The Saurer 5 DUK is 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 ...

of the Swiss manufacturer Adolph

Saurer Adolph Saurer AG was a Swiss manufacturer of embroidery and textile machines, trucks and buses under the Saurer and Berna (beginning in 1929) brand names. Based in Arbon, Switzerland, the firm was active between 1903 and 1982. Their vehicles were ...

AG, from

Arbon Arbon is a historic town and a municipality and district capital of the district of Arbon in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland. Arbon is located on the southern shore of Lake Constance, on a railway line between Konstanz/Romanshorn and ...

History and development

The Saurer 5 DUK is a left-steered bus and

PostBus A postbus is a public bus service that is operated as part of local mail delivery as a means of providing public transport in rural areas with lower levels of patronage, where a normal bus service would be uneconomic or inefficient. Postbus servi ...

type of the former PTT operations and various regional bus / transport companies in Switzerland. DUK stands for Diesel-Unterflur-Kompressor (diesel underfloor compressor). At the post office, these Saurer 5 DUKs were used as postbus busses or as postbus busses with a single axle luggage trailer. The Saurer 5 DUK was built from 1953 on. It has a driver's seat, 39 passenger seats, 33 standing places and a luggage compartment. The luggage compartment is directly behind the rear exit door and has a partition with sliding door with glass panes. There are also seats in the luggage compartment. The passenger compartment is divided in the middle by a partition with a door, because in the past the rear part of the bus was designed as a smoking compartment. With the prohibition of smoking in public buses only the doors of the smoking compartment were removed, and the rest of the partition remained. For PTT operations, these Saurer 5 DUKs were used as single postbus busses, or as postbus busses with a single axle luggage trailer. In the Zugerland transport companies ZVB (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

: Zugerland Verkehrsbetrieben), these buses were mainly used on the mountain lines

Zug Zug (Standard German: , Alemannic German: ; ; ; ; )Named in the 16th century. is the largest List of cities in Switzerland, town and capital of the Swiss canton of Zug. Zug is renowned as a hub for some of the wealthiest individuals in the wor ...

- Ägeri (line 1) and Zug-

Menzingen Menzingen is a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Zug (canton), Zug in Switzerland. History Menzingen is first mentioned around 1217-22 as ''Meincingin''. The traditionalist Society of Saint Piu ...

(line 2). The ZVB buses were also equipped with split dispenser in front of the rear wheels in order to achieve better grip on snow and ice. These are used as pure buses, as buses with the passenger trailer APE 4.80 or with the passenger trailer APE 4.80 and the luggage trailer AGP 3. These trailer were used also by the successor model, the FBW 91U EU4A. Without a trailer, a maximum speed of up to 120 km/h would have been possible. By 1975/76, the Saurer 5 DUK was replaced by more modern vehicles such as the FBW 91U EU4A bus with Hess superstructures. With the purchase in 1975, together with the orange buses, which were held in VST unit paintwork, additional new ordered APE 4.80 trailers got also the orange paintwork and not the blue one like the Saurer 5 DUK and the older APE 4.80. Some Saurer 5 DUK were sold to Eastern European countries. A Saurer 5 DUK of the ZVB is located in the Zug depot technology history (German: Zuger Depot Technikgeschichte).

Data

Gallery

File:Saurer 5 DUK ZVB Führerstand.jpg, Cockpit File :Saurer 5 DUK ZVB Pasagierraum.jpg, Passenger compartment File :Saurer 5 DUK ZVB Gepäckabteil.jpg, Luggage compartment File: APE 4 80 Personenanhänger ZVB Seite.jpg, ZVB passenger trailer APE 4.80 File: Gepäckanhänger ZVB.jpg, ZVB luggage trailer AGP 3

References

*Zuger Depot Technikgeschichte *Sandro Sigrist: ''Elektrische Strassenbahnen im Kanton Zug''. Prellbock, Leissigen 1997, {{reflist Articulated buses Full-size buses Transport in the canton of Zug