Presbyterian College > Academic Web Server > Jon Bell > Transit > Germany 1972

A Transit Buff's Tour of Germany
and Austria in 1972 (Part 2)

The Grand Tour (Continued)

[Previous page]

[picture] In Mainz, this route 10 streetcar has standing room only, in the afternoon rush hour.

[picture] In Heidelberg, streetcars no longer run along Hauptstraße, the main street of the historic heart of town. Since 1976 this street has been for pedestrians only, with buses serving the outer edges of the area.

[picture] Heidelberg had not yet modernized its streetcars. Here is a double-truck car built in the 1950s, at Karlstor, the end of the line along Hauptstraße.

[picture] A two-axle car built in 1956, at the carbarn in Leimen, along the long line extending south from Heidelberg to Wiesloch. This line was cut back to Leimen in 1973 (the very next year!) and the carbarn was closed two years later.

[picture #1] | [picture#2] A funicular connects central Heidelberg with the castle that overlooks it.

[picture] Streetcars on Stuttgart's route 30 use a rack and cogwheels to overcome steep grades. The sign warning motorists of the impending crossing uses an incongruous picture of a steam locomotive, and one of my favorite German words, Zahnradbahn ("tooth-wheel-railroad").

[picture] Stuttgart's route 5 at the TV tower (Fernsehturm), whose observation deck provides nice views of the city and region.

[picture] The town of Esslingen, on the Neckar River near Stuttgart, was connected with nearby towns south of the river via the Straßenbahn Esslingen-Nellingen-Denkendorf, a cross-country Überlandstraßenbahn reminiscent of some U.S. interurban lines. This system was converted to buses in 1978. I don't remember just where I took this picture; it might have been in Nellingen (where I connected to it by bus from Stuttgart) or at the end of either of the two branches, in Denkendorf or Scharnhausen.

[picture] From the Stuttgart area, I headed south into Austria, to Innsbruck which had relatively modern cars on its city lines.

[picture] However, Innsbruck also used some fascinating old equipment on its suburban lines. Route 6 to Igls (the Innsbrucker Mittelgebirgsbahn) zigzags up the hills south of town to a terminal with a scenic view of the mountains to the north. This car was built in 1909 and ran in regular service until 1981. From here you can take an aerial cable car to a ski area with an even more spectacular view [picture].

[picture] Route 4 from Innsbruck eastward along the Inn River valley to Hall (the Localbahn Innsbruck-Hall i. Tirol) used cars similar to the ones on route 6, and also built in 1909. The small two-axle trailers were built between 1891 and 1900, and were originally pulled by steam locomotives. (The line was electrified in 1909.) This line was abandoned in 1974 and replaced with buses.

[picture #1] | [picture#2] Another line running south out of Innsbruck is the Stubaitalbahn to Fulpmes, which at that time operated independently from the Innsbruck city system, because it used alternating current rather than direct current. The motor car in front dates from the line's opening in 1904. It and its brethren were in fact the first single-phase alternating-current cars in the world (2500V at 42.5 Hz)! In 1983 the Stubaitalbahn was converted to direct current to match the Innsbruck city lines, and the old cars were retired.

[picture] Interior of the motor car shown in the preceding two pictures.

[picture] From Innsbruck, I took a day trip back into Germany to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, to visit the Zugspitze, Germany's highest point, via the Zugspitzbahn. The last stage to the top is via aerial cable car [picture].

[picture] Salzburg doesn't have streetcars, but it does have a lot of electric trolleybuses.

[picture] Munich was the last stop on my trip before flying home. For some reason I didn't get a picture of either the U-Bahn or S-Bahn which had recently opened as part of the buildup for the 1972 Olympics, but I did get a picture of a streetcar on route 1.

[picture] One of the highlights of my stay in Munich was a visit to the Deutsches Museum, which focuses on science and technology, and has a nice display of early locomotives.

This page was last updated on 28 June 2007.

Presbyterian College > Academic Web Server > Jon Bell > Transit > Germany 1972

This page is © 2007 by Jon Bell (jbell at presby.edu), who is solely responsible for its content. If you're interested in using these pictures, please read my terms of usage.