Umbau-Wagen
Encyclopedia
The Umbau-Wagen or Umbauwagen was a type of German railway passenger coach operated by the Deutsche Bundesbahn
(DB) which appeared in the mid-1950s. The name means "rebuild coach" and they were made by rebuilding or converting former state railway (Länderbahn) compartment coach
es, many of which were over 30 years old.
, like the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) in East Germany, had a serious deficit of stock as well as a very aged fleet of coaches, a situation which lasted into the 1960s. In the 1950s the bulk of the fleet for local and Eilzug
(semi-fast) trains was still made up of 22,345 four-, six- and eight-wheeled compartment and open coach
es of the former Prussian
and Bavarian
classes from the period before and after the First World War. The few city coaches bought for Eilzug services at the beginning of the 1950s were nowhere near enough to replace and modernise the very outdated stock of passenger coaches and which was also costing considerably more to maintain. The levels of steel production and that of other raw materials of the newly formed Federal Republic did not permit a full replacement of the fleet in those days. Like the DR in the 1960s the DB was forced as early as 1953 to carry out a modernisation of pre-war coaches - plainly and simply called an Umbau or rebuild.
In 1953 the workshop (Ausbesserungswerk or AW
at Ludwigshafen built the first trials coach from an old Länderbahn wagon. In January 1954 the coach went into full production at the shops in Hanover
, Karlsruhe
and Limburg an der Lahn
. From these wooden-bodied compartment coaches only the underbody (which was rebuilt to a common length of 13 metres), the running gear
and the brake system was used. Four-wheeled coaches were given a third, centre axle and the wheelbase
varied on individual coaches, depending on their original design, between 7,500 and 7,900 millimetres. The centre axle was given side-play in order to achieve good curve running qualities. The rebuilds were derived from four- and six-wheeled Länderbahn coaches as well as pre-war Reichsbahn
stock.
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 buffer beam and was 3.2 metres wide. The doors at each end of the coach, designed as pivoting external doors, were inset towards the centre line of the coach. The windows were of the sliding window type, but they were not the same as the UIC standard design. One window section was reserved for the WC.
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 push-pull train
s; this was indicated by adding the secondary suffix "b" (AB3ygeb etc.). Their use in push-pull trains was usually in combination with Silberling
(e.g. BDnf) or centre door
(BDymf) driving coaches, because no Umbau driving coaches were ever procured.
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 BASF
factory in Ludwigshafen am Rhein
, taken out of service. Several have survived to the present day as construction train units. Other coaches may be found in the ownership of museum railways.
s. The end doors and the special design was the same as the six-wheelers. There were alsl 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 earings 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 Lahn Valley Railway (Lahntalbahn), the Cologne
area and the Eifel
. The coaches experienced one final highlight during the Wende, the period after the Berlin Wall came down in 1989/90, when they were used in a large number of extra express trains.
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).
to Tegernsee
. Some of the 3yge coaches were painted in red, the DB's standard colour for traction units, as trailer cars for ET 85
multiples and designated as EB 85 and 885. Some 4yg coaches were redesignated as Class EB 65 and 865 as trailers in Stuttgart suburban services coupled with ET 65 and 465 multiples.
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 Federal Constitutional Court
(Bundesverfassungsgericht) declared that the prisoner transport between prisons by rail was contrary to the constitution. At least 3 of the coaches were converted into a department vehicle.
Deutsche Bundesbahn
The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany on September 7, 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft '...
(DB) which appeared in the mid-1950s. The name means "rebuild coach" and they were made by rebuilding or converting former state railway (Länderbahn) compartment coach
Compartment coach
A compartment coach is a railway passenger coach divided into separate areas or compartments, with no means of moving between each compartment.- English origins :...
es, many of which were over 30 years old.
Origins
After the Second World War, the DBDeutsche Bundesbahn
The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany on September 7, 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft '...
, like the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) in East Germany, had a serious deficit of stock as well as a very aged fleet of coaches, a situation which lasted into the 1960s. In the 1950s the bulk of the fleet for local and Eilzug
Eilzug
An Eilzug is a type of passenger train in German-speaking countries which roughly equates to a British 'fast-stopping train' or 'semi-fast train'.-Germany:...
(semi-fast) trains was still made up of 22,345 four-, six- and eight-wheeled compartment and open coach
Open coach
An open coach is a railway passenger coach that does not have compartments or other divisions within it and in which the seats are arranged in one or more open plan areas with a centre aisle. The first open coaches appeared in the first half of the 19th century in the USA. The prototype for their...
es of the former Prussian
Prussian state railways
The term Prussian state railways encompasses those railway organisations that were owned or managed by the State of Prussia...
and Bavarian
Royal Bavarian State Railways
As a nation-state, Germany did not come into being until the creation of the German Empire in 1871 from the various German-speaking states such as Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Baden and Württemberg. By then each of the major states had formed its own state railway and these continued to remain...
classes from the period before and after the First World War. The few city coaches bought for Eilzug services at the beginning of the 1950s were nowhere near enough to replace and modernise the very outdated stock of passenger coaches and which was also costing considerably more to maintain. The levels of steel production and that of other raw materials of the newly formed Federal Republic did not permit a full replacement of the fleet in those days. Like the DR in the 1960s the DB was forced as early as 1953 to carry out a modernisation of pre-war coaches - plainly and simply called an Umbau or rebuild.
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 (Ausbesserungswerk or AW
Ausbesserungswerk
An Ausbesserungswerk is a railway facility in German-speaking countries, the primary function of which is the repair of railway vehicles or their components. It is thus equivalent to a 'repair shop' or 'works'...
at Ludwigshafen built the first trials coach from an old Länderbahn wagon. In January 1954 the coach went into full production at the shops in Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
, Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe
The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...
and Limburg an der Lahn
Limburg an der Lahn
Limburg an der Lahn is the district seat of Limburg-Weilburg in Hesse, Germany.-Location:Limburg lies in western Hesse between the Taunus and the Westerwald on the river Lahn....
. From these wooden-bodied compartment coaches only the underbody (which was rebuilt to a common length of 13 metres), the running gear
Running gear
The term running gear is used to describe the wheels, suspension, steering, powertrain & chassis/bodyshell of a motor-car or automobile, or the tracks and road wheels of a tank or similar tracked vehicle....
and the brake system was used. Four-wheeled coaches were given a third, centre axle and the wheelbase
Wheelbase
In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels.- Road :In automobiles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the center of the front wheel and the center of the rear wheel...
varied on individual coaches, depending on their original design, between 7,500 and 7,900 millimetres. The centre axle was given side-play in order to achieve good curve running qualities. The rebuilds were derived from four- and six-wheeled Länderbahn coaches as well as pre-war Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn was the name of the following two companies:* Deutsche Reichsbahn, the German Imperial Railways during the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and the immediate aftermath...
stock.
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 buffer beam and was 3.2 metres wide. The doors at each end of the coach, designed as pivoting external doors, were inset towards the centre line of the coach. The windows were of the sliding window type, but they were not the same as the UIC standard design. One window section was reserved for the WC.
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 push-pull train
Push-pull train
Push–pull is a mode of operation for locomotive-hauled trains allowing them to be driven from either end.A push–pull train has a locomotive at one end of the train, connected via some form of remote control, such as multiple-unit train control, to a vehicle equipped with a control cab at the other...
s; this was indicated by adding the secondary suffix "b" (AB3ygeb etc.). Their use in push-pull trains was usually in combination with Silberling
Silberling
Silberling is the colloquial name for the n-coaches of the Deutsche Bundesbahn, a type of regional passenger coach of which more than 7,000 units were built from 1958 to 1981...
(e.g. BDnf) or centre door
Eilzugwagen
The Eilzugwagen was a type of railway passenger coach specially developed for German semi-fast trains, known as Eilzüge. These coaches were first built in the 1930s and continued to be produced until the 1950s. Today all coaches of this type have been retired...
(BDymf) driving coaches, because no Umbau driving coaches were ever procured.
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 BASF
BASF
BASF SE is the largest chemical company in the world and is headquartered in Germany. BASF originally stood for Badische Anilin- und Soda-Fabrik . Today, the four letters are a registered trademark and the company is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, London Stock Exchange, and Zurich Stock...
factory in Ludwigshafen am Rhein
Ludwigshafen am Rhein
Ludwigshafen am Rhein is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Ludwigshafen is located on the Rhine opposite Mannheim. Together with Mannheim, Heidelberg and the surrounding region, it forms the Rhine Neckar Area....
, taken out of service. Several have survived to the present day as construction train units. Other coaches may be found in the ownership of museum railways.
Eight-wheeled coach, Class 4yg
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 bogieBogie
A bogie is a wheeled wagon or trolley. In mechanics terms, a bogie is a chassis or framework carrying wheels, attached to a vehicle. It can be fixed in place, as on a cargo truck, mounted on a swivel, as on a railway carriage/car or locomotive, or sprung as in the suspension of a caterpillar...
s. The end doors and the special design was the same as the six-wheelers. There were alsl 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 earings 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 Lahn Valley Railway (Lahntalbahn), the Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
area and the Eifel
Eifel
The Eifel is a low mountain range in western Germany and eastern Belgium. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia, northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate and the south of the German-speaking Community of Belgium....
. The coaches experienced one final highlight during the Wende, the period after the Berlin Wall came down in 1989/90, when they were used in a large number of extra express trains.
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
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
suburban services − see below).
Trailer coaches
Several Umbauwagen ended up in the Tegernsee-Bahn for use in Eilzüge from MunichMunich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
to Tegernsee
Tegernsee
Tegernsee is a town in the Miesbach district of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the shore of Tegernsee lake, at an elevation of 747 m above sea level....
. Some of the 3yge coaches were painted in red, the DB's standard colour for traction units, as trailer cars for ET 85
DRG Class ET 85
The DRG Class ET 85 was a German electric locomotive with the Deutsche Reichsbahn and, later, the Deutsche Bundesbahn.- History :In 1924 the Waggonfabrik Fuchs coach factory in Heidelberg converted four Bavarian MCCi steam railbuses into Class ET 85 electric railbuses with running numbers 01–04...
multiples and designated as EB 85 and 885. Some 4yg coaches were redesignated as Class EB 65 and 865 as trailers in Stuttgart suburban services coupled with ET 65 and 465 multiples.
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 Federal Constitutional Court
Federal Constitutional Court of Germany
The Federal Constitutional Court is a special court established by the Grundgesetz, the German basic law...
(Bundesverfassungsgericht) declared that the prisoner transport between prisons by rail was contrary to the constitution. At least 3 of the coaches were converted into a department vehicle.
Source
- Weigert/Gress: Umbau- und Rekowagen von der DB und DR, Eisenbahnkurier Special 82, EK Freiburg.
External links
- DB 4yg Umbauwagen coaches – technical information
- There is a relevant English-language forum at Railways of Germany