The TW 400 is a type of

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 ...

vehicle formerly used on the tramways of

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

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 ...

, built from 1956 to 1958 by

Duewag Düwag or Duewag, formerly Waggonfabrik Uerdingen, was a German manufacturer of rail vehicles. It was sold in 1999 to Siemens with the brand later retired. History Duewag was founded in March 1898 as Waggonfabrik Uerdingen in Uerdingen an ...

. Some units underwent remodeling to prepare them for being used on the

Hanover Stadtbahn The Hanover Stadtbahn is a Stadtbahn (light rail) system in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany. The Stadtbahn opened on 29 September 1975, gradually replacing the city's tramway network over the course of the following 25 years. Current ...

network but they were never used for this purpose. During the construction of the A tunnel of the Hanover Stadtbahn it was not foreseeable whether the new

TW 6000 The TW 6000 is a type of articulated light rail vehicle used on the Hanover Stadtbahn system, manufactured by Duewag, Linke-Hofmann-Busch, AEG, Kiepe and Siemens. The vehicle can serve both high platforms and street-level stops; it has cabs at ...

cars would be available in sufficient numbers. Therefore, a number of TW 400 cars (called because of their body width of ), was brought up to tunnel standards from 1969 onwards. This involved: *Folding steps *Rearrangement of the doors *wide door steps (dubbed "Blumenbretter" or "window sills"), bridging the gap between the tramcar and the platform. Since the tram cars were unidirectional vehicles, all stations on the A line have their platforms on the right in direction of travel. This led to some problems, most notably the complicated layout of the station ''Lister Platz'', with platforms stacked on top of each other. The ''Lahe'' terminus also was equipped with a

turning loop A balloon loop, turning loop, or reversing loop ( North American Terminology) allows a rail vehicle or train to reverse direction without having to shunt or stop. Balloon loops can be useful for passenger trains and unit freight trains. Bal ...

to allow the TW 400 cars to turn around. In the end, when the Stadtbahn system opened in 1975, there was a large enough number of

available and so the TW 400 were never used in the tunnels. They used to run on the tramway lines and were put out of service in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Most of them were consequently scrapped. The tunnel-enabled unit 427, together with trailer 1424, has been preserved at the HSM in

Sehnde Sehnde is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located approximately 15 kilometres southeast of Hanover. History Sehnde was formed in 1974 by combining fifteen autonomous villages which belonged to three different districts: Bilm, Bolzum, Do ...

External links

Trams in Hannover
{{Public transport in Hanover Duewag tram vehicles Tram vehicles of Germany

400 __NOTOC__ Year 400 ( CD) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Stilicho and Aurelianus (or, less frequently, year 11 ...

See also

External links