DB Class VT 11.5
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The trainsets of Class VT 11.5 (often simply called TEE) were
diesel multiple unit A diesel multiple unit or DMU is a multiple-unit train powered by on-board diesel engines. A DMU requires no separate locomotive, as the engines are incorporated into one or more of the carriages. Diesel-powered single-unit railcars are also ...
s built by
Deutsche Bundesbahn The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB (German Federal Railway) was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) on 7 September 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (DRG). The DB remaine ...
(DB) in 1957 and used for
Trans Europ Express The Trans Europ Express, or Trans-Europe Express (TEE), was an international first-class railway service in western and central Europe that was founded in 1957 and ceased in 1995. At the height of its operations, in 1974, the TEE network compri ...
(TEE) services. Perceived as flagships of the DB rolling stock, they carried first-class seating only. When the UIC numbering scheme became effective on 1 January 1968, the power heads of the trainsets were renamed to Class 601 whilst the middle cars became Class 901 according to the
DB locomotive classification Originally, both Deutsche Bundesbahn and Deutsche Reichsbahn continued the classification system of the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DRG) – see also a short overview of the numbering system of the German railways. When UIC introduced a new classif ...
. They were used for TEE service from 1957 until 1972 and thereafter on German InterCity services.


History

The VT 11.5 was based on the prewar
DRG Class SVT 137 The DRG Class SVT 137 was a class of streamlined diesel train sets of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft and later of the Deutsche Bundesbahn (as class VT 04) and the Deutsche Reichsbahn. With a regular maximum speed of and average speeds of ...
and the innovative designs by
Franz Kruckenberg Franz Friedrich Kruckenberg (born on the 21st of August 1882 in Uetersen, Germany; died on the 19th of June 1965 in Heidelberg) was an engineer and pioneer of high speed railway systems. He designed several high speed trains. His most famous desi ...
Das grosse TEE Buch p. 28 as well as on the experiences with the postwar DB Class VT 10.5. Das grosse TEE Buch p. 31 Mostly the trainsets consisted of two motor units built by
MAN A man is an adult male human. Prior to adulthood, a male human is referred to as a boy (a male child or adolescent). Like most other male mammals, a man's genome usually inherits an X chromosome from the mother and a Y chromo ...
AG, one dining and kitchen car, one dining and bar car built by Wegmann & Co., and three coaches assembled by
Linke-Hofmann-Busch Alstom Transport Deutschland, formerly Linke-Hofmann-Busch, is a German manufacturing company originally established in Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland) to produce locomotives and rolling stock. Its origins lay in the wheelwright business of Gott ...
. Reisen 1. Klasse p. 31. The weight of a seven-unit trainset was , the length was . Motor units and coaches were coupled by automatic
Scharfenberg coupler The Scharfenberg coupler (german: Scharfenbergkupplung, abbreviated ''Schaku'') is a commonly used type of fully automatic railway coupling. Designed in 1903 by Karl Scharfenberg in Königsberg, Germany (today Kaliningrad, Russia), the coupler ...
s, thus allowing trainsets up to ten units and coupling of two trainsets. Reisen 1. Klasse p. 24. From 1963 a second series of these trains were sold to the Danish State Railways (DSB) for use as national express trains (''lyntog'', meaning 'lightning trains'). Reisen 1. Klasse p. 50. This was a modified version which could be separated into two independent units and loaded onto the Great Belt ferries, and a total of whole or 11 half units were sold. It was given the designation "litra MA", ranging from MA 460 to 470. In 1984 the trains were painted in a silvery color, which resulted in the nickname "Sølvpilen" (Silver arrow). Another affectionate nickname was "Flyvende Støvle" (Flying Boot). In 1990 these trains were phased out from Danish service and donated to a Polish railway (first private in Poland - Lubuska Kolej Regionalna Spółka z o.o.). After collapse of that private railway (1994), all these trains were scrapped. One half unit (The MA 460) was not donated to the Polish railway, but given to the
Danish Railway Museum The Danish Railway Museum ( da, Danmarks Jernbanemuseum) is the national railway museum of Denmark, located in the city of Odense. Established in 1975, it is situated in a former engine shed adjacent to the city's main railway station. It is the ...
, where it still remains operating as a museum train.


Operational


Trans Europ Express

The first trains were commissioned in 1957 and used on the following international TEE routes: * TEE 31/32 '' Rhein-Main'' Frankfurt/Main – Amsterdam
2 December 1957 – 27 May 1967 * TEE 74/75 '' Saphir'' Dortmund – Oostende
15 July 1957 – 26 September 1971 * TEE 77/78 ''
Helvetia Helvetia () is the female national personification of Switzerland, officially ''Confoederatio Helvetica,'' the Swiss Confederation. The allegory is typically pictured in a flowing gown, with a spear and a shield emblazoned with the Swiss fl ...
'' Hamburg Altona – Zürich
14 October 1957 – 1 March 1965. * TEE 168/185 '' Paris-Ruhr'' Dortmund – Paris Nord
23 December 1957 – 29 May 1960 & 30 May 1965 – 31 May 1969 In the 1960s, due to ongoing
electrification Electrification is the process of powering by electricity and, in many contexts, the introduction of such power by changing over from an earlier power source. The broad meaning of the term, such as in the history of technology, economic histor ...
, routes like the TEE ''Helvetia'' were changed to
electric locomotive An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or gas ...
-hauled train sets. The diesel trainsets were reallocated to other TEE routes: * TEE 155/190 ''
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'' Hamburg Altona – Paris Nord
29 May 1960 – 29 September 1968 * TEE 25/26 ''
Diamant The Diamant rocket (French for "diamond") was the first exclusively French expendable launch system and at the same time the first satellite launcher not built by either the United States or USSR. As such, it has been referred to as being a key ...
'' Dortmund – Antwerpen
30 May 1965 – 29 September 1971 * TEE 84/85 ''
Mediolanum Mediolanum, the ancient city where Milan now stands, was originally an Insubrian city, but afterwards became an important Roman city in northern Italy. The city was settled by the Insubres around 600 BC, conquered by the Romans in 222 BC, and ...
'' München – Milan
1 June 1969 – 28 September 1972


Intercity

In 1971, DB started their new first-class-only
InterCity InterCity (commonly abbreviated ''IC'' on timetables and tickets) is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains (in contrast to regional, local, or commuter trains) generally call at m ...
system, using mainly the 601 series on the non-electrified InterCity routes. The regular maximum speed was set to 160 km/h for seven-unit trains. For trains up to 10 units the 602 was used. In 1979, the InterCity system was expanded and second-class compartments were introduced for these trains, meaning the end of 601/602 use for these trains. Reisen 1. Klasse p. 108.


Tourism

From 1980, the 601/901 was used for special tourist services. These trains had ten units including refitted open seating cars; sometimes two trainsets were coupled to form a 20-unit train. This "Alpen-See-Express" ran scheduled from
Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...
and
Dortmund Dortmund (; Westphalian nds, Düörpm ; la, Tremonia) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the eighth-largest city of Germany, with a population of 588,250 inhabitants as of 2021. It is the la ...
to southern German and Austrian destinations, including
Berchtesgaden Berchtesgaden () is a municipality in the district Berchtesgadener Land, Bavaria, in southeastern Germany, near the border with Austria, south of Salzburg and southeast of Munich. It lies in the Berchtesgaden Alps, south of Berchtesgaden; the ...
,
Lindau Lindau (german: Lindau (Bodensee), ''Lindau am Bodensee''; ; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Lindou'') is a major Town#Germany, town and Lindau (island), island on the eastern side of Lake Constance (''Bodensee'' in German) in Bavaria, Ge ...
,
Oberstdorf Oberstdorf ( Low Alemannic: ''Oberschdorf'') is a municipality and skiing and hiking town in Germany, located in the Allgäu region of the Bavarian Alps. It is the southernmost settlement in Germany and one of its highest towns. At the&nb ...
,
Innsbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol (state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the ...
,
Zell am See Zell am See is the administrative capital of the Zell am See District in the Austrian state of Salzburg. Located in the Kitzbühel Alps, the town is an important tourist destination due to its ski resorts and shoreline on Lake Zell. While Zell a ...
, and
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. This service ended in 1988, when all 601s except the two scrapped (601 002 and 901 403) were sold to
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...
.


Deutsche Reichsbahn

The fall of the
Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...
in 1989 led to a new life for the 601 as an InterCity train. One of the 10-unit trains was loaned from Italy to the East German
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 ...
(DR) and served from July 27, 1990, to September 29, 1990, as InterCity ''
Max Liebermann Max Liebermann (20 July 1847 – 8 February 1935) was a German painter and printmaker, and one of the leading proponents of Impressionism in Germany and continental Europe. In addition to his activity as an artist, he also assembled an important ...
'' on the route Hamburg–Berlin. One part of this train had been later repainted blue-beige and is still to be seen at the
Augsburg Railway Park The Augsburg Railway Park (''Bahnpark Augsburg'') is a railway museum in Augsburg on part of the former Augsburg locomotive shed owned by the Deutsche Bahn. Following reconstruction work, the park officially reopened on 13 April 2009. In the futu ...
museum. It today houses a restaurant run by celebrity chef Alfons Schuhbeck.


Technical details


Class 601

The VT 11.5, later 601 had two motor units at the head and the tail of the train. Each one had an 809 kW
diesel Diesel may refer to: * Diesel engine, an internal combustion engine where ignition is caused by compression * Diesel fuel, a liquid fuel used in diesel engines * Diesel locomotive, a railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engin ...
from MTU and a hydraulic transmission from
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or
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. The maximum speed was , later . All coaches were air-conditioned.


Class 602

In order to run ten-unit trains with a maximum speed of 160 km/h, four VT 11.5 were rebuilt in 1970 and received AVCO Lycoming TF55
gas turbine A gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas generator or core) and are, in the directio ...
s supplied under license by
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in place of their original Diesel engines. They were renumbered as Class 602 001–004 (ex-Class 601 nos. 012, 003, 007 and 010, respectively), recognizable at the large dimensioned air intakes, and used for DB InterCity service, starting with the train connection between Hamburg and Ludwigshafen in July 1974. From 1975, a mixed operation with diesel and gas turbine power heads was made possible. During test runs in April 1975, a train with two 602 and two coaches ran 217 km/h on the
Hanover–Hamburg railway The Hanover–Hamburg railway is one of the most important railway lines in Lower Saxony and Germany. It links the Lower Saxon state capital of Hanover with Hamburg, running through Celle, Uelzen and Lüneburg. History The main section of th ...
line, a new German record for trains powered by combustion engines (equalled only in 2000 by an
ICE TD The DBAG Class 605, commonly known as the ICE TD is a high-speed diesel multiple unit (DMU) train, formerly in service with Deutsche Bahn and DSB. History Development Following the successful inauguration of the Intercity-Express system ...
train). Since the turbines caused some problems and had higher fuel consumption, the 602, like the
DB Class 210 The Class 210 of the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) consisted, briefly, of a series of eight diesel locomotives, with a top speed of 160 km/h intended for operations on express trains. The locomotives were peculiar in that an additional gas turbi ...
, were taken out of service by 1979. Reisen 1. Klasse p. 46.


Preservation

One trainset has been preserved in operating condition by DB, consisting of power cars VT 11.5 5014/19 and eight unpowered cars, and it operates occasionally on special excursions, including for private hire. The only other car preserved from this series is VT 11.5 5012 (as 602 003, its later number), preserved at the
Nuremberg Transport Museum The Nuremberg Transport Museum (') is based in Nuremberg, Germany, and consists of the Deutsche Bahn's own DB Museum and the Museum of Communications ('). It also has two satellite museums at Koblenz-Lützel (the '' DB Museum Koblenz'') and Halle ...
.


See also

*
List of Deutsche Bundesbahn locomotives and railbuses This article lists the locomotives and railcars/multiple units of the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB), the German Federal Railways, that were in service between 1949 and 1993. For vehicles of the Deutsche Bahn see the List of DBAG locomotives and railbus ...


References


Works cited

* * * *


External links


VT 11.5 – dbtrains.com

Bahnpark Augsburg
(home of the "Blue Star Train")
Online-Video
Trans Europ Express leaving
Cologne Hauptbahnhof Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 million ...
(about 1990)
Danish State Railway TEE-derived MA-class
{{German DMUs German streamliner trains VT 11.5 Gas turbine locomotives of Germany Train-related introductions in 1957