Konstal 105N is a family of electric

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

s designed by

Konstal Alstom Konstal is a company based in Chorzów, Poland producing rail vehicles, in particular metro cars and trams, as well as components for trains. In 1864, the plant was founded as part of the Royal Steelworks in Chorzów and in 1917, it was ...

, a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

company based in

Chorzów Chorzów ( ; ; german: link=no, Königshütte ; szl, Chorzōw) is a city in the Silesia region of southern Poland, near Katowice. Chorzów is one of the central cities of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union – a metropolis with a population ...

, produced between 1973 and 1979.

Konstal 105N

105N is a single module, unidirectional tramcar with four doors on the right side. The design came about as a result of modernisation of Konstal's earlier 13N model. All the electrical systems from the 13N remained unchanged, but the 105N abandoned the streamlined appearance of its predecessor for a more angular look. The side windows were enlarged, and smaller windows were added on the front and sides, leading to its being nicknamed ''aquarium''. These changes made the 105N significantly (approximately 1200 kg) lighter than the 13N and decreased the amount of raw materials used in production. The first models lacked the ability to be connected to one another, and the placement of the electrical system caused problems with humidity. The tram was equipped with

electromagnetic In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge. It is the second-strongest of the four fundamental interactions, after the strong force, and it is the dominant force in the interactions of a ...

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

and

rail brake A railway brake is a type of brake used on the cars of railway trains to enable deceleration, control acceleration (downhill) or to keep them immobile when parked. While the basic principle is similar to that on road vehicle usage, operational f ...

s. Its chief engineers were Zygmunt Giziński and Wojciech Kozik. The 105N trams were used in all Polish cities with tram systems. During their years of service, most of them were modernized and upgraded to the 105Na variant, so today there are only a few of them remaining. In

Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...

Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John ...

Szczecin Szczecin (, , german: Stettin ; sv, Stettin ; Latin: ''Sedinum'' or ''Stetinum'') is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major s ...

, and

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

there are cabs rebuilt to the earliest version. The narrow-gauge version, 105NW, was used in

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz ( , , ; german: Bromberg) is a city in northern Poland, straddling the meeting of the River Vistula with its left-bank tributary, the Brda. With a city population of 339,053 as of December 2021 and an urban agglomeration with more ...

and

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canti ...

, but the cabs were upgraded. The 805N cabs in Łódź were also upgraded to 805Na.

Other variants

In 1977 4 105NW cabs for

and

, were made for metre-gauge tracks. 25 units of a new version for Łódź, the 805N were built in 1978. All of these were later upgraded to 805Na standard. 14 thyristor-based 105NT units were built in 1989, most got downgraded to the 105Na standard, with exception of #TT021 owned by MPK Kraków and #790 owned by Silesian Trams, which was upgraded between 2004 and 2006 to 105N-2K standard, and got rebuilt in 2016. the 105NT type was the developed version of the faulty 106N developed in back 1977 In 1995, on the basis of two 105N cabs, HCP in

built a prototype of a three-module, partially low-floor tram, the Konstal/HCP 105N/2 but issues with reliability, coupled with availability of cheap second-hand rolling stock, caused the project to be abandoned.

Gallery

File:Konstal 105N Poznań RB3.JPG, Konstal 105N in Poznań File:105N Gdańsk.jpg, Konstal 105N in

File:Konstal_105N_Poznań_RB2.JPG, A restored Konstal 105N in Poznań

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Konstal 105n Tram vehicles of Poland