Saturday, August 11, 2012

Schwerin trams, Germany

An old artist's view showing a tram in Arsenal-Strasse which is not a tram route today.
The top pic shows a Bombardier next to two Tatra trams.  A Wismar tram is second from left bottom and a Gotha tram third from left bottom.
A Bombardier seen in Wismarsche Strasse. Some track realignment is underway. (Geoff Churchman)
About 1 km to the north on the same street.  The "DDR facade" on the left belongs to one of the many abandoned buildings you see in the East. (Geoff Churchman)

This city in the West Mecklenburg region of the former DDR has operated a standard-gauge electric system system since 1 December 1908. In April 1945 an Allied bombing raid destroyed the tram depot including all except 4 trams.  One of these, from the Waggonfabrik Wismar built in 1926 has been restored.  A post-WW2 era Gotha T59ER type has also been restored.  These latter were replaced with Czech Tatra trams from 1973.

In the years 2001 to 2003 the Tatra trams were replaced with 30 low floor articulated Bombardier trams type SN 2001.  The last Tatra ran in February 2004. One has been kept for the heritage fleet.

Today the system amounts to 21 km with 4 lines, powered by 600 Volts DC.

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