Goods Wagons Of Welded Construction
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Goods wagons of welded construction (german: Güterwagen der geschweißter Bauart) were developed and built by the
Deutsche Reichsbahn The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'', also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regiona ...
in
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
from 1933 to about 1945. With the introduction of
welding Welding is a fabrication (metal), fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, by using high heat to melt the parts together and allowing them to cool, causing Fusion welding, fusion. Welding is distinct from lower ...
technology in 1933 almost all wagon components were joined by welding and no longer by rivetting. This enabled
goods wagon Goods wagons or freight wagons (North America: freight cars), also known as goods carriages, goods trucks, freight carriages or freight trucks, are unpowered railway vehicles that are used for the transportation of cargo. A variety of wagon type ...
s to be designed, for example, for higher speeds or for higher payloads through the use of different types of
steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...
and other engineering changes, but their further development was so heavily influenced by the exigencies of the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
that, as early as 1939, the Deutsche Reichsbahn had to temper the design of goods wagons to the new economic circumstances. Because there were overlaps in the change from the ''
Austauschbauart The so-called ''Austauschbauart'' wagons were German railway vehicles produced from the late 1920s onwards which had common components built to agreed standards. Origin of the concept The German term ''Austauschbau'' ('interchangeable component ma ...
'' - goods wagons made with interchangeable components - to the new welded classes, the period of the changeover cannot be exactly defined. Several standard goods wagons and their classes are covered in other articles. Goods wagons built during the Second World War that were purely intended for military transport use, are covered under the article on ''
Kriegsbauart ''Kriegsbauart'' (German, 'wartime class') refers to railway goods wagon classes that were developed during the Second World War for the Deutsche Reichsbahn. The start of the war was an arbitrary dividing line for the classification of goods wago ...
'' - wartime classes. As early as 1921 the development of goods wagons in the German states began to distinguish between those without special features, that represented the standard or norm, and those with certain characteristics i.e. that had a special equipment or properties. Likewise the welded class of goods wagons were divided into: * Goods wagons of standard construction (''Regelbauart''): standard goods wagons without special characteristics * Goods wagons of special construction (''Sonderbauart''): goods wagons with special features


Development history

Germany's goods wagons of ''Austauschbauart'' design, with their interchangeable components, were too expensively designed to continue to be economically manufactured. Consequently, the Deutsche Reichsbahn began to modify existing models or bring out new designs for all goods wagon classes, both from an economic standpoint and with regard to the increasing competition they faced in the transportation market from
lorries A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...
. This led to a series of trials of various wagon types that got under way in 1932. The aim was to develop a series production in which the covered vans could be permitted to run at speeds higher than 65 km/h and open wagons would have a higher payload than 15 tonnes. The increase in maximum speed was necessary to enable goods wagons to be inserted in fast through trains as well as enabling goods wagons to be hauled within passenger trains. Through the introduction of various materials and production technologies, wagons could be produced more efficiently and the newly developed goods vans and trucks were continually developed and their designs optimised.


Goods wagons of the standard type


Covered wagon The covered wagon or prairie wagon, historically also referred to as an ambulance or prairie schooner, was a vehicle usually made out of wood and canvas that was used for transportation, prominently in 19th-century America. With roots in the he ...
s


Ordinary covered wagons

:;Category letters Gs, Oppeln
class district Class districts (german: Gattungsbezirke) were a classification system for railway goods wagons used by the Deutsche Reichsbahn (1920–1945) in Germany between the wars.underframe An underframe is a framework of wood or metal carrying the main body structure of a railway vehicle, such as a locomotive, carriage or wagon. See also * Chassis * Headstock * Locomotive bed * Locomotive frame * Undercarriage Undercarriage is t ...
(''spitz zulaufendes Sprengwerk'') and were fitted with a Hildebrandt-Knorr air brake. This wagon class was built in several variants. For example, the first series of these vans were delivered as "Grs" i.e. able to be transferred onto the Russian
broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , commonly known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union (CIS ...
network. There were also variants with steam heating (Ghs) and with both steam and electrical heating (Gehs). The first trial wagons were built in 1934 in order to find an alternative to the Gr Kassel class. These goods vans were also known colloquially as "short Oppelns".


Large-volume covered wagons

:;Category letters Glhs, Dresden class district : Following the experience with the rivetted wagons of the ''Austauschart'' Glhs Dresden class, built in 1933, a completely new, four-wheeled goods van was developed: the welded "Glhs Dresden" (later informally known as the "long Oppeln"). The results with the prototype with its wheelbase of 7,700 mm and its leaf springs of 1,650 mm and 1,800 mm length had proved that very good, high speed handling had been achieved by changing the wheelbase and suspension springs. This resulted in a wagon with a length over buffers of 10,800 mm with a hand brake that was 2,000 mm shorter than the majority of large-volume goods vans. :This wagon had a wheelbase of 7,000 mm, a payload of 15 tonnes and, thanks to the 9 leaf, 1,800 mm long springs, a carrying capacity of 15.75 tonnes. Whilst the majority of large-volume goods wagons of the Dresden class had a loading area of 29.4 m², this van only had a loading area of 24.2 m². It had a barrel roof, and sliding doors over 2,000 mm wide, as well as plunger buffers and a Kunze-Knorr passenger train brake. Its loading length was only 8,720 mm, its loading width 2,780 mm and it was therefore wider than other large-volume covered wagons. All built wagons were equipped with steam heating pipes and rated for a top speed of 90 km/h. From 1934 to 1937 about 1,633 examples were built, all with hand brakes. :;From Glhs Dresden to Ghs Oppeln :By increasing the specification of the loading area from 24 m² to 26 m² in 1937 the "Glhs Dresden" wagons, with their 24.2 m² of loading area, could be regrouped into the Oppeln class district and thus became the "Ghs Oppeln" * Wagons with 1,650-mm-long springs : Category letters: Gls, Class district: Dresden : See also: Class: Glrhs Dresden * Wagons with end doors : Category letters: Glt, Class district: Dresden * Large-volume goods wagons for express trains :;Category letters GGhs, class district Dresden : These eight-wheeled, large-volume welded goods wagons were built from 1934 onwards for insertion in passenger trains with a top speed of more than 90 km/h. These high capacity vans had two Görlitz type
bogie A bogie ( ) (in some senses called a truck in North American English) is a chassis or framework that carries a wheelset, attached to a vehicle—a modular subassembly of wheels and axles. Bogies take various forms in various modes of transp ...
s with a wheelbase of 2,600 mm and 7-leaf springs. The bogies were a development of the Görlitz III light and Görlitz IV light passenger coach bogie types. The vans had a loading length of 15,520 mm, a length over buffers of 17,600 mm and hand brake. Their payload was only 15 tonnes, their carrying capacity 15.75 tonnes and their unladen weight 22.7 tonnes. They were fitted with steam heating pipes and, as express goods wagons, rated for speeds up to 120 km/h. In addition, they had an open brakeman's platform, plunger buffers and a Hildebrandt-Knorr passenger train brake. On either side of the van there were two 2,000 mm wide sliding doors and two ventilation hatches. :Because the undercarriage was based on that of passenger coaches, the external longitudinal beams were designed as a "fish" shape in order to provide strength due to their length. In 1935 the Deutsche Reichsbahn had three trial wagons, of which one had a barrel roof made of sheet steel, whilst the other two still had wooden roofs. :;Category letters GGhs and GGths, Bromberg class district : The first four trials units of these eight-wheeled, large-volume "GGhs Bromberg" class goods vans were built in 1942. In 1944, several wagons of "GGths Bromberg" class followed. Their development was probably related to the transport of war materiel, because there was no actual requirement for this type of wagon and very few were built. They had a loading length of 16,620 mm, a payload of 51 tonnes, an unladen weight of 21.8 tonnes and a length over buffers of 18,000 mm. They were equipped with steam heating pipes and rated for a top speed of 120 km/h. They also had two 2,000-mm-wide sliding doors, three loading hatches and two ventilation hatches on each side of the van as well as Hildebrandt-Knorr brakes for goods trains (Hikg). Unlike the GGhs the GGths still had two end doors and was therefore also suitable for the transport of motor vehicles. With 75 units, it was the most built wagon of this class.


Lidded wagons

:;Category letter K, Wuppertal class district :Lidded wagons were used for the transportation of moisture-sensitive bulk goods such as lime or salt, but over the course of the years they were largely superseded by self-unloading hoppers. As a result the ''Austauschbauart'' class wagons built in 1933 were the last series of lidded wagons. In 1935 the DRG ordered only two welded trials wagons with a length over buffers of 9,100 mm without hand brakes and a wheelbase of 4,000 mm. The side walls were divided into two panels by a vertical brace on either side of the door. But this was not followed by a production run because lidded wagons, with all the associated difficulties of unloading, had meanwhile been technically superseded. :;Category letter Kmr, Wuppertal class district :In spite of the disadvantages of lidded wagons, in 1940 a new design was ordered, but only eight trial wagons were produced. They had a length over buffers of 9,800 mm and had a hand brake, a loading volumen of 28.6 m³, a payload of 20 tonnes and a carrying capacity of 21 tonnes. Their most striking external features were the wheelbase of 6,000 mm, the external longitudinal beams and the
brakeman's cab A brakeman's cabin (also brakeman's cab) or brakeman's caboose (US) (German: Bremserhaus) was a small one-man compartment at one end of a railway wagon to provide shelter for the brakeman from the weather and in which equipment for manually operat ...
of steel with a semicircular roof. All the wagons were fitted with a Hikg brake and had eight roof hatches.


See also

*
German state railway norms In German railway engineering, norms (''Normalien'') are standards for the design and production of railway vehicles. In the 1880s and 1890s, Prussian norms were developed for the locomotives, tenders and wagons of the Prussian state railways unde ...
– for German goods wagons before 1910 * ''
Verbandsbauart The German term ''Verbandsbauart'' describes both a type of goods wagon as well as a type of tram. In order to standardise the goods wagons classes of the various German state railways (''Länderbahnen''), the German State Railway Wagon Associat ...
'' – German goods wagons from 1910


Literature and sources

* Eugen Kreidler: ''Die Eisenbahnen im Zweiten Weltkrieg – Studien und Dokumente zur Geschichte des Zweiten Weltkriegs'', Nikol Verlagsgesellschaft mbh & Co KG, Hamburg, 2001 * Helmut Behrends, Wolfgang Hensel, Gerhard Wiedau: ''Güterwagen-Archiv Band 1'', Transpress VEB Verlag für Verkehrswesen, Berlin 1989 * Janusz Piekalkiewicz: ''Die Deutsche Reichsbahn im Zweiten Weltkrieg'', Transpress Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Berlin, 1993 * Roger Gittermann: ''Kriegsbauarten''. In: Eisenbahn-Magazin Heft 8/92, Alba-Fachverlag, Düsseldorf, 1992 * Walter Hollnagel: ''Eisenbahnraritäten – Von den zwanziger Jahren bis 1945'', EK-Verlag, Freiburg, 2008 * Wolfgang Diener:''Anstrich und Bezeichnung von Güterwagen'', Verlag Dr. Bernhard Abend, Stuttgart, 1992 * WER: ''Die Reichsbahn-Güterwagen'', Reichsbahn-Werbeamt für den Personen- und Güterverkehr, Berlin, 1939 * Deutsche Reichsbahn, Reichsbahn-Zentralamt Berlin, Dezernat 28: ''Die Güterwagen der Regelbauart'', Berlin 1945 * Stefan Carstens, Rudolf Ossig : ''Güterwagen Band 1, Gedeckte Wagen'', MIBA-Verlag, Nuremberg, 2000 * Stefan Carstens, Hans Ulrich Diener: ''Güterwagen Band 2, Gedeckte Wagen – Sonderbauart'', MIBA-Verlag, Nuremberg, 2000 * Stefan Carstens, Hans Ulrich Diener: ''Güterwagen Band 3, Offene Wagen'', MIBA-Verlag, Nuremberg, 2003 * Stefan Carstens: ''Güterwagen Band 4, Offene Wagen in Sonderbauart'', MIBA-Verlag, Nuremberg, 2003 * Stefan Carstens: ''Güterwagen Band 5, Rungen-, Schienen- und Flachwagen'', MIBA-Verlag, Nuremberg, 2008


References

{{German rolling stock Rail freight transport in Germany Rail technologies