GT4 (Stuttgart)
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The GT4 (from , which translates as ''4-axle articulated tramcar'') is an
articulated tram Trams have been used since the 19th century, and since then, there have been various uses and designs for trams around the world. This article covers the many design types, most notably the articulated, double-decker, drop-centre, low-floor, ...
vehicle built by
Maschinenfabrik Esslingen Maschinenfabrik Esslingen (ME) was a German engineering firm that manufactured locomotives, tramways, railway wagons, roll-blocks, technical equipment for the railways, (turntable (rail), turntables and traverser (railway), traversers), bridges, s ...
from 1959 until 1965.


History

380 GT4 trams were produced of which 350 were delivered to the Stuttgarter Strassenbahnen, the public transport operator of
Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...
. The remaining 30 vehicles were delivered to
Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau or simply Freiburg is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fourth-largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Its built-up area has a population of abou ...
(19), Neunkirchen (Saar) (8) and
Reutlingen Reutlingen (; ) is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the capital of the eponymous Reutlingen (district), district of Reutlingen. As of June 2018, it had an estimated population of 116,456. Reutlingen has a Reutlingen University, univ ...
(3). The 350 Stuttgart vehicles were uni-directional, had three double-doors, and were built to metre gauge. The cars for Freiburg and Reutlingen also metre-gauge, but were bi-directional. The Neunkirchen cars also bi-directional and were built to standard gauge. They also had four powered axles whereas the standard variant had only two. With around 70 trams in service, as of 2023, the largest operator of GT4 is CTP, the public transport company in
Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other #Etymology and names, alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the Cities in Romania, third largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical ...
, Romania.


Technical specifications

The GT4 was developed because the longer six-axle articulated trams with
Jacobs bogie Jacobs bogies (named after Wilhelm Jakobs, 1858–1942, a German Mechanical engineering, mechanical Railway engineering, railway engineer) are a type of Rail transport, rail vehicle bogie commonly found on Articulated car, articulated railcars an ...
s, such as the GT6, were not suitable for the Stuttgart network, which had a large number of sharp curves and steep gradients due to the city's hilly topography. The design of articulation is unique: both bogies are connected by an underframe, upon which the two halves of the tram body rest. When the tram drives around a curve, the underframe prevents the body from overhanging the inside of the curve, allowing tighter clearances and more flexibility than a non-articulated tram. On all except the Neunkirchen vehicles only the inner axle on each bogie is powered, with two thirds of the vehicle's weight resting on the powered axles. The bi-directional variants have a second driver's cab and additional side doors, unlike the uni-directional models.


Trailers

The GT4 can operate in multiple. In later years, some vehicles were only used as powered trailers therefore had no modernised driver's cab. This was the case for a total of 180 vehicles, 24 from the first series, 30 from the second series, 98 from the third and fourth series and eight in the fifth series.


Sale to other cities

As the metre-gauge tram network in Stuttgart was converted to the standard-gauge Stadtbahn system from 1985 onwards, some surplus GT4 cars were sold to other cities: * Arad (Romania) - 46 cars *
Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other #Etymology and names, alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the Cities in Romania, third largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical ...
(Romania) - 108 cars *
Augsburg Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...
- 40 cars (23 cars later resold to Iași) *
Halberstadt Halberstadt (; Eastphalian dialect, Eastphalian: ''Halverstidde'') is a town in the state of Saxony-Anhalt in central Germany, the capital of Harz (district), Harz district. Located north of the Harz mountain range, it is known for its old town ...
- 13 cars, 10 ex-Stuttgart and 3 ex-Freiburg * Halle - 40 cars, ex-Stuttgart (27 cars later resold to Iași) *
Nordhausen Nordhausen may refer to: *Nordhausen (district), a district in Thuringia, Germany ** Nordhausen, Thuringia, a city in the district ** Nordhausen station, the railway station in the city *Nordhouse, a commune in Alsace (German: Nordhausen) * Narost, ...
- 12 cars (3 cars later resold to Iași in 2012) *
Ulm Ulm () is the sixth-largest city of the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with around 129,000 inhabitants, it is Germany's 60th-largest city. Ulm is located on the eastern edges of the Swabian Jura mountain range, on the up ...
- three cars ex-Reutlingen and 14 cars ex-Stuttgart * Fukui via
Kōchi Kochi is a city in Kerala, India. Kochi or Kōchi may also refer to: People * Kochi people, a predominantly Pashtun nomadic people of Afghanistan * , a Japanese surname: ** Arata Kochi (born 1948 or 1949), Japanese physician and World Health Org ...
(Japan) - two cars joined into one, see details below *
Brandenburg an der Havel Brandenburg an der Havel (; ) is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, which served as the capital of the Margraviate of Brandenburg until it was replaced by Berlin in 1417. With a population of 72,040 (as of 2020), it is located on the banks of the ...
- 3 cars, ex-Freiburg Some vehicles were destroyed or damaged beyond repair during a great fire in the Feuerbach depot in Stuttgart in 1986. One Iași tram was rebuilt in 2013 by Electroputere VFU as type GT4M. The bi-directional cars originally delivered to Reutlingen (59, 60 and 61) were later sold to Ulm. The Ulm workshop rebuilt them to uni-directional cars, numbered 11, 12 and 13 and entering service in 1982-1984. In 1989 two uni-directional cars from Stuttgart (SSB 714 and 735) were exported to Japan. The front sections of the two trams were joined together as one bi-directional vehicle, and the back sections were scrapped. The vehicle had no additional doors, however having only two doors on each side suited the Japanese tram fare collecting system. The car was also regauged to fit the gauge. The car was initially used by
Tosaden Kōtsū , sometimes rendered in English as Tosaden Traffic, is a transportation company in Kōchi, Japan. The public company operates tram and bus lines. The company was established on October 1, 2014, by merging the businesses of , a tram and bus ...
and since April 2014 has been operated on the
Fukui Railway is a bus and railway company located in Echizen, Fukui Prefecture, Japan. It owns and operates the Fukubu Line between Tawaramachi Station in Fukui and Takefu-shin Station in Echizen. Overview Although Fukui Railway's name refers to its fou ...
as their type F10 tram under the nickname . File:Augsburg GT4 419.jpg, Augsburg GT4 419 File:Fukutetsu_735kei_2014_04_12.JPG, Fukui Railway Type F10 (SSB 714 & 735) at their departure ceremony in Fukui Railway File:GT4-60.jpg, Iași GT4 #128 at its 60th anniversary in 2019


References


External links


GT4 series
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gt4 (Tram) Tram vehicles of Germany Transport in Stuttgart