Комментарии к MAN MPE 1 № 21

The model is MAN MPE I/Schumann/BBC. Only two such trolleybuses were built. They are notable for having a sole bipolar trolley pole. The idea of a trolleybus system with the vehicles having sole poles belongs to Brown, Boveri & Cie (BBC), which conducted an experiment in appr. 1938-1940 in three towns: Gera, Eberswalde and Zwickau. The overhead wires were mounted as close to each other as 20cm. According to Obusse in Deutschland, Band 1, the utilization of a sole bipolar pole diminished the weight of electric equipment by ~100kg. On the other hand, the bipolar pantograph head weighed ~4,5-4,6kg, it was quite costly (and only BBC manufactured them in Germany) and it was too sensitive to road roughnesses. In Eberswalde, it occasionally lead to disruption of the overhead wires. Therefore, the sole-pole systems were modified to standard by mid-40s. However, sole-pole trolleybuses were used in Drammen, Norway until 1977. One Ransomes-Høka trolleybus (1938), probably one of the last surviving sole-pole trolleybuses in the world, is still alive and rolling as a museum vehicle.

Some words about this vehicle. The Zwickau MAN had a body length of 9,88m and 10,4m with the pantograph elevated. The fully-welded body had smoothly tapered overhangs. The body was assembled on a prototype MPE I chassis with a wheelbase of 5,25m which was shortened to 4,25 on all MPE 4500 I series. The chassis is identical to the MAN trolleybuses, which operated in Chernivtsi. The vehicle was equipped with a double-collector 4-pole BBC GLM 1273 DK motor with an output of 85KW, a non-automatic foot-operated rheostatic powertrain and a drive axle with single tires. This trolleybus used only air brakes (and hand mechanical brakes). There are more interesting and progressive technical features (actually, the depicted trolleybus was presented on Wagensschau Dusseldorf in November 1938). Do not hesitate to ask me, if you like. I'm also going to include this trolleybus into my future articles regarding MAN and other German trolleybuses.

Yours sincerely,
Serious Sam