s aren't that rare!

[The Queen of German Electrics: Re-tooled class 103 from Roco]

Railadventure have acquired 139 558. Interestingly, they also own Re 421 383, formerly of SBB Cargo!

[The Queen of German Electrics: Re-tooled class 103 from Roco]

It's intriguing just how these stalwarts cannot seem to be defeated! Have you seen the first photo of 103 222 in Railadventure livery yet?

[Five-Coupled Jack of All Trades: Deutsche Bundesbahn class 50 steam locomotive from Roco]

I admit I do not know of any 50s with these tenders. I'd have to research whether the Austrians may have come up with this formation on the locos they inherited.

[Voith has Gravitas: Class 265 (Voith Gravita 15L BB) diesel shunter from Brawa]

Jon, I cannot really speak for Brawa's entire range, but they do have numerous excellent models indeed. The Gravita is one of their most recent toolings, and I expect the Bombardier TRAXX series they have announced for release later this year will be to a similarly high standard. Their steam locos are nothing short of beautiful either, but very expensive. I do remember there are some issues with their DR class 132 series, though.

[A Case of Capital Ferrophilia]

Neil, do remember to obtain a photo permit from BVG if you would like to take some underground photos. I can provide you with an e-mail address if required.