Berlin’s InnoTrans 2016 (Part Two)
As I mentioned in my last blog entry, InnoTrans has a large outdoor exhibition area. Most of the new ideas in rolling stock, maintenance of way machinery and other large railway related items are exhibited here. For us foamers and anoraks this is the chance of being the proverbial kid in the candy store. One can get close up and personal with one’s favorite electric locomotive as it were. And as an added bonus Wiebe GmbH’s little C coupled steam engine was again giving cab rides as it did during the last few exhibitions.
Totally new this year was the inclusion of electric buses.
Meet “Emma”. A C coupled steam engine built in 1925 for the Wiebe company. The Wiebe GmbH is today one of the bigger companies involved in building and maintaining railroad infrastructure. They still own and run Emma.
Speaking of infrastructure: There seemed to be much more infrastructure related equipment on display this year. The Liebherr company, they of the ubiquitous tower construction crane fame, had a significant presence.
Not sure what this thing does. But is was noisy and impressive.
No less impressive was this rail/road Unimog chassis based machine. Unimog is the commercial four wheel drive vehicle division of Mercedes-Benz.
A rail based concrete mixer.
A MAV (Hungarian Railways) diesel self propelled rail and track bed inspection unit.
Driver’s cab on the inspection unit.
The control center…
And all the creature comforts for the crew!
A brand new Siemens “Vectron” electric locomotive for the Finnish Railways (VR).
Finnish Railways run on 1524 mm or 5 foot gauge, thus the standard gauge trolleys the locomotive is mounted on. These were especially designed to accommodate the Vectron’s weight and to be able to move the locomotive with reasonable speed on the 1425 mm German network on it’s way to Finland. To the right is a standard gauge Vectron.
A Turkish Railways high speed EMU. Basically a modified Siemens ICE 3 series unit.
A PESA built Polish Railways (PKP) diesel multiple unit for intercity traffic.
PESA also built this DMU for the German operator “Niederbarnimer Eisenbahn” for suburban traffic.
I must admit that there were some interesting front end designs to be found. The PESA unit above seems to be in a permanent bad mood. This Hungarian built train below looks like it just ate a canary:
This one looks like a hamster with his cheeks stuffed full. In fact it is a four car unit for the driverless Riyad Metro:
And how about this Üstra train. Built by Vossloh Kiepe and Alstom for the city of Hannover in Germany:
It is rare to see any kind of British railway equipment during InnoTrans. This year however the Swiss firm Stadler exhibited one of their new locomotives for the UK market. The British rail system classifies these as Class 88. They are Bo Bo machines with the capability to run under 25 kv overhead or with diesel power on non-electrified sections of the network. They are not just “last mile” machines, but designed to haul an entire train on diesel power from the origination point to the end point.
And then there was this Russian tank car designed to haul molten sulphur.
Also very interesting was this idea from the French company Lohr. Basically what we call TOFC (trailer on flat car) here in the USA, but with a twist. This rail car does not need any ramps or cranes to get the truck trailer loaded. The bed just swings out and the trailer can just be driven on or off the unit.
Totally new was this experimental multiple unit from Alstom. Powered by hydrogen it will be tested on the German rail network for about a year. Not only do we now have EMUs and DMUs, but also HMUs!
Vossloh Kiepe company showed off their new units for the famous “Wuppertaler Schwebebahn”. Here is a photo of a motor/wheel assembly:
One of the new Vossloh Kiepe units on a test run. Photo: Wuppertaler Stadtwerke
Like I mentioned earlier, for the first time electric buses were also on display. A capacitor bus and a quick charge battery bus could be admired.
I really ought to keep better notes. I can not remember either who built this bus or where it is in service. Notice the pantograph like contraption on the roof.
This is a Volvo electric battery bus with charging systems from Siemens. These are currently used in Hamburg on route 109. Instead of a pantograph like unit being mounted on the roof of the vehicle, the bus drives under one of these charging stations and the charging arm descends and connects to the bus.
Even a raised viewing platform. They thought of everything. Even a German band was at hand to entertain us:
So there you have it. I just scratched the surface of what there was to see. I will just have to go back in 2018!
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