Luxtorpeda
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Luxtorpeda – a popular name of the famous Polish railcar from the 1930s.


History

In April 1933, Austrian company
Austro-Daimler Austro-Daimler was an Austrian car manufacturer from 1899 until 1934. It was a subsidiary of the Germany, German ''Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft'' (DMG) until 1909. History In 1890, Eduard Bierenz was appointed as Austrian retailer. The company so ...
demonstrated their new railcar for long-distance express connections, to PKP. During one of the demonstration runs, between Warsaw and Skierniewice, the railcar reached speed about . The railcar was leased and later purchased by PKP, further five units were ordered from Fablok who were to build them under Austrian licence but with various improvements. Klemens Stefan Sielecki, an engineer at ''The First Factory of Locomotives in Poland Ltd.'' (usually referred to as Fablok) in Chrzanów, in 1935 became highly involved in the development of the construction of Luxtorpeda, which was a technical innovation in its time. Also in 1935 he was appointed deputy head of the technical department. In 1936 Fablok built five Polish Luxtorpedas under his guidance. The Luxtorpedas by Fablok were slightly different from their Austrian counterparts, the biggest difference being the use of more powerful diesel engines thanks to which were able to reach a speed of . Luxtorpedas were allocated a PKP class SAx (meaning: S – diesel or petrol vehicle, A – 1st class, x – four axles) and numbered 90080 (Austrian-made) and 90081 to 90085 (Polish-made). Despite being classified as a 1st class, railcar, it was not really that luxurious (see below). Austro-Daimler also manufactured 4 units for Austrian Railways where they served, as class , until mid-1940s.


Technical data

The railcars were bi-directional and, therefore, did not require turning at termini. The railcars' wheels had pneumatic tyres with tubes between the wheels proper and the steel tyres (the external parts that contact rails). They gave very smooth and quiet rides. It was decided to power Polish-built Luxtorpedas by
diesel engine The diesel engine, named after the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...
s MAN AG D4086, rather than petrol engines like the Austrian prototype. Main reasons were lower fuel cost and reduced risk of fire and explosion. The water-cooled engines were mounted at each end of the railcar, at the front of the driving cabins. Transmission was hydraulic (
torque converter A torque converter is a device, usually implemented as a type of fluid coupling, that transfers rotating power from a prime mover, like an internal combustion engine, to a rotating driven load. In a vehicle with an automatic transmission, the ...
and fluid coupling), supplied by
Voith The Voith Group is a global technology company. With its broad portfolio of systems, products, services and digital applications, Voith trades in the markets of energy, paper, raw materials and transport. Founded in 1867, Voith today has aroun ...
. Each engine had its own mechanical reversing gear and transmission, both located underneath the cabin. The speed of both engines could be controlled from one cab, but starting and stopping them, reversing, as well as switching between the two transmission systems (at the speed around ), had to be done independently for each engine. Therefore, in most cases two drivers were needed. They communicated with each other using a signalling system that consisted of a set of colour lights and an electric bell. At some point both transmissions' controls were connected, enabling a one-person operation. The maximum speed reached by Fablok-built railcars during trials was , with set as a practical operational maximum. Due to the lack of buffers and couplings it was impossible to join the railcars together, or to attach a Luxtorpeda to ordinary rolling stock. Therefore, Luxtorpedas always ran singly. However, a towing rod, 1.4 m long, was carried in each railcar for emergency coupling to standard railway rolling stock.


Routes

The Luxtorpedas' main base was
Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...
, and from there they ran to the Tatra Mountains resort of
Zakopane Zakopane (Gorals#Language, Podhale Goral: ''Zokopane'') is a town in the south of Poland, in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998, it was part of Nowy SÄ…cz Voivodeship; since 1999, it has ...
. The distance between the two cities, a difficult route with many reverse curves of radius and grades of up to 2.7%, was covered, on average, in 2 hours and 45 minutes. In 1936 a Luxtorpeda set a record of 2 hours and 18 minutes. This record still stands. Luxtorpedas also ran from Kraków to
Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
,
Katowice Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...
, other mountain resorts and Krynica via
Tarnów Tarnów () is a city in southeastern Poland with 105,922 inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of 269,000 inhabitants. The city is situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. It is a major rail junction, located on the strategic east– ...
.


Final years

After the Polish September Campaign, only 90081 and 90084 stationed in Kraków remained serviceable, the other railcars having been destroyed. They were used as special " Nur für Deutsche (Only for Germans)" trains, travelling from Kraków to Zakopane and Krynica. After World War II, only 90081 remained in Poland and was repaired using parts from destroyed cars. 90084 was found in the Schwerin division of DR at the end of 1945 However, due to the lack of parts and suitable maintenance workshops, 90081 could not be made to run at anywhere near its design speed and was allocated to operate local services near Trzebinia. It was scrapped around 1954.


Other information

''Luxtorpeda'' (roughly translated as ) was not the official name of these railcars. The common name was inspired by the unusual look of the railcar –
streamlined Streamlines, streaklines and pathlines are field lines in a fluid flow. They differ only when the flow changes with time, that is, when the flow is not steady flow, steady. Considering a velocity vector field in three-dimensional space in the f ...
, its low height (some 1.5 m lower than the standard rail carriage) and its high speed. Luxtorpedas looked like a cross between a
limousine A limousine ( or ), or limo () for short, is a large, chauffeur-driven luxury vehicle with a partition between the driver compartment and the passenger compartment which can be operated mechanically by hand or by a button electronically. A luxu ...
and a
bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...
. But it was hardly luxurious – there was no space to stretch legs and, even though travel along the longest routes took some four hours, there was no onboard buffet. PKP also had other fast railcars, some capable of reaching . These were sometimes called "Luxtorpedas" too. In the timetable all fast trains operated by railcars were classed as "Pociąg Motorowo-Ekspresowy MtE" ("Motor-Express Train", ''Motor'' then meaning an internal combustion engine). Some claim that fares for Luxtorpeda-run trains were exorbitant, about the same (or higher) as airplane fares. In fact, as per a ministerial regulation of 1935, the fare was the same as the 3rd class limited-stop train fare plus a compulsory seat reservation fee. The regulation came into force well before the Polish-built Luxtorpedas were delivered to PKP.


References


Literature

* Urzedowy rozklad jazdy i lotow Polskich Kolei Panstwowych "Lato 1939", Warszawa 1939 (Polish State Railroads Official Schedule Summer 1939, Warsaw 1939) See: Polish State Railroads Summer 1939 * *


External links


Przelom , Luxtorpeda
{{in lang, pl 1930s in Poland Railcars of Poland Streamliner trains Science and technology in Poland Scrapped locomotives Train-related introductions in 1933