I stumbled across this interesting scene via Facebook recently – what looks like a retired railway carriage being used as a bridge. So what is the story behind it?
Thankfully the person who shared the post initially included the location – Győr, Hungary – and people in the comments mentioned that the bridge is found on the campus of Széchenyi István University.
Over on their website, they had a photo of the bridge soon after it was installed in 1975 at what was then the ‘Transportation and Telecommunication Faculty of Technical Sciences’.
I’ve written about a lot of oddball turntables over the years, and here is another unusual example – a trolleybus turntable in the Germany city of Solingen.
Located at the terminus of trolleybus line 683 at Unterburg in the Burg an der Wupper district of Solingen, the turntable takes 45 seconds to turn a trolleybus.
Until 1959, the independent municipality of Burg an der Wupper was connected to the neighbouring cities of Solingen and Remscheid by tram lines 3 and 4. A separate bridge over the Wupper connected the two tram lines. This was destroyed in the Second World War and not rebuilt. Instead, a stub-end terminal was placed on the Solingen side. The tram was shut down in 1959 and replaced by a trolleybus line.
The narrow valley of the Wupper did not leave enough space for a turning loop, with the tram terminus located on a confined site between the river and a steep slope. Therefore a flat disc-type turntable with with a diameter of 7.5 metres (25 ft) was installed for the new trolleybus line, the mechanism being manually operated by the driver using a hand crank.
In 1968 new 12 metres (39 ft)-long three-axle trolleybuses were acquired for use in Solingen, but these did not fit on the turntable. As a result older vehicles continued to be used on the route until December 1974, when the turntable was extended in length. In 1985, the turntable was completely renovated, and extended to the current 12 metres (39 ft) in diameter.
Why it is no longer used.
Because of the limited size of the turntable, line 683 was the only trolley line in the Solingen network on which articulated trolleybuses could not be used. Enlargement of the turntable would only have been possible with great technical and financial expenditure.
The end came in November 2009, when line 683 was extended to a new bus station at the Seilbahn Burg ropeway terminal. This service was made possible through the use of new articulated trolleybuses fitted with a diesel-engine auxiliary drive, allowing them to operate beyond the end of the trolleybus wires.
The former “Burgbrücke” stop, which was located in the short cul-de-sac between Solingerstraße and the turntable, was moved to the other side of the Wupper river.
And the future for the disused turntable.
The Unterburg turntable is to be permanently preserved for special journeys of the Trolleybus Museum. It also benefits from the fact that it was only renovated in the middle of 2004 and thus has a lifespan of ten to fifteen years. However Stadtwerke Solingen has yet to make a final decision on the future of the trolleybus turntable.
Other trolleybus turntables
Three other trolleybus turntables once existed elsewhere in the world:
Christchurch, Great Britain: in service 1936 to 1969
Huddersfield, Great Britain: in service 1939 to 1940
Guadalajara, Mexico: in service 1982 to 1983, and 1985 to 1988
Plus the oddball turntables I’ve written about previously.
I’ve seen a lot of railway turntables over the years, but this one at Vitznau station in Switzerland is next level – two tracks crossing at right angles, one straight and one curved, both with toothed rack rails, and wired for electric traction. Nothing normal here!
Located on the shores of Lake Lucerne in the Swiss canton of Lucerne, Vitznau station is the terminus of the Vitznau–Rigi line of the Rigi Bahnen, and has two tracks with an island platform.
And in 2022 the railway was again refreshed, when the first of six new Stadler Bhe 4/6 EMUs entered service. These new trains are made up of two carriages connected by a Jakobs bogie.
But the extra length presented one problem – they wouldn’t fit onto the existing turntable at Vitznau! The solution – a third track was added to the turntable.
Running at a 45° angle and on a different angle to the two existing tracks, the new track allows the longer Bhe 4/6 trains to run directly into a depot road that was previously only accessible via a shunt move on the turntable.
The railway is the Uetlibergbahn in the Swiss city of Zürich, running from the central station to the summit of the Uetliberg. The standard gauge railway was opened in 1875 and electrified in 1923, the line has a maximum gradient of 7.9% and is the steepest standard gauge adhesion railway in Europe.
The route has many level crossings, including one at Friesenbergstrasse.
Which since 1952 has also been crossed by trolleybuses on route 32.
The Uetlibergbahn was electrified using overhead lines at 1200 V DC, which is higher than the 600 V DC used on the trolleybus system. These two voltages can coexist using a neutral zone at the crossing, or by switching the voltage supplied to an isolated section of overhead.
But the Uetliberg line also shares tracks with the Sihltalbahn, which is electrified at the mainline standard of 15 kV 16.7 Hz AC. Since 2013 dual system Be 510 EMUs built by Stadler Rail have run between the two lines, using dual pantographs – side mounted for 1200 V DC, and centre for 15 kV AC.
However this was seen as an interim step, with a 2015 study recommending that the Uetliberg line should be converted to the same 15 kV AC standard, with a phased conversion by 2023. Major works were required between April and July 2022.
350 new mast foundations, approximately 1150 cubic meters of concrete, approximately 2000 linear meters of micropiles, 385 tons of steel and 37.5 kilometers of wire – these impressive masses of material are required for the conversion of the power supply of the S10.
So far, the trains have operated with direct current – in 2022 the long-planned conversion from direct to alternating current will take place. The project requires well-organized logistics. Because the measures should be implemented by late summer 2022.
“Viewed from the outside, the duration of the construction work seems very long. There are “only” a few new concrete foundations and catenary masts to be laid, as well as a few meters of power lines. However, if you consider the enormous amounts of materials, the duration of the work is put into perspective,” says project manager Florian Heizmann.
But the sticking point was the Friesenberg level crossing – 15 kV AC and 600 V DC are not compatible, so a complicated switching arrangement was designed.
Marco Graf, spokesman for SZU AG, told ZüriToday: “In August 2019, we submitted the project for converting the power supply on line S10 to the Federal Office of Transport (BAV) for examination and approval. The edition was published in autumn 2019 and everyone was able to view all the documents from the city of Zurich and raise an objection within the specified period.”
The steel construction at the Friesenberg crossing had been largely determined at the time of the approval phase and the geometry and materials were part of the building application, according to Graf.
But local residents were not happy with the massive steel structure.
“We were completely surprised by the construction and are appalled. Nobody knew that the construct would be so big. We don’t think it’s necessary,” says Désiréé Sterchi, a resident next to the Friesenberg stop.
Sterchi and some of the residents think they knew about the project too late – they were negatively surprised in particular by the size of the scaffolding.
“We didn’t know that the construct would take on this scale,” says the woman from Zurich. And why is it so big? “The scaffolding is so large because it has to meet high structural requirements and is already geared towards the planned double-track expansion around summer 2024,” says Graf.
And suggesting that battery electric buses could be used instead.
The bus can run on batteries, as it is doing now during the conversion phase, says Sterchi.
But that was not seen as a solution.
Marco Graf, spokesman for SZU AG, explains that battery-powered buses are not an option because they would break the timetable. “The drive currently is not a permanent solution because it takes too much time.”
Thanks to the new crossing system, the buses of the VBZ and line 10 of the SZU should be able to cross more easily. It is planned that the buses will not have to fold in their pantographs to pass the level crossing, as has been the case up to now. Instead, a crossing system is installed on the steel construction, which enables a seamless transition and yet prevents the bus and train overhead lines from colliding.
The Friesenberg crossing system is used to separate the contact lines from trains and buses with different voltages. The routing of the catenary in the crossing area is still insufficiently calibrated and the pantograph of the trains sometimes loses contact with the catenary for a short time at higher speeds. This meant that individual sub-functions had to be temporarily switched off. While the technical defects are being corrected, the trains at the crossing have to lower the pantographs and slow down.
The SZU spokesman promises optimisations by the end of this week: “According to the information from our supplier, the crossing should then be fully functional.”
The final DC trains ran on the Uetlibergbahn in July 2022, with AC operation in place since August 22.
I’ve been looking at the “left-hand to right-hand running railways” theme for some months now, and I’m still finding more examples – this time it’s the tramway network of Zürich, Switzerland.
The 2.5 km long tunnel with three stations was built in the 1970s for a U-Bahn system that was abandoned in 1973, leaving an empty concrete shell. It was later decided to turn over the unused tunnel to trams, which first used the route in 1986. Each station was equipped with a island platform 138 meters long and 6 meters wide.
However there was one problem – Zürich uses unidirectional trams, with doors only on the right side of the vehicle, so trams had to run on the left track to utilise the platforms – the opposite to normal.
So two crossovers were required where the tunnel tied into the rest of the VBZ tram network – the crossover at Schwamendingerplatz is a conventional at-grade diamond crossing once the tracks leave the tunnel.
But a more complicated arrangement exists at the Milchbuck portal – the two tracks cross over using a underground flying junction leading to two single track ramps.
I’ve looked at many examples around Europe at trams tracks that switch from left-hand to right-hand running, and I’ve found yet another – on the Nockebybanan light rail line in the Swedish capital of Stockholm.
The Nockebybanan is a 5.6 kilometre long line between Nockeby and Alvik in in the western suburbs of Stockholm, connecting with the Stockholm metro and Tvärbanan tram at Alvik metro station.
The first part of the current line to Alléparken was opened in 1914, following the construction of a pontoon bridge across Tranebergssund. The line was then gradually extended westwards, reaching the current terminus at Nockeby in 1929. To the east, the line ran to Tegelbacken in central Stockholm.
Planning for a Metro system commenced in the 1930s, with conversion of the tram route completed in 1952, forming the western section of the present-day Green Line of the Stockholm Metro. As a result the Nockebybanan was cut off from running into the city and became a feeder route for the Metro at Alvik.
Nockebybanan and Lidingöbanan were the only tram lines in the Stockholm region not to be withdrawn in conjunction with the switch to right-hand traffic in 1967. Since the line does not run on the street, and was simple and self-contained, and bi-directional rolling stock was available from the pre-metro tram lines, it was easier to convert to right-hand running than the rest of the network.
The make the connection between tram and metro at Alvik convenient, a cross platform transfer was provided.
Underground stations on metro systems are a dime a dozen, but ones located on mainline railways are far less common – with Holmestrand station in Norway being one of them, being located 70 meters beneath a mountain.
Serving the town of Holmestrand in Vestfold, Norway, Holmestrand station is located inside the 12 kilometre long Holmestrandsporten Tunnel. The station is located inside a 500 metre long, 30 metre wide cavern which contains two 350 metre long platforms and four tracks.
The station opened on 28 November 2016 as part of a project to duplicate the Vestfold line, with the new 12 kilometre long tunnel replacing the old surface route through the town of Holmestrand.
Originally opened in 1881, the single track route through Holmestrand had been built as a narrow-gauge railway, converted to standard gauge in 1949 and was electrified in 1957.
During my visit to Vienna, I found something interesting when passing through the U-Bahn station of Stephansplatz – a window into an underground crypt.
The Vergilius Chapel (German: Virgilkapelle) dated back to the early 13th century, with the Magdalene Chapel being constructed above it in the Middle Ages to serve the neighbour cemetery. After the Magdalene Chapel was destroyed by fire in 1781, the Vergilius Chapel was abandoned and filled with rubble. It was then forgotten until 1973, when it was rediscovered during construction of the Vienna U-Bahn.
Today the chapel lies approximately 12 meters beneath the Stephansplatz, with access provided via the adjacent U-Bahn station concourse since December 2015.
Continuing my theme of modelling the railways of eastern Europe in 1:160 N scale model railways, this time I’m looking at the railways of Hungary and state operator MÁV (Magyar Államvasutak).
Ready to run
These models are ‘ready to run’ out of the box, and don’t require any work on the part of the modeller.
I’ve written about 1:160 N scale model railways here before, this time I’m going deeper down the rabbit hole of obscure prototypes and looking at the railways of Romania and state operator Căile Ferate Române.
Ready to run
These models are ‘ready to run’ out of the box, and don’t require any work on the part of the modeller.
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