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| Wartau open day, and farewell to 93 filed on: 30.03.2011 (30th Mar 2011) This Saturday (2nd April), Tram Museum Zürich's (TMZ) new workshop in Wartau will be open to the public between 10:30 and 16:00. TMZ has just completed a move of its workshop from its previous location in an annexe of Depot Hard (Escher-Wyss-Platz). The workshop is run by volunteers and performs overhauls and reapirs to the museum fleet. The small depot at Wartau was the site of the tram museum until 2006 when it was transferred to its present location at Burgwies. The occasion will also be the last opportunity to photograph tram number 93. 93 is claimed to be the former Limmattalstrassenbahn (LSB) trailer number 10, later converted to a motor unit and later still rebuilt as a rail welding car. In view of the numerous rebuilds, it is questionable however how much of the car can be considered original. The car's final number in this condition was Xe 2/2 1948 (having in the interim also variously been Ce 2/2 61, Xe 2/2 973 and Xe 2/2 1973). Following its withdrawal in 1967, the welding equipment was removed and the car passed into the custody of the tram museum. It initially underwent a superficial cosmetic restauration., with the blocked windows being reopened and re-glazed and the car repainted as a passenger vehicle of the municipal fleet carrying the not-quite authentic number 93. The interior was however not refitted. The car continued to be operational for many years but was rarely run as its lack of interior meant it was not suitable for passenger service. It was intended to ultimately restore it more fully using parts from LSB sister vehicle Ce 2/2 2, but finally it was number 2 that was restored in its place and that regained its full LSB glory. Instead it was proposed to use 93 as basis for a replica open-balcony car to be numbered Ce 2/2 45. The general similarity in construction made it suitable for this, and in parallel to the restoration of 2, many parts were acquired for this project. An original US-manufactured Peckham truck from a car of this batch that had survived under a works tram was set aside, and genuine ex-Zürich motors were acquired from a Geneva tram scrapped in Wehmingen. It thus came as quite a shock when earlier this year it was announced in Tram magazine that the transport ministry were not prepared to approve an open balcony car and that the project was hence effectively dead. Tram Museum are thus disposing of the vehicle. This will thus be the last opportunity to photograph it. The disposal of the vehicle remains unclear. It seems the truck will be set aside or (according to rumours) sent to Canada for a project there. Possibly the body may also be used for another purpose. source:
Illustrated history of this car on Tram Museum Zürich's website: www.tram-museum-archiv.ch/Seiten_sammlung/Museumswagen/93-D.htm
This news item is from the 2011 newslog.
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