VT 10.5

Introduction
Construction
In service

Introduction

At the beginning of the fifties the DB was realising when they want to increase the speed of trains, the average weight of the trains had to decrease. It was necessary that the trainsets consisted of fixed "units" and no more the combination of a variable number of coaches and powercars like the VT 08.5. In some foreign countries were already positive tests done in this area.

In 1953 on the traffic exhibition in München, the German industry presented two new trainsets according to the new concept of fixed trainsets. Both trainsets were based on the Talgo technique, which was and is succesfully applied in Spain.

The DSG trainset was taken over on 1 January 1955 by the DB. A proposal of the German postal services to build similar trainsets to carry postal is never carried out.

Construction

Both trainsets consisted originally of five middle coaches and two powercars. The sleeping trainset was after the first test runs extended with one more middle coach. The axles in the bogies had sheet and helical springs. Each powercar was equiped with two 8-cylinder diesel engines of MAN, type D 1548 G with each 118 kW power. Two extra diesel engines with each 92 kW power were available for the electricity in the train. In the beginning the top speed was 120 km/h. But without many modification this speed could be increased to 160 km/h. The power of engines was also increased to 154 kW. The transmission was carried out by a hydromechanical installation with four gears.

The middle coaches were 12,20 m long, and the powercars were 17,85 m long. The coaches and powercars were made of aluminium. The interiors were very comfortable. The day train offered open compartments of 2,30 m long with a middle corridor. In total there were 135 seats first class. The sleeping train offered 40 places to sleep first and second class, as well as 12 sleeping chairs and 23 ordinary seats in the dining and the bar. The beds could be folded to seats.

Despite of that the trainsets were no succes, but both trainsets were unique in their sort. Trainset VT 10 501 had a weight of 1,21 ton/meter or 0,92 ton/seat, these very positive parameters were never before achieved with such a trainset, and also after that, these parameters are never achieved anymore. The sleeping train VT 10 551 was only 3,7 ton more heavy than the VT 10 501 due to the use of Jakobs bogies.

In service

In May 1954 the trainsets went into service in the summer timetable. The day train was running as Ft 41/42 "Senator" on the relation Frankfurt(Main)-Hamburg, and the sleeping train as Ft 49/50 "Komet" on the relation Hamburg-Zürich.

In the beginning the trainsets seemed very good, but in practice there were some disadvantages. For example the running characteristics were not so good as they thought, and the use of 6 engines in one trainset was also not so good choice. Because that, the trainsets were not so long in service. And the series consisted only of two trainsets, it was not economically to maintain the trainsets. The costs of service were very high and often other trainsets had to stand in for a trainset because there was a technical failure.

Trainset VT 10 501 was taken out of service in November 1957 and was at 12 June 1959 deleted from the records. This trainset reached the doubtful record of most short-lived trainset of the DB. Short after that trainset VT 10 551 was also taken out of service on 20 December 1960.

But despite that, you couldn't speak of a worthless project. The experiences done with these trainsets were very valuable for the construction of other trainsets. The famous TEE trainsets VT 11.5 were built with experiences done with the construction of the VT 10.5.