Spule 4 said:
For someone who knows enough German to get in trouble, what is the difference between "umbau" and "reko" as both have the same English meaning of rebuilt or reconstruction, or is the difference that subtle?
I do notice that "reko" is more often applied to locomotives?
The differences seem to be small. The biggest difference is surely that the FRG (Federal Republik of Germany-(West)) and the GDR (German Democratic Republic-(East)) used differnt expressions.
The West used "Umbau", The East used "Reko". So, in Western Germany, there are some Changes on Locos, too, but not really "reko"-locos.
The Estern Germany RR had "Reko"-Waggons!
We in the west had "Altbau" and "Neubau"-Loks. There were Neubau-Loks which were really completly new constructed, but there were locos with new boilers which were called "BR 01neu" (just in the slang.....regulalry the got s special operation-number behind the "01".
Interestingly, those expressions were found to make a kind of trademark for a special work.
Such like the Umbau-Waggons or the Reko-Loks.
Its not just a general expression for techincal changes, it describes those changes in detail.
That is becaus those changes often were made in some kind of campaign, where the reconstruction was decided and then thousands of waggons went to the reconstruction-programm and were changed nearly in th same way.
The "Umbauwagen"-program was founded mainly because the prussian "Abteilwagen" (like shown above) had no inner "gangway". The operatoers and inspectors had to go OUTSIDE from one cabin to the other, from one wagon to the other!
A neck-breaking stunt, not just in wintertimes when boards were slippery and icy!!!
But there were THOUSANDS of them, so the DB decided to use the frames and to do a completely new and standard cabin above. It should make a practical and ggod looking outside with completely closed gangways fron one car to the other and a completely new and modern interior.
They got new and normalized braking systems and where fix-coupled always as a pair.
Modified buffers between the two cars of a pair allowed the couplers to stay stronger what hold the two cars tighter. The 3-axled cars were known as bad runners, but as a pair the ran more gently. So, with this advantage, the pairs were allowed to run 100km/h instead of 90 or 80 like the old ones. Therefor the bearings had to be changed to roler-bearings.
The Classes of the pairs were like this:
There was no complete 1. class waggon (A), just a mixed one: AB
There was no complete baggage car (D), just a mixxed one: BD
So pairs often looked like this:
AB/B or AB/BD or B/BD or B/B
There was no "C" (3.Class), even though the DB planned to have a Class "C" when needed.
The "Donnerbüchsen" which were always C, B or BC were changed to be B, A or AB Class waggons.
The C-Class NEVER was brought to reality in afterwar constructions. Thats why there are no C-Umbauwagons.
The 4-axle Umbauwaggons followed the 3-axles. Seeing that there was a big advantage with the new and modern cabins for customer acceptance, the old 4-axle were changed, too.
The cabin was constructed to fit the look and interior like the 3-axles. ALL 4-axles Umbau-Wagons got doors at each end and in the middle, to allow a fast passenger change The old wagons just had doors on each end.
Now, theres just one thing i know for more about the 3-axles Umbau-wagons:
They were ok for the passengers, but personal didnt like them much. They had weak brakes (as the did when they were "old") and therfor were difficult to handle, especially when braking-conditions were hard (snow, rain, inclines...)
Greetings
Frank
