Umbau-Wagen
Three-axle Umbauwagen | |
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![]() Two DB three-axle Umbauwagen | |
Manufacturer |
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Constructed | 1953–1959 |
Number built | 6582 |
Fleet numbers |
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Specifications | |
Car length | 13,300 mm (43 ft 7+5⁄8 in) over buffers |
Width | 3,090 mm (10 ft 1+5⁄8 in) |
Height | 4,045 mm (13 ft 3+1⁄4 in) |
Wheelbase | 7,500–7,900 mm (24 ft 7+1⁄4 in – 25 ft 11 in) |
Maximum speed | 85 km/h (53 mph), later 90 or 100 km/h (56 or 62 mph) |
Weight |
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Seating |
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Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) |
The Umbau-Wagen or Umbauwagen was a type of German railway passenger coach operated by the
Origins
After the
Six-wheeled coach, Class 3yg(e)
In summer 1953, the Bundesbahn Head Office tasked the Bundesbahn Central Office (Bundesbahn-Zentralamt or BZA) in Minden together with various coach building firms with designing a rebuild of the pre-war coaches, of which only the wheels and the undercarriage were to be used. The coach body was to be replaced by a completely new one.
In 1953 the workshop (
A corrugated steel floor (Wellblechboden) was eventually welded onto the old running gear. Apart from that a new steel coach body was manufactured, which extended as far as the
The interior accommodation of the third class coach had plastic, cushioned seats. In second class, the seats were arranged in a 2+2 configuration and covered with fabric. Between the seating compartments was a small vestibule. All the coaches had steam heating equipment, the majority were also fitted with electric heating (this can be told from the suffix "e" in their class designation).
Three coach classes were produced. The third class coaches (C3yg(e)) had seven windows per side and 66 seats arranged in a 2+3 configuration. The mixed 2nd/3rd class BC3yg(e) had 20 third class seats and 18 second class seats. There was also a semi-luggage coach CPw3yg(e) with 26 seats and a luggage section.
As a result of class changes in the 1956 summer timetable the coaches were regraded, resulting in B3yg(e), AB3yg(e) and BD3yg(e) units. As early as 1954 more than a thousand coaches had been placed in service. By 1958 the number grew to 6,500 units, or 25 per cent of the entire coach fleet in the Bundesbahn. Their permitted top speed was initially 90 km/h, which was then the standard for passenger trains; in the 1970s this was raised on several coaches to 100 km/h.
The electrical system on the 3yg(e) coaches only permitted close-coupled pairs to be formed, albeit any combination was allowed apart from BD3yg + BD3yg. The permitted combinations were: AB + AB, AB + B, B + B, AB + BD, B + BD. The only requirement was that the close-coupled ends had to face one another. So the six-wheeled Umbauwagen coaches always ran in pairs. Numerous coaches were also equipped with a control cable for use in
These coaches were deployed in local passenger trains on main and branch lines. Not until the middle of the 1980s were the last coaches, which served commuter traffic at the
Eight-wheeled coach, Class 4yg
Four-axle Umbauwagen | |
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Umbauwagen of class B4yg, the Lippe State Railway | |
Manufacturer |
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Constructed | 1955–1961 |
Number built | 1821 |
Specifications | |
Car length | 19,460 mm (63 ft 10+1⁄8 in) over buffers |
Width | 2,990 mm (9 ft 9+3⁄4 in) |
Height | 4,045–4,062 mm (13 ft 3+1⁄4 in – 13 ft 3+7⁄8 in) |
Maximum speed | 120 km/h (75 mph) |
Weight |
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Seating |
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Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) |
Following the success of the six-wheeled Umbauwagen, the DB intended that the large numbers of eight-wheeled compartment coaches from the early Länderbahn fleets which were still available, should be converted on the same principles. To achieve this the undercarriages of the old coaches were converted to a standard length. In 1956 a trials coach was built - a mixed class BC4yg, which had a length of 19.5 metres. In 1957 two more prototypes of the later class AByg 402 already had Minden-Deutz bogies. The end doors and the special design was the same as the six-wheelers. There were also three classes: B4yg, AB4yg and BD4yg.
Between the inset end doors were five windows (four in the first class section) and then a pair of pivoting external doors as a centre entrance, which was also inset.
Full production began in 1957 with the B4yg-56 (Byg 515). The following series in 1959 were classed as the B4yg 58 and Byg 58a (later Byg 515 and 516). The coaches had 72 passenger cushioned, plastic-covered seats. The AB coaches were fitted with 24 first class and 36 second class seats and were built from 1958. They had a somewhat different floor plan with various locations for the WCs. These coaches were called the AByg-58 and AByg-58a (later AByg 503 and 504). The half-luggage vans were initially supplied as BPw4yg-56 (later BDyg 531). Further batches went into service as the BPw4yg-56a (BDyg 532) and BPw4yg-56b (BDyg 533).
The basis of the first coaches even included those with Prussian standard bogies, although these were converted from friction bearings to roller bearings. The next 300 coaches were given the originally American Schwanenhals bogies, an amazing parallel with the 1964 eight-wheeled Reko-Wagen coaches of the Reichsbahn in East Germany. All the remaining yg class coaches were then equipped with Minden-Deutz MD 36 bogies. All the coaches were cleared to run at up to 120 km/h.
The 4yg coaches were preferred for semi-fast services (Eilzugverkehr). Not until their later years were they cascaded to branch lines. The last coaches were retired in the early 1990s, because it was no longer worth while converting the doors to automatic locking. The last areas of operation for these coaches were the
It is of note that these coaches ran their entire lives in the bottle green or chromium-oxide green livery typical of the DB for the 1950s and 60s and were neither painted in ocean blue and beige nor in other colours (apart from e.g. those used with Class ET 65 multiples in Stuttgart suburban services − see below).
Trailer coaches
Several Umbauwagen ended up in the
A special type of Umbauwagen was the prisoner transport coach of Class Z 56, which was developed along the lines of the 3yg, but with only four-wheels. Six coaches of this type were built (numbers 10 061 to 10 066). The coaches had 15 cells with 36 seats and an office for the guards. The coaches were retired in 1963 after the
Sources
- Weigert/Gress: Umbau- und Rekowagen von der DB und DR, Eisenbahnkurier Special 82, EK Freiburg.