One of the Altfelden
pages by Charlie Hulme
Although it seems to
have
been originally conceived as an
inter-city coach, the OeBB's 'Schlieren' had by the 1990s become the
mainstay of the loco-hauled passenger
trains on Austrian branch and secondary lines, and as such is an icon
for modellers of this scene. This page is a collection of
information about these
vehicles, real and model. As a good introduction to the subject, I have
adopted and translated an article by Austrian rail expert Erich
Doleschal. I hope he doesn't mind!
For more pictures, see RailfanEurope.
For
much more detail about these and many other ÖBB coaches, the
essential book is by Peter Reinthaler and Hermann Heless, Reisezugwagen österreichischer
Eisenbahnen: Vierachsige Reisezugwagen in Ganzstahlbauart der ÖBB.
Düsseldorf:
Alba-Verlag, 2006. ISBN 3-87094-194-4.
Contents of this page:
Overview from SVA | Liveries | Modelling | Modelling the ABp | Nostalgia fleet | Wachau consists
"Schlierenwagen"
-
Backbone of OeBB Passenger Traffic
Based an article in Schienenverkehr Aktuell,
1987. I have simplified the article by omitting details of variations
in heating, etc. which are not relevant to modellers.
The 'Schilerenwagen' - Schlieren coaches - are, at the time of writing
(1987) the most numerous coaches on the OeBB system. Their standard
visual appearance gives trains a look of uniformity, but there are
interesting detail differences between the vehicles in the various
batches constructed over a period of 16 years.
The type gets its name from the Swiss firm of Waggonfabrik Schlieren,
their design being based on that of the Swiss Federal Railways
Einheitswagen Type 1 (EW 1) stock built by Schlieren. The Austrian
version was built under licence by the Austrian firms of Jenbacher and
SGP.
There are some obvious differences from the Swiss version, notably the
nine instead of ten seating bays in second class, and seven instead
of eight in first, and the 'rubber-bulge' corridor connections. The
first orders were placed in 1963, and the first series of vehicles
entered service in 1965.
For simplicity, the vehicle numbers in the following tables are as they
stand in 1987. The first vehicles when delivered were actually
classified B4ipüho and numbered 33 000 to 33 211 in the
pre-computer system. From no. 212 onwards, they entered service with
full UIC numbers in the form 50 81 29-35 212 ... The first four digits,
50 meaning an internal service passenger coach and 81 for the OeBB,
will not be repeated here, nor will the final check digit.
Technical data for all vehicles:
Length over buffers: 23 700 mm
Length over body: 23 400 mm
Distance between bogie pivots: 17 600 mm
Bogie wheelbase: 2 700 mm
Overall wheelbase: 20 300 mm
Wheel diameter at 75mm tyre thickness: 900 mm
Minimum track curve radius: 130 m
Maximum speed: 140 km/h
Wheelset type: YRP and YRF (exchange group 64)
Axle bearings: roller bearing
Suspension: coil springs with shock absorbers
Bogie type: Schlieren
Brakes: Air, 2 x 10" cylinders. one brake shoe either side of each
wheel.
The following table describes the vehicles as delivered. They
have received on overhaul a second brake pipe, and also a 12-way
UIC cable connector (series 37035 and 82-35.) Other individual
variations are noted in the data below.
Schlieren coaches: an overview
No.
No.built Builder
Years Type
29-35 000 - 259 260
SGP/JW 1965-70 B
17-35 000 - 019 20
SGP 1970
A
37-35 000 - 069 70
SGP 1968-70
AB
82-35 000 - 034 35
JW 1971-72
BD
82-35 300 - 314 15
JW 1972-73
BD
29-35 300 - 379 80
JW/SGP 1972-75 B
85-35 300 - 309 10
JW 1975
B (buffet)
29-35 400 - 439 40
JW 1977-78
B
82-35 400 - 439 40
JW 1978
BD
29-35 500 - 569 70
JW 1979-80
B
29-35 600 - 759 160
W/SGP 1980-81 B
Codes: JW Jenbacher Werke, SGP Simmering - Graz - Pauker. B second
class, A first class, AB composite first/second, BD second class with
luggage area.
29-35 000 - 259
The first group of 200 second-class vehicles, built over a six-year
period and shared between the two makers, weigh 32 tons and have
72 seats, 40 in a non-smoking compartment, and 32 in what was
originally a smoking section. 141 was an experimental vehicle with only
24 seats in the smoking section. Over time, many were converted to all
no-smoking: as of 1987 these were 000-018 / 087-088 / 100-114 / 200 -
214 / 251 -253, with 139 / 142-146 / 215 - 223 planned for conversion
by the end of that year.
Internally, they had extendible seats (the sort that will meet in the
middle if the seat cushion is pulled outwards) in green imitation
leather, later changed to a dark red version when the later livery was
applied on overhaul. 000 to 089 were fitted with a public address
system.
All were turned out in the tannengrün (fir green) plain livery
standard on the OeBB at the time. a 2.5 kW 24 volt axle-powered
generator was fitted, and operation into Switzerland and Italy was
authorised. 043 was scrapped in 1983.
97 of these coaches were modified from 1982 onwards to provide a
guard's compartment.
17-25 000 - 019 and 37-35 000 - 069
The all-first-class coaches, of which only one batch of 20 was built,
corresponded to the first series of seconds, and also received the
green livery. Internally, they had 'aircraft-style; seats with
reclinable backrest, upholstered in a blue wool velour. 24 Non-smoking
and 18 smoking seats were provided.
The 70 composite coaches, instatantly recognisable by their varying
window spacing, had to have four sections: First had 12 smoking and 12
non-smoking seats, and second had 14 non-smoking and 16 smoking. Again,
all initially carried the green livery.
Both types also had the axle-powered generator and were authorised for
Switzerland and Italy. 17-35 007 was scrapped in 1979, and 37-35 037 in
1986. 17-35 005 was rebuilt in 1985 to a first-second composite and
renumbered 36-35 000.
82-35 000 - 034 and 82-35 300 - 314
These vehicles have a 40-seat no-smoking section, a compartment for the
train guard, and a 20 square-metre luggage area with a carrying load of
5 tonnes. Like their matching second, first, and composite coaches,
they were delivered in green, and had the extendible seats, axle
generator and were authorised for Switzerland and Italy.
The guard's compartment features a window with its upper half extended
outwards, to give the guard a view along the outside of the train, and
a small desk and some shelves for paperwork, etc. Only a simple stool,
is provided as a seat.
The second batch were identical in general appearance, but had a
modificcation to the passenger doors, allowing them to work
additionally in Germany where the orginal doors had been found to foul
some of the higher platforms when opened.
29-35 300 - 379
The second series of 80 second-class vehicles, built from 1972-75, were
also authorised for Switzerland, Italy and Germany. Most were
delivered in the green livery, but during their period of building, the
decision was taken to try a new, brighter livery. Coaches 345 - 354,
built by SGP in 1975, thus featured the new Blood-orange and ivory
colours, whilst 362 and 363 originally carried a blood-orange and white
version.
A new type of seat appeared in these vehicles, which retained the basic
layout of 40 non-smoking and 32 smoking seats. Upholstery was in a
copper-red wool velour.
362 was scrapped in 1979, and 308 in 1984.
85-35 300-309
These ten buffet cars were identical to the 29-35 300 batch in general
detail, but with two bays of non-smoking seats replaced by a small
buffet area equipped with a cooker, fridge and washing facilities. All
appeared from works in blood-orange and ivory livery. This
'mini-kitchen' could be recognised from the outside by its smaller
windows, with white lower halves. All had PA systems fitted and were
authorised for use in Switzerland, Germany and Italy.
They all later passed to the Nostalgue fleet, and were renumbered 80 81
973 2 954 / 962-70
29-35 400 - 439 and 82-35 400 - 439
and 29-35 500 - 569
The next series of 40 second-class cars, built 1977-78, al appeared in
blood-orange and ivory and had extendible seats in the copper-red
velour. The luggage racks run longitudinally above the windows. Forty
of this series were modified from 1987 onwards with Webasto
self-contained heaters for use with locomotves not fitted for heating
supply.
They were accompanied by 40 of a new design of second class / luggage /
guard's coach, with 56 seats (all non-smoking) and a much smaller
luggage area of only 10 square metres. There was no change to the basic
body shell, however, as the earlier BD vehicles have two bays of large
windows nearest to the seating area, fitted with protective bars but
otherwise matching the passenger windows.
A further batch of 70 second-class vehicles to the same design appeared
in 1979-80.
These series of vehicles were not registered for Italy, only Germany
and Switzerland. They were all delivered in the blood-orange and ivory
livery.
29-35 600 - 759
The final order for 160 second-class cars, like the very first was
shared between JW and SGP, and all appeared in blood-orange and ivory
and were authorised for Germany and Switzerland only. Internally,
they differe from previous second-class batches in that a new, more
modern, type of seat was used, similar to (bit narrower than) the
'aircraft' seats used in the early first-class versions, having a
reclinable back but not the 'extendible' feature. The copper-red velour
uphostery style was retained. The luggage racks run longitudinally
above the windows.
705 was withdrawn in 1984.
The Schileren interior
When first introduced, the Schileren coaches' internal design was of
the most modern design. The green imitation leather ('Skai') upholstery
and the extendible 'Bremsheysitze' or or 'lying-down seats' were very
popular with the travelling public. The transverse luggage racks above
the seat backs are very practical, as are the coat-hooks provided by
each seat. The interior cladding of the coach sides is in a light
maple.
The decor of the first class cars remained unaltered in 1987. The dark
blue adjustable aircraft-style seats, longitudinal luggage racks,
carpets and dark pear wood walls give a sense of timeless elegance.
With the introduction of the new livery and the change of upholstery to
copper-red, it was decided that the 'luggage forest' appearance created
by the transverse luggage racks was out of style, and from the 29-35
400 series of 1977, longitudinal racks were fitted to the second
class, although the seats themselves were not changed. This caused
problem in bad weather, as all the coat hooks were now on the coach
side, with the result that coats hung up by the aisle-side passengers
got in the way of window-side passengers. This problem was solved in
the final series by changing with the final 29-35 600 series to
individual 'airline' style seats which have a space between the
seat-backs where coats can hang on the wall-mounted hooks.
The floor covering was originally a red-brown material, changed to
black when the new livery was adopted. Other slight changes were made
to the second class interior decor: the green imitation leather was
replaced by red in the new livery, and the white cloth headrests were
replaced by imitation leather on overhaul from 1980 onwards to reduce
the costs of cleaning them.
Notes by myself:
Schlieren
coach
liveries 1965 - 2007
In 1965, the standard coach livery was 'fir green', with black
undergear and a roof painted aluminium to reflect the sun, and at first
the Schlierens followed this pattern. In 1975, along came the new
blood-orange and ivory look, and new vehicles appeared in these
colours. The green ones were repainted fairly quickly, and seem to have
been a fairly rare sight by the 1980s; the last one (23-35195) was
repainted in the new colours in May 1983. More recently, a number
of vehicles,
including the surviving buffet and first-class coaches, have returned
to green as part of the OeBB's nostalgic fleet.
It seems that when the first-class coaches were first re-painted, they
had a variation in the livery, featuring a cream band at the bottom of
the
sides below a red line: a picture in Georg Wagner's 'OeBB Heute' book
shows three of them at the front of an Innsbruck - Vienna train in the
early 80s. The layout was equivalent to that of the class 4010
inter-city electric railcars, with the blue replaced by orange.
From 1977, new Schlierens were delivered in the new livery, although it
appears that early examples had a lighter cream known as cream-white
rather than ivory, but this showed the dirt very badly, especially on
the skirt. The skirts were soon repainted blood-orange and given
white lettering.
The people who designed the new livery thought it would look really
good if the whole roof was painted cream as well as the lower part of
the sides, and many vehicles appeared like this. What they seem to have
forgotten would be that it would be difficult to keep these roofs
clean,
especially on lines with diesel traction and tunnels. In 1983 29-35423
was, as a trial, given a dark grey (umbrugrau) roof, above the line
reachable by the brushes of the washing plants. Before long
that scheme, with just a cream strip above the windows, was widely
adopted, and by the late 1990s cream roofs were rare, and if still
cream were well-covered by dirt.
In 1986 a new,
simplified livery (known as 'Sparlack' or 'K2') for the Schlierens
appeared,
without the narrow
lining bands of the previous version, and with the upper ivory band
extending higher on the roof, and the blood-orange skirt reaching
higher
up the side, as shown above. The roof retained the dark grey colour. On
repaints after
1990, the layout remained the same but the blood orange was changed to
'traffic red' - verkhersrot: quite a subtle change, especially
when looking a photographs. However, a good proportion of the
fleet never carried this scheme, retaining the old 'lined' version.
Certainly in 2007, many trains on the more rural lines
offered a mixture of the two types. In the late 1990s, a further change
to specifications required the ivory to be replaced by light grey
(hellgrau) - as found on the Class 2043 locos - this is rare on
Schlieren coaches, although the ivory
on some vehicles appears to have faded to a rather grey shade.
Another livery variation involves the bogies, which were changed from
black to dark grey at around the time the traffic red appeared.
Modelling the Schlierens
H0 scale modellers are fortunate indeed in that Roco produce marvellous
models of the type, to scale length and with excellent livery and
details, perhaps let down a little by the rather crude handrails by the
doors. In N scale, on the other hand, there is currently nothing but a
vague promise from a firm called RailTop (and no 2043 or 2143 diesel
either, come to that.)
Roco have produced the first class, second class (Bp) and
second/luggage
(BDp) variants, and over the years more or less every livery
variation has appeared. There are two types of door handrails, one
reasonably thin version, in black plastic, and one in a thicker
material which is in the correct orange. Neither are entirely
satisfactory, with their unrealistic sockets on the carriage side, but
replacing them neatly with hand-made wire ones has so far defeated my
modelling skills. There are also two types of bogies in circulation,
one with holes into which fit the steps for the doorways, and a
locating log for the axles-driven generator, and one without. Bogies
come moulded in black or the later grey.
They lend themselves well to detailing of the interior, fitting of
lights, and so on, and are really all you need - apparently even the
first class ones have appeared on local trains on occasion. The ideal
train for your branch line is a
BDp and one or two Bp.
Sadly, these models are not always listed in the Roco range, but can
be found on the second-hand market. Beware of missing parts, though.
The Kleinbahn company has also modelled the type, but these are very
much underscale and best avoided.
Known vehicle numbers of Roco models (contributions welcome)
Type
|
Roco
serial
number
|
50
81 ...
|
Livery
|
Roof
|
Apo |
|
1735 014-2 |
green
|
|
Bpo |
|
29-35 123-7
|
green
|
|
Bpo
|
|
29-35 215-1 |
green
|
|
BDpo |
|
82-35 001-9 |
green
|
|
Bpo
|
|
29-35 255-7
|
early orange
|
Ivory
|
Bp
|
|
29-35 224-3
|
early orange
|
Ivory
|
Bp
|
|
29-35 024-7
|
early orange
|
Grey
|
Bp
|
45125
|
29-35
|
early orange
|
Grey
|
Bp
|
44491
|
|
traffic red /
grey
|
Grey
|
BDp
|
|
82-35 034-0
|
early orange
|
Grey
|
BDp
|
|
82-35 020-9 |
traffic red /
Ivory
|
Grey
|
BDp
|
45126
|
82-35
|
early orange
|
Grey
|
BDp
|
44490
|
|
traffic red
/grey
|
|
Ap
|
45124
|
17-35 012-4
|
early orange
|
Grey
|
Ap
|
45122
|
|
Green
|
Aluminium
|
ABp
(Buffet?)
|
45129
|
|
early orange
|
Grey
|
From the Roco 2003 catalogue:
Roco 45124
Roco 45125
Roco 45126
Modelling the
ABp
- by Norman Lamb
Roco have never made the 1st/2nd class composite version, but I have a
'cut & paste' ABpo which I made from two Roco H0 coaches. I have
done my best to make the AB version by cutting an A and a B and
sticking the relevant halves together to make 2 x AB. OK, it isn't a
perfect result but it kept me happy for a while. The cut was down one
side of a window - this kept blade damage to a minimum.
The cuts were at the 1st end of the 4th Apo window and the 1st end of
the 5th Bpo window. I did make two, but the other one was sold - I can
only assume this one joined the 2nd end of the 4th Apo window to the
2nd end of the 4th Bpo window.
The 1994 Nostalgia Fleet
translated from Eisenbahn Ilustrierte
May 1995.
The "OBB-Schlieren" coach design was a modification of the
Einheitswagen 1 (EW 1) type built from 1956 - 1967 by Schlieren of
Switzerland for the SBB. From 1965 to 1981 a total of 800
domestic-service coaches were built in Austria under licence for the
OeBB. The differences from the SBB cars included rubber corridoe
connections, allowance for the central buffer coupling, interior
lighting, more comfortable seating layout and the cheaper resistance
heating.
As delivered there were first-class cars (Ap 17-35 000 ... 019, 2nd
class cars (Bp 29-35 000...569 / 600 ... 759), Composites (ABp 37-35
000 .. 069), second / luggage (BDp 82-35 400 ... 439) and 2nd Class
with buffet compartment (Bp 85-35 300 ... 309). The Ap 17-35 and ABp
37-35 batches, and the first ABp and BDp were delivered from the
factory in "Tannengrun" green livery. The new "Jaffa" scheme was
established in 1975, initially out of the fact that the first class
cars were used as substitute InterCity trains, due to a shortage of
lack of complete sets of the Class 4010 railcars.
As the first-class vehicles (ABp 17-35) are no longer needed in
timetabled operation, the first seven cars have been transferred
to the nostalgia fleet, along with a buffet car of the Type 85-35 300
(picture above). These eight cars and being repainted at St. Polten
works to their original green livery. The first two cars were first
used on Dec 24, 1994 in the Vienna-based "Crocoldile to Christmas" tour
and the New Year's Eve special to Puchberg am Schneeberg and were very
popular with the travelling public.
Type
|
Old number
|
New Number
|
Ap
|
50 81 17-35
001-9
|
80 81 97-32
955-6
|
Ap |
50 81 17-35
008-4
|
80 81 973 2
956-4 |
Ap |
50 81 17-35
013-4
|
80 81 973 2
957-2 |
Ap |
50 81 17-35
016-7 |
80 81 973 2
958-0 |
Ap |
50 81 17-35
017-5 |
80 81 973 2
959-8 |
Ap |
50 81 17-35
006-8 |
80 81 973 2
951-5 |
Ap |
50 81 17-35
010-3 |
80 81 973 2
952-3 |
Ap |
50 81 17-35
019-1
|
80 81 973 2
953-1 |
Bp / Buffet
|
50 81 85-35
309-3 |
80 81 973 2
954-9 |
Note: a number of other vehicles have been transferred to what is now
called the 'ErlebnisBahn' fleet since this article was written in 1994,
and re-numbered in the same series. Of the 20 Ap vehicles built, 18 had
been converted by 1995; 35 007 had been scrapped after an accident in
1979, and 35 002 was withdrawn in 1996. All ten of the buffet cars, 35
300 - 309, were also transferred, as were a small number second-class
cars.
Schlierens in the
Wachau 2009
The stock and formations of the Erledbniszug Wachau, September 2009.
24.09.2009. Loco 2016 065-1 at
Spitz an der Donau awaiting return to Linz.
BDp-L 2nd/bike carrier 58 81 84-33 005-0 (converted from ABp)
Bp 50 81 29-35 125-2
BDp-L 2nd/bike carrier 58 81 84-33 001-9 (converted from ABp)
27.09.2009. Loco 2043 021-1.
Weekend Consist: Bp 50 81 29-35 125-2, ErlebnisBahn Restaurant car BRz
80 81 973 2 966-3, BDp-L 58 81 84-33 005-0.
Charlie demonstrated the later style of window with metal bar and
handle. Early vehicles had two handgrips fixed to the glass and no top
strip.
Updated April 2011.