Access Tram Celebrated at Crich Tramway Village
On Monday 30th September Crich Tramway Village will commemorate 50 years since the tramcar Berlin 3006 entered service on its original tramway in Berlin. The tramcar is a very important member of the fleet due to its adaptation as an access tram capable of accepting wheelchairs.
The tram is a German TZ69 Rekowagen, often just Reko, which means 'reconstructed' in English. In the 1950s East Berlin Transport needed new trams but they were hard to acquire. They decided to re-build old trams to a new, standard design. The majority of Reko trams, including this one, were built in the Railway Works, which overhauled all Berlin trams. Between 1959 and 1969 almost 200 broadly similar trams were built.
The fleet number for the tramcar was changed over the years from 5131 (1969) to 223 006-4 (from 1971) and finally to 3006 from 1992, after the reunification of Berlin’s transport companies.
Vintage trams were not originally built to take account of wheelchair users, so this represented a challenge for the museum, which wanted to enable all its visitors to experience and enjoy its facilities, including tramcar rides, without having to damage its authentic historical vehicles by adapting them to meet current design specifications.
The solution was to acquire an access tram which could be adapted to meet the needs of wheelchair users and others with restricted mobility, but which would not look out of place in the Tramway Village.
After Berlin 3006 was withdrawn from service in 1996, a group of Tramway Museum Society members, Colin Heaton, David Tudor (late of Nottingham) and John Shawcross (late of Ambergate), felt it would be the ideal solution.
It was adapted for this duty by removing several seats and installing a wheelchair lift, together with a flat floor at one end. Berlin 3006 entered service in this form in 1997 and by the end of this year will have completed 23 seasons since then and covered over 16,000 miles.
The tram generally runs, if requested by visitors on arrival, at 11.30am and 2.30pm, but on September 30th it will run regular trips from 10.30 - 4.00pm. as one of the main operating trams.
BVB (East Berlin Transport) uniforms will be worn by the tram crew and photographs and other items will be available to view as part of the interpretation of the tram.
Colin Heaton, Vice- President of the Tramway Museum Society, said:
“Our 50- year- old Berlin ‘AccessTram’ has given much pleasure to thousands of users who have been able to reach all parts of the museum”.
Crich Tramway Village is open daily at 10am until Sunday 3rd November 2019. For more details and closing times Tel: 01773 854321 or visit www.okgutschein.de.
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