Presbyterian College > Academic Web Server > Jon Bell > Transit > (Cities | Types) > Solingen

Solingen, Germany:
Electric Trolleybuses

Description

During World War II, Solingen's streetcar system, like those in most other German cities, was severely damaged, in fact almost completely destroyed along with the rest of the inner city. Rather than rebuild the system anyway, as most other cities did, Solingen chose to replace it with electric trolleybuses (in German, Oberleitungsbus or Obus for short), which came into operation during 1952-1959. Solingen is now one of three German cities that still operate trolleybuses; the other two are Esslingen and Eberswalde. Its system is by far the largest of the three, and was even extended during the 1980s and 1990s.

Solingen's trolleybus fleet consists of rigid units built by MAN of Germany (1986-87), and articulated units built by Berkhof of the Netherlands (2001) and Van Hool of Belgium (2002).

A unique feature of the system is the trolleybus turntable at the south end of route 683, where there is not enough space for a normal turning loop. The turntable can accommodate only the rigid trolleybuses, not the longer articulated ones, which constrains the capacity of this route. Therefore, it is now proposed (early 2006) to order articulated trolleybuses with large auxiliary battery power units, that will allow route 683 to be extended to a place where it can turn around, without having to install new overhead wires. This would also allow the route to be extended on the northern end, to the railroad station a Vohwinkel. Taking into account the time necessary to acquire new trolleybuses, it appears that the turntable will be in operation until about the end of 2008. (Source: Blickpunkt Strassenbahn magazine)

Pictures

[picture #1] | [picture #2] All routes meet at Graf-Wilhelm-Platz in the center of Solingen, where trolleys line up on both sides of a very broad street. [28 June 2004]

[picture #1] | [picture #2] | [picture #3] At its northern end, route 683 connects with Wuppertal's famous monorail, the Schwebebahn. Northbound trolleys stop just before the Vohwinkel Schwebebahn station, then turn east and run for one block underneath the elevated monorail structure, and finally turn south on Gräfrather Straße to return to Solingen. [28 June 2004]

[picture] Shortly after leaving Wuppertal, a route 683 trolley climbs the hill out of the Wupper River valley towards Solingen. [28 June 2004]

[picture] A southbound route 681 trolley pulls into the stop at Entenpfuhl, just south of Graf-Wilhelm-Platz. [28 June 2004]

[picture] Along the southern part of route 683, the Krahenhoehe loop is normally a short-turn point for about half of the trolleys, with the rest continuing to the end of the line at Burg. At the time of my visit, all route 683 trolleys turned here because of a road construction project further south; a diesel shuttle continued to Burg. [28 June 2004]

[picture #1] | [picture #2] The southern end of route 683 descends a steep winding road back into the Wupper River valley, and ends at the turntable at Burg (described above). Unfortunately, the turntable was not in use during my visit because of the temporary cutback of trolley service. These pictures show the barricaded entrance to the turnout, just before the Wupper River bridge, and the turntable itself with its ribs exposed. The transit system had taken advantage of the cutback to rebuild the turntable. [28 June 2004]

[picture #1] | [picture #2] | [picture #3] At the western edge of Solingen, the Ohligs railroad station is the terminus of trolleybus routes 681 and 682. They share a loop and reach central Solingen vis different routes, allowing a circular trip. Here are three views of the articulated trolleys that serve these routes.. [28 June 2004]

Other Sites

All of these sites are in German only.

This page was last updated on 22 April 2006.

Presbyterian College > Academic Web Server > Jon Bell > Transit > (Cities | Types) > Solingen

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