SA4üms/Av4üm-62/Avümh 111 & Av4üm-63/Avümh 111

The first coaches Av4üm-62/Avümh 111 (from 1967) were the first compartment coaches special built for the Rheingold and Rheinpfeil trains. In comparison with the salon coaches there are more compartment coaches built for Rheingold/Rheinpfeil and TEE trains.

At the beginning of the sixties, the DB had an enquiry under 20.000 travelers. What appeared was that 75 % of the travelers had a preference for compartment coaches, and 25 % had a preference for salon coaches. The first designs showed coaches with compartmens with two and four seats. But the Dutch and Swiss railway companies rejected this idea (after all the Rheingold was also riding in the Netherlands and Switzerland), both railway companies thought that the number of seats in each coach was too small. As a compromis, the DB developed a compartment coach with 9 compartments with each 6 seats.

Initially there were 10 compartment coaches built by WMD Donauwörth for the Rheingold. The coaches were delivered in 1962 and had the indication Av4üm-62. The coaches were initially planned as SA4üms but were when delivered already indicated as Av4üm-62. With these 10 coaches (and the other Rheingold coaches) the DB had two complete Rheingold trains. In 1963 again 12 coaches were built by WMD for the Rheinpfeil trains, these coaches had the indication Av4üm-63.

During 1964 and 1965 again 14 compartment coaches Av4üm-63 were built for the TEE trains Blauer Enzian and Helvetia. The first 36 coaches can be recognized by their rounded roof ends. The coaches which were built from 1967 had all straight roof ends.

In 1967 and 1968 again 34 coaches of this type were built. In the meantime the type indication was changed to Avümh 111. The coaches were identical in comparison with the first series of 1962/63/64/65 only the roof ends were straight and not rounded. These coaches were meant for the TEE trains and were built for services in the TEE trains Rembrandt and Rhein Main (1967), and TEE parsifal (1968). The coaches were built by WMD and Wegmann and were delivered with UIC numbers.

Each compartment coach had 9 compartments with each 6 seats, in total there were 54 seats in each coach. Until then it was usual for 1st class coaches to have 10 compartmens. The compartments were seperated from the gangway by sliding doors with large windows, large windows were also between the compartments and gangway as separation wall. Because of this the impression appeared that the interiors were very roomy. The lighting in the compartments was done by lighting on the ceilings and individual adjustable reading lights above each seat. The sidewalls in the compartments were upholstered with a light wood sort and the carpet was velours. The seats were all individually adjustable and two seats towards each other could transformed to a sort of easy chair. Because the compartments were 2,322 meter wide there was plenty of legroom. The windows were 1,40 m wide like the windows of the 1st class before the war.

The weight of the coaches was 43,4 ton. The maximum speed was for the Rheingold/Rheinpfeil coaches 160 km/h, but this was later in epoch IV raised to 200 km/h. The coaches were all equiped with an axle generator for the energy supply. But this generator is later removed in epoch IV. The coaches which were built during epoch IV had no axle generator anymore, so that for a long time it was easily reconizable which coaches were built during epoch III.

The first 22 coaches which were built for Rheingold and Rheinpfeil were painted in the Rheingold colors blue/ivory white. The 48 coaches which were built for the TEE trains were at delivery already painted in the TEE coloring bordeaux red/cream.

When in 1965 the Rheingold and Rheinpfeil got the TEE status the first 22 compartment coaches were painted in the TEE colors. Because not all coaches were immediately painted in the new colors you could often see TEE trains (1966/67) with coaches which had old Rheingold colors and coaches which had the new TEE colors. In the meantime the Rheingold/Rheinpfeil coaches were not anymore only in service in these trains, but also in other TEE trains, like the new TEE coaches were also in service in the Rheingold and Rheinpfeil trains.

Between 1964 and 1968 all coaches were renumbered to the new UIC numbering scheme. The number "4" disappeared from the type indication and the letter "h" and the number "111" were added to it. On this way all coaches of this type (Av4üm-62 and Av4üm-63) got the indication Avümh 111.

Apart from for the changes of the type indication, also the numbers were changed. The Rheingold coaches got the numbers 61 80 19-80 001 up to 010, the Rheinpfeil coaches the numbers 61 80 19-80 011 up to 022 and the TEE coaches the numbers 61 80 19-80 101 up to 114 (year of construction 1964/65) and 61 80 19-80 023 up to 028 and 61 80 19-80 115 up to 138 (year of construction 1967/68).

The meaning of the letters was as following: "A" stood for 1st class, the "v" stood for compartments, the "ü" stood for coach corridors between coaches, the "m" stood for coaches which were longer than 24 meter and equiped with the so-called "Gummiwulstübergängen", the modern coach corridors, and electrical heating or heating with the central train wire, and the "h" stood for the fact that the energy supply in the coach was done with an axle generator.

Here you can find an overview of all coaches Av4üm-62/Avümh 111 and Av4üm-63/Avümh 111 which were built during epoch III (). The overview contains year of construction, numbers and manufacturers of the coaches.