On 2 July 1999, an association was founded in Solingen with the aim of maintaining and preserving the historic trolleybus 59 (temporarily also operated as 059) of the Solingen public utility company. This trolleybus is a self-supporting Uerdingen ÜH III s with components – such as the axles – from Henschel. Its electrical equipment comes from Kiepe in Düsseldorf. It was first registered on 18 December 1959.
The association is called “Obus-Museum Solingen e. V.”. It works closely with the Solingen public utility company (SWS). The association has built a hall for its vehicles, which is located on the grounds of the SWS depot in Weidenstraße. This clearly shows that the association and the municipal utilities can work well together.
Five generations of Solingen trolleybuses
Car 59 should not only be kept safe in that hall at the depot, it should also bring the early years of Solingen trolleybus operation – founded on 19 June 1952 – to life. At that time, the trolleybus replaced the tram. This had been badly damaged during the Second World War, and rebuilding it would have been very expensive – not least due to the city’s topography – and technically challenging for trams. Because in Solingen, the concept of “level” has not yet been invented, and the route is constantly uphill or downhill. Gradients of 10 or even 12% are not uncommon in the city. A tram has problems with this, whereas a bus – especially if it is electrically powered – can easily cope with this.
Car 59 was therefore used for special historical journeys. And because there were also trailers in Solingen’s trolleybus operation – until the trailer was banned from 1 July 1960 – a suitable trailer was also obtained for bus 59. The SWS trailers were of the “OA 3” and “OA 5” types from the Cologne manufacturer Bauer – none of which were still in existence. A trailer of the type “WH 112” from the Eschwege manufacturer Orion was found. This was adapted to Solingen with the road number “06”, and today it is towed behind Uerdingen trolley 59. No mistake: Solingen never originally had trailers from Orion, but a Bauer “OA 3” or “OA 5” could no longer be found.
More and more trolleybuses from the Solingen trolleybus company were added to the trolleybus museum’s collection. When it was time to replace the first generation of Solingen trolleybuses with new vehicles, Solingen tested modern trolleybuses: a Czech Skoda and a Swiss articulated trolleybus (SVB Bern 55). Neither was able to convince Solingen: the Skoda may have been affected by the fact that it came from a – then hostile – foreign country, while the Swiss articulated trolleybus failed because Switzerland is not a low-wage country. In short: the Swiss articulated trolleybus was too expensive for the SWS. Nevertheless, the trolleybus museum was able to take over trolleybus 55 when it was taken out of service in Bern in order to preserve it as part of Solingen’s trolleybus history. There is a photo of it in the hall at the Weidenstraße depot in Solingen … Unfortunately, it was not kept in Solingen in the end …
Nevertheless, Solingen needed new trolleybuses at the end of the sixties. The oldest trolleybuses were from 1952 and therefore 16 years old in 1968. At that time, SWS had Dipl-Ing. Meis as its managing director, and he was convinced by the Italian “filo buses” (literally “wire buses”) of the 1930s to 1950s: three-axle vehicles with two doors, one behind the front axle and one behind the third axle. Based on this concept, he developed and designed the “TS” (= Solingen trolleybus), which was procured from 1968 (the prototype) to 1974 in the three delivery series TS 1, TS 2 and TS 3. There were a total of 80 “TS”.
Their manufacturer’s details are not entirely unproblematic. What is certain is that their superstructures came from the Essen bodywork factory Gebrüder Ludewig (Essen-Altenessen). You can sometimes read “self-made” for their electrical equipment. Of course, this is not correct: their electrical equipment came from the cars of the previous generation. And because there were more new “TS” than wagons from the previous generation, a few used Uerdingen ÜH IIIs were purchased from other companies. Car 5 from Bochum went back into service in Solingen as car 63, while cars 181, 185, 183 and 184 from Minden later ran in Solingen as cars 01 to 04. Other used ÜH IIIs only had one task in Solingen: they supplied the electrical equipment for new “TSs”.
The question of who supplied the chassis for the new TSs is an interesting one. Krupp is often cited as the supplier, but it’s not quite that simple. The commercial vehicle manufacturer Krupp had already been “swallowed up” by Mercedes at the time, with the aim of streamlining the market. However, it is also true that the drive unit for axles 2 and 3 was in fact a Krupp design. In any case, Mercedes preferred not to see its star on the new Solingen trolleybuses.
After their time in Solingen, the “TS” were sold to Mendoza in Argentina, where they were cheerfully put back into service under the name “El Trole”. The museum association managed to bring two of the “TS” back to Solingen, namely Solingen buses 68 (TS 3 from 1974) and 10 (TS 1 from 1969) in chronological order. The association is currently refurbishing both: Car 68 is to be put back on the road in Solingen (and is already well underway), car 10 is to be optically restored – there are no plans to put it back into service with passengers.
The TS was replaced by three-axle MAN vehicles, both articulated vehicles (vehicles 1 to 21) of the SG 200 HO type and 12 metre long solo vehicles of the SL 172 HO type. Solingen swore by the three-axle principle: the three-axle wagon with the driven axles 2 and 3 had much better traction on ice and snow in winter. All of these wagons were built in Vienna by MAN subsidiary Gräf & Stift, but were (and are) legally regarded as German products from MAN, as can be easily recognised by their vehicle identification numbers according to the MAN scheme (“WMA …”).
Two trolleys from this generation are also part of the museum collection: the articulated trolley 5 and the solo trolley 42. Another of the solo trolleys is in the Deutsches Museum in Munich.
The fourth generation of Solingen trolleybuses consists exclusively of articulated trolleys. There were and still are fifteen Berkhof Premier AT 18s from 2000/2001 (buses 171 to 185), twenty Van Hool AG 300 Ts from 2002 (buses 251 – 270) and fifteen Hess BGT-N 2 Cs from 2009 (buses 951 to 965). The Hess are characterised by generator sets from the Trier-based company Kirsch, with which they generate their own traction current for line sections without overhead contact lines.
The first car of this fourth generation has also been part of the museum collection since the anniversary weekend: the Berkhof Premier AT 18 car 171.
Solaris has been gradually delivering the fifth-generation trams since 2018. Both the solo and articulated buses are “battery overhead line buses” (BOB), which run on electricity from their batteries where there is no overhead line, while they run on electricity from the line and use it to recharge their batteries where they are travelling under overhead line. This has been running since 2018 – and works perfectly.
The diesel vehicles in the museum
The museum also includes three diesel buses and a tower car. The diesel buses are a Mercedes-Benz O 322 from 1964 (bus 161), a Mercedes-Benz O 305 from 1984 (bus 151) and a Mercedes-Benz O 405 GN from 1996 (bus 653).
Car 161 would be a real gem. Mercedes did not even build 1,000 of the O 322 type, which is rather few for Mercedes. There was a beautifully restored car of this type at the SSB in Stuttgart, but unfortunately it was the victim of a fire. And so the car in Solingen is probably the only one of its type that is still alive. Preservation is therefore urgently desired.
There’s just one problem: it was parked outside for many years, and that didn’t really do it any favours. Quite the opposite: a lot of rust is quietly trickling down. The trolleybus museum wants to restore it, but “at the moment we want to complete other projects first, for example the refurbishment of MAN articulated bus 5.” Space is running out in the hall at the SWS depot … So O 322 trolleybus 161 has to move out for the time being. “We’ve found a shed where it’s completely protected from the wind and weather (and bad guys). When we have time and money, we’ll start restoring carriage 161.” That will be no small feat.
The 1981 tower vehicle
Trolleybus operations also include a tower car. After all, there can always be a problem with the overhead contact line, and then the repair team has to be on site quickly to fix the problem with its own resources. For this purpose, the SWS had tower car 104, a diesel-powered MAN 13.168 HK bonnet lorry with a superstructure from the Schörling company in Hanover. Today it is also part of the museum’s collection.
The museum’s historic buses (vehicles):
(sorted by vehicle number)
- 5 1984 MAN-Gräf & Stift SG 200 HO
- 06 1956 Orion WH 112 trailer, taken over second-hand
- 10 1969 Krupp/Ludewig TS 1 temporarily in Mendoza, being optically refurbished
- 42 1986 MAN-Gräf & Stift SL 172 HO three-axle vehicle
- 59 1959 Uerdingen ÜH III s temporarily under wagon number 059
- 68 1974 Krupp/Ludewig TS 3 temporarily in Mendoza, Argentina, being refurbished
- 104 1981 MAN 13.168 HK bonnet lorry, tower lorry body by Schörling
- 151 1982 Mercedes-Benz O 305
- 161 1964 Mercedes-Benz O 322 to be refurbished in the future
- 171 2000 Berkhof Premier AT 18 taken over for 25th anniversary
- 653 1996 Mercedes-Benz O 405 GN
Notes:
No. 161 was parked outside for years before it came to the trolleybus museum. This has been bad for it, the rust is very advanced. Refurbishment will be time-consuming.
No. 1, an Uerdingen ÜH III s from the first acquisition in 1952, is preserved by a private party in Great Britain. It occasionally visits its home company, as it did now for the anniversary.
No. 104: classic tower car, as a trolleybus company needs it for overhead repairs.
