Round trip with railcar 917 Friends of the Bremen Tram 11-2022
YouTube name: Willy Kaemena.
Language: German.
Date: November 14, 2022.
City: Bremen (Germany).
The video shows
Bremen Tram Museum (Das Depot)
Open regularly
Bremen museum line 9: Sebaldsbrück - Hauptbahnhof
Operational
Bremen articulated tram 917, manufacturer Hansa Waggonbau, type 1957, length 16.40 m, manufactured 1957, with 33 seats and 45 standing places, 2 engines, power output 76 kW, max speed 50 km/t, signed line Straßenbahnmuseum.
Description
Take a trip in style on a historic tram to the tram museum in Sebaldsbrück. Line 9 connects the main station and Domsheide with Sebaldsbrück on the days the tram museum is open.
The Tw 917 was part of a series of 28 railcars and 28 identical trailers that were the first articulated railcars to be added to the BSAG fleet in 1955. The aim was to create greater capacity in the individual cars and thus save a conductor compared to the previous three-car trains. Since a series of two-axle vehicles was being delivered while the new trains were being developed, it was decided to continue using parts of these cars that were under construction and to develop a two-axle vehicle with a single-axle trailer. While the front parts were manufactured in-house by BSAG, the trailers came from Hansa-Waggonbau GmbH in Bremen. The vehicles quickly earned the nickname "farm wagons" due to their poor running characteristics. For this reason, the company also avoided having to build seven more trains that had actually been planned.
Tw 917 was added to the fleet in 1957 and was used on line 4. After this line was shortened in 1967, however, it was almost always used alone, and from 1970 under the new number 846. In that year it was also prepared for conductorless operation. After line 4 was closed in May 1972, the last trips for which the car was still needed were the use of replacement cars. After all cars of this type had been retired at the beginning of 1977, the 846 was given a special task. It became Bremen's first party train. Its success was so great that in 1980 it was decided to use the short-articulated car 442 for this purpose. Tw 846 had finally served its purpose and was parked in Sebaldsbrück as a non-operational museum vehicle. During the asbestos disposal of the Hansa cars in the early 1990s, this vehicle was also freed from its legacy.
It was kept in the Sebaldsbrück depot as a reserve for later refurbishment until August 2001 and was then towed to the service workshop in Neustadt. Here, the refurbishment was carried out by BSAG employees and apprentices from various departments, as well as former employees of BSAG and the FdBS.
Without numerous donations, the refurbishment of this unique railcar would have been impossible.
On December 6, 2002, it made its first official appearance at the opening of the extension of line 4 to Borgfeld. Since then, the car has been available for museum use.
