Gullfisk
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Class B and Class E, normally referred to as ''Gullfisk'' (
Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...
for "goldfish"), were a class of 46
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 built by
Strømmens Værksted Strømmens Værksted A/S was an industrial company based in Skedsmo, Norway, specialising in the production of rolling stock. Founded in 1873, it remains as a part of Bombardier Transportation. The plant is located just off Hovedbanen west of ...
and
Skabo Jernbanevognfabrikk Skabo Jernbanevognfabrikk was a mechanical workshop focusing on design and construction of railcars. It was established by Hans Skabo in Drammen, Norway, in 1864; it became the first rail car factory in the country when it took delivery of the car ...
for
Oslo Sporveier AS Oslo Sporveier is a defunct municipal owned company responsible for public transport in Oslo, Norway. It was created in 1924 to take over the city's two private tram companies. In 1927 its started with bus transport, including from 1940 to 19 ...
and
Bærumsbanen A/S Bærumsbanen was a tram company that operated the Lillaker-, Kolsås and Østensjø Line of the Oslo Tramway, Norway, from 1924 to 1971 when the company became part of Oslo Sporveier. History In 1924 the two street tram operators in Oslo, Kr ...
of
Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
, Norway, in 1937 and 1939. They were the first
aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...
trams to operate on the
Oslo Tramway The Oslo tram network ( no, Trikken i Oslo, short from ', 'electric') is the tram system in Oslo, Norway. It consists of six lines with 99 stops and has a daily ridership of 132,000. It is operated by , a subsidiary of the municipally-owned who ...
and the first
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 ...
trams to operate on street lines. They had contemporary modern electronic equipment, a
streamlined Streamlines, streaklines and pathlines are field lines in a fluid flow. They differ only when the flow changes with time, that is, when the flow is not steady. Considering a velocity vector field in three-dimensional space in the framework of ...
shape, and comfortable accommodation. Until 1964, they were also faster than any other Norwegian tramcar or suburban railcar. Six prototype trams were delivered by Strømmen in 1937, with four different motor solutions, from
AEG Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft AG (AEG; ) was a German producer of electrical equipment founded in Berlin as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte Elektricität'' in 1883 by Emil Rathenau. During the Second World War, AEG ...
,
Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...
,
Vickers Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 18 ...
and
Norsk Elektrisk & Brown Boveri Norsk Elektrisk & Brown Boveri A/S also known as NEBB was a Norwegian manufacturing company, which built a lot of the rolling stock that is used by Norges Statsbaner. The plant was located at Skøyen. In 1988 it merged into Asea Brown Boveri (ABB ...
(NEBB). None of these were particularly successful, and the 40 serial production trams used conventional motors from ELIN. These were delivered in 1939, with 20 (class E) being used by Oslo Sporveier mainly on the
Kjelsås Line The Kjelsås Line ( no, Kjelsåsbanen) is a tramway line running from Storo to Kjelsås in the northern part of Oslo, Norway. The line opened by Oslo Sporveier on 25 September 1934 as an extension of the Grünerløkka–Torshov Line that termin ...
, but also on other services. The remaining 20 trams (class B) were leased to Bærumsbanen, that used them on the
Kolsås Kolsås (), sometimes called Kolsaas, is a hill in the municipality of Bærum, Norway. Geologically, Kolsås belongs to the Oslo Graben area. Its two peaks consist of hard rhomb porphyric lava covering softer rocks, forming steep cliffs to the ...
and
Østensjø Line The Østensjø Line ( no, Østensjøbanen) is a line on the Oslo Metro which runs from Brynseng to Mortensrud. It further shares track with the Lambertseter Line along the section from Tøyen to Brynseng. The line runs through the primary re ...
s, and later on the
Ekeberg Line The Ekeberg Line ( no, Ekebergbanen) is a long light rail line of the Oslo Tramway which runs from Oslo Hospital tram stop, Oslo Hospital to Ljabru in Oslo, Norway. Operated by lines 13 and 19, it serves the area of Nordstrand, Norway, Nordstr ...
. From 1967, Oslo Sporveier transferred all its trams to Bærumsbanen, where they remained in use until 1985. The class has been involved in several fatal incidents, including the Strømsveien tram fire in 1958. Six trams (prototype no 163, nos 166, 170, 196 and 199) remain at the
Oslo Tramway Museum Oslo Tramway Museum ( no, Sporveismuseet is a railway museum located at Majorstuen in Oslo, Norway. It is dedicated to the preservation of the Oslo Tramway, Oslo T-bane, Oslo trolleybus and buses used in Oslo. The museum is run by the non-profit ...
; whilst Oslo Sporveier has kept two and converted them to maintenance vehicles (nos 185 and 198), painted them yellow with zebra stripes. They also kept one themselves as a veteran tram (no 183).


Background

During the 1930s, Oslo Sporveier operated a fleet of 150 trams and 130 trailers. The latest series, the HaWa Class, had been delivered during the early 1920s and were, by the late 1930s, becoming old fashioned, with low speed, uncomfortable interiors and a two-axle wheel arrangement. Increased competition from cars and buses made the tram company start a process to find a new "generation" of trams and buses. In 1935, an agreement was made with Stømmmens Værksted to build a series of aluminium-bogied trams and buses. Since the last order, the tracks had been relaid farther from one another, so the tramway could operate wide and long trams. The use of an aluminium body was controversial, and international experts recommended that the tram company should not choose that solution. The goal was to decrease the weight so the trams could operate with less-powerful motors, giving a lower cost. The first prototype was a full-scale model of a tram, built at
Homansbyen Depot Homansbyen Depot ( no, Homansbyen vognhall), officially Kristiania Sporveisanlæg ("Kristiania Tramway Installation") was an Oslo Tramway depot located at Sporveisgata 8 near Bislett in Oslo, Norway. It was constructed for Kristiania Sporveissels ...
in 1935, using an undercarriage from disused
horsecar A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is an animal-powered (usually horse) tram or streetcar. Summary The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public rail transport, wh ...
s.


Construction

Strømmens Værksted delivered six prototypes for Oslo Sporveier in 1937, all with slightly different specifications. They were numbered 158–163. The four main types of prototypes were later designated B2 (158–159 with motors from Vickers), E4 (160 with motors from Siemens), E3 (161–162 with motors from AEG) and E2 (163 with motors from NEBB). The trams were taken into use in February 1937 on the Kjelsås Line. They were capable of , compared to the maximum possible by the older trams. According to tests by
JG Brill Company The J.G. Brill Company manufactured streetcars,Young, Andrew D. (1997). ''Veteran & Vintage Transit'', p. 101. St. Louis: Archway Publishing. interurban coaches, motor buses, trolleybuses and railroad cars in the United States for almos ...
, which was a specialist on high-speed
interurban The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 a ...
railcars, streamline construction would afford a power reduction of 17% at as low speed as . Shortly after being taken into use, No. 158 lost braking power, killing one person when it landed on the pavement. The initial plan was to use the six trams to operate all services on the Kjelsås Line, with one vehicle in reserve, but this was not possible because of more out-of-service vehicles than estimated. A further 40 units were ordered—20 from Strømmens Værksted and 20 license-built by
Skabo Jernbanevognfabrikk Skabo Jernbanevognfabrikk was a mechanical workshop focusing on design and construction of railcars. It was established by Hans Skabo in Drammen, Norway, in 1864; it became the first rail car factory in the country when it took delivery of the car ...
. The various experimental configurations fitted to the prototype trams did not work too well; and instead a conventional motor solution was chosen. The serial units were also not equipped with
regenerative brake Regenerative braking is an energy recovery mechanism that slows down a moving vehicle or object by converting its kinetic energy into a form that can be either used immediately or stored until needed. In this mechanism, the electric traction mo ...
s. The series from Strømmen and Skabo received the same motors and bogies, but the electrical equipment was different. The Skabo series had electrical equipment from AEG and was optimized for street-tram operation, while the Strømmen trams were optimized for the suburban tramways and equipped with electrical equipment from Vickers. The Strømmen series was delivered from February to June 1939 and leased to Oslo Sporveier's subsidiary Bærumsbanen, which gave them the designation Class B. They were put into service on the Østensjø–Kolsås Line, with both end stations far outside Oslo's city limits that time. The trams partially ran through a relatively rural landscape, and more than any other Norwegian tramway this line may be called an interurban. The Oslo Sporveier trams were numbered 164–183, while the Bærumsbanen trams were numbered 184–203. The tram's body was streamlined and had a tail at the end that made them look like a goldfish. They were therefore nicknamed "Gullfisk", the Norwegian term for goldfish; this later became the most common term for the class.


Operation

During
World War II 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 ...
, the rationing of petroleum fuels gave a boost to ridership on the electric tramways. To handle the massive increase in ridership, the trams were equipped with two conductors. The single-centre-door solution that worked excellently before the war became a bottle-neck as the trams became packed with riders. Lack of parts, particularly for the British Vickers motors, caused long waits for defective vehicles at the depots. From 1942, the Kolsås Line was transferred to terminate at
Nationaltheatret The National Theatre in Oslo ( no, Nationaltheatret) is one of Norway's largest and most prominent venues for performance of dramatic arts. History The theatre had its first performance on 1 September 1899 but can trace its origins to Christiani ...
in the city centre, and the Class B was operated along the
Lilleaker Line The Lilleaker Line ( no, Lilleakerbanen) is a suburban tramway from Skøyen in Oslo westwards to Jar, Bærum in Norway. It is operated by Line 13 from Ljabru to Bekkestua of the Oslo Tramway, operated by Oslo Sporvognsdrift. The line continues o ...
from the west. Trams 164–166 were sent to
Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
in Germany, but were never used because the city lacked
balloon 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 ...
s and the trams were too wide. After the end of the war, Oslo Sporveier decided to transfer all the remaining trams to Bærumsbanen. Their high speed made them well suited on the light rail, but the centre door reduced their capacity. The order of the
SM53 SM53, originally designed MBO and colloquially known as Høka, were a class of 58 trams and 50 trailers built by Høka and Hägglund & Söner, Hägglund for Oslo Sporveier. The units were used on the Norway's Oslo Tramway from 1952 until 2000. T ...
-series from
Høka Hønefoss Jernbanevogn- og Karosserifabrikk A/S, trading as Høka and at first known as Hønefoss Karosserifabrikk A/S, was a manufacturer of bodywork for buses, trucks and trains. The company was in existence from 1936 to 1968 and was based in ...
gave Oslo Sporveier sufficient stock to operate the street lines, and from 1952 to 1957, the company transferred the 19 trams to Bærumsbanen. Here, they were given the designation Class E. No. 163 was in too bad condition to be used on the line, and was retired. In October 1949, no. 184 caught fire and was taken out of service. On 2 August 1958, five people perished and 17 were injured in the Strømsveien tram fire, the worst disaster in the tramway's history. The Østensjø Line became part of the
Oslo Metro The Oslo Metro ( no, Oslo T-bane or or simply ) is the rapid transit system of Oslo, Norway, operated by Sporveien T-banen on contract from the transit authority Ruter. The network consists of five lines that all run through the city centre, wit ...
in 1967, and several of the Class E trams were transferred to other parts of the tramway. However, the Lilleaker Line was instead tied to the Ekeberg Line on the east side of the city, and the trams started operating on the
Jar A jar is a rigid, cylindrical or slightly conical container, typically made of glass, ceramic, or plastic, with a wide mouth or opening that can be closed with a lid, screw cap, lug cap, cork stopper, roll-on cap, crimp-on cap, press-on c ...
–
Ljabru Ljabru is a hill and neighborhood in the borough of Nordstrand in Oslo, Norway. It is mainly a residential area with detached housing as well as larger blocks. It is served by the Ekeberg Line terminal station Ljabru. It is located south of Nordst ...
service. After the last bus route had been converted to one-man operation and the conductor replaced with a ticket-selling motorman, Oslo Sporveier started the process of converting their tram fleet. No. 176 was converted as a trial, and after 1971, all the remaining ''Gullfisks'' were converted. Because the trams had been delivered with a single front door, the cost of converting the trams was very small, and the single-manning highly profitable. In 1976, a class B tram was retired after it had lost braking power and crashed near Sjømannsskolen on the Ekeberg Line. After this, only selected trams were given overhauls, the last being no. 170 in 1980. Following the delivery of the articulated
SL79 SL79 is a class of 40 articulated trams operated by the Oslo Tramway of Norway. The trams were a variation of the Duewag trams that had been developed by the German manufacturer since the 1950s. The six-axle vehicles are unidirectional with four ...
, the Class B and E were gradually retired, with the last tram running into 1985.
Oslo Tramway Museum Oslo Tramway Museum ( no, Sporveismuseet is a railway museum located at Majorstuen in Oslo, Norway. It is dedicated to the preservation of the Oslo Tramway, Oslo T-bane, Oslo trolleybus and buses used in Oslo. The museum is run by the non-profit ...
has kept six trams, while Oslo Sporveier kept two, converted them to maintenance vehicles and painted them yellow with zebra stripes.


Specifications

The ''Gullfisk'' were built as self-contained aluminium riveted bodies. This gave a light body that was strong as steel, giving what at the time was regarded as a more elastic structure which would not break as easy. However, this resulted in the bodies sinking somewhat at the ends and between the bogies. It also caused more deformation during accidents, increasing the costs of repairs. The bodies were long and wide. The centre beam between the two bogies was made of steel, and was intended to compensate for the soft aluminium structure; these were prone to rust and needed repeated replacement. The bodies had a very streamlined shape and a distinct tail, that in addition to the aesthetic purpose was chosen because it strengthened the structure. During prototyping, the vehicle was tested in a
wind tunnel Wind tunnels are large tubes with air blowing through them which are used to replicate the interaction between air and an object flying through the air or moving along the ground. Researchers use wind tunnels to learn more about how an aircraft ...
. The trams were unidirectional and had a single door at the front and a double door in the middle, both on the right side. Class E also had a single door at the rear. The trams were originally delivered with two compartments, with a wall and inside door in front of the centre door. This was removed after the trams became smoke-free. They had a partial wooden interior, with linoleum floors. Various renovations changed the panelling, usually variations of brown and yellow. The trams originally had incandescent light bulbs, but these were replaced with
fluorescent lamp A fluorescent lamp, or fluorescent tube, is a low-pressure mercury-vapor gas-discharge lamp that uses fluorescence to produce visible light. An electric current in the gas excites mercury vapor, which produces short-wave ultraviolet lig ...
s after 1955. From 1970 to 1974, the trams were rebuilt to remove the conductor, and the driver was given space for a purse and ticket machine, as well as an announcement system. The E-series eventually had the rear door taken out of use and blocked with an extra seat. All but one of the trams had a SV36-
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 ...
from Strømmens Værksted. The two bogies, each with two
axle An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, bearing ...
s, were attached to the steel
crossbeam A beam is a structural element that primarily resists loads applied laterally to the beam's axis (an element designed to carry primarily axial load would be a strut or column). Its mode of deflection is primarily by bending. The loads applied to ...
. The aluminium body was attached to the crossbeam with
leaf spring A leaf spring is a simple form of spring commonly used for the suspension in wheeled vehicles. Originally called a ''laminated'' or ''carriage spring'', and sometimes referred to as a semi-elliptical spring, elliptical spring, or cart spring, it ...
s. The bogie frames were fastened to the
axle box A bogie or railroad truck holds the wheel sets of a rail vehicle. Axlebox An ''axle box'', also known as a ''journal box'' in North America, is the mechanical subassembly on each end of the axles under a railway wagon, coach or locomotive; ...
via a
revolute joint A revolute joint (also called pin joint or hinge joint) is a one- degree-of-freedom kinematic pair used frequently in mechanisms and machines. The joint constrains the motion of two bodies to pure rotation along a common axis. The joint does no ...
and a spiral spring. Each bogie had two motors, each controlling one axle. In 1941, no. 187 was equipped with a SV41-bogie from Strømmen; it had a different spring system that allowed the tram to remain at the same height independent of the weight. Class E was equipped with
disc brake A disc brake is a type of brake that uses the calipers to squeeze pairs of pads against a disc or a "rotor" to create friction. This action slows the rotation of a shaft, such as a vehicle axle, either to reduce its rotational speed or to hol ...
s, while the Class B was equipped with
drum brake A drum brake is a brake that uses friction caused by a set of shoes or pads that press outward against a rotating cylinder-shaped part called a brake drum. The term ''drum brake'' usually means a brake in which shoes press on the inner surfac ...
s. All the trams were equipped with
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, and
dynamic brake Dynamic braking is the use of an electric traction motor as a generator when slowing a vehicle such as an electric or diesel-electric locomotive. It is termed " rheostatic" if the generated electrical power is dissipated as heat in brake grid r ...
s. The serial production models were equipped with four ELIN BBFa20 motors. This gave a maximum speed of . They were built with two serial motors connected in parallel to the two other serial motors, so each motor used 300 V.


Prototypes

No. 158 and 159 were equipped with four Vickers 116E motors. This was a compound motor with
regenerative brake Regenerative braking is an energy recovery mechanism that slows down a moving vehicle or object by converting its kinetic energy into a form that can be either used immediately or stored until needed. In this mechanism, the electric traction mo ...
s. The trams had sixteen regulating notches and were very complicated to operate. The technology had previously been used in
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
, but there the tram company had discontinued them quickly because of their complexity. This complicated set-up was part of the reason for the fatal accident in Sannergata in 1937. The regenerative brakes were removed in the late 1940s. The two trams' motors were prone to technical failures, and spent much time in the workshop. They weighed . No. 160 was equipped with four Siemens DW331e motors. The motor controller and electrical equipment were run by a battery that was charged from the overhead wire. The motorman regulated the motor controller that again magnetized the motors. The tram was also equipped with regenerative brakes. Particularly the battery-charging system had many defects, and the tram needed frequent repairs. Eventually the controller and regenerative brakes were removed. It weighed . No. 161 and 162 were equipped with four AEG USL2039 motors. They had a conventional design and regenerative brakes, although the latter was eventually removed. They had many technical difficulties, and held Bærumsbanen's record in maintenance time. They weighed . No. 163 was equipped with two NEBB GLM1303 motors, one on each bogie that powered both axles. This caused problems because the monomotor required the wheels to be ground regularly to avoid uneven driving, but this was not discovered until 1941. It weighed .


References


Bibliography

* * {{good article Oslo Tramway stock Train-related introductions in 1957 600 V DC multiple units