Timiș 2 were a series of tram vehicles built in Timișoara, Romania, initially by the Timișoara Transport Company, and later by Electrometal Timișoara (also known as Eltim).
Trams The tramcars appeared in the late 1960s as part of the desire of the Timisoara Transport Executive (Intreprinderea de Transport Timisoara) to locally produce and buy trams. Previously the transport company acquired Electroputere Craiova's V54 type trams in 1955 and Bucharest Transport Executive (Intreprinderea de Transport Bucuresti) Main Workshops' V56 and V58. These were only imported vehicles, however, and were not great in number, as Timisoara still operated trams made from the pre-WW2 era. The first attempt at producing a tram locally was the Gb 2/2 in 1948 and 1954, but only 7 units were made. The next attempt was the Timiș 1 tramcars (official classification was T1-62), which were built only in a limited series in 1962. Between 1965 and 1967 the transport executive considered introducing a series of articulated tramcars, named TA-65, but this plan was soon abandoned due to engineering challenges related to the radius of the curves. The planners then turned to an easier alternative: a motor car-trailer car solution. Thus in 1969 the TM 69E prototype, the "pioneer" of the Timis 2 was made. Trials with this unit led to the production of a trailer car as well starting from July 1970, being officially tested on 1 December 1970, and in 1971 the project was approved for mass production. Mass production started in 1972.
Over the years the tramcar underwent modifications. In 1974 the manufacturing passed from using Kiepe Electric combined power handles to locally made Eltim ones. In 1975 the tram was used for the first time outside Timisoara, examples reaching Oradea, Braila and Galați. In 1977 production was transferred to Electrometal Timișoara after the Transport Executive's ownership of the tramcar factory was revoked. Starting with 1981, production for metre gauge tram networks commences. In 1982 a major facelift is added to the base model and at around the same time, an articulated prototype, named Eltim V2(C) was produced. Starting with 1985 it entered in severe competition with the articulated V2A and V3A trams made by the Bucharest Transport Executive's Main Workshops. Production of the model stopped in 1990, with 541 motor cars and 531 trailer cars produced, at the same time when the V2A and V3A production stopped.
Soon after the downfall of communism in Romania, these tram cars began to be retired. Sibiu was the first city to phase them out in 1994, even though the fleet was only 7 years old at the time. More cities followed, and in Timișoara these trams were retired in 2005. The last town that retired these passenger cars was Cluj, in August 2011, thus ending the era of Romanian-made tramcars from the communist times.
Technicalities The project was led by engineer Gheorghe Bihoi. The construction of this tram is simple, being parallelepipedical-shaped and made out of welded metal. It had 2 simple headlights and the destination display varied by city and year of manufacture. It had 3 doors, the middle one being double folding and the 1st and 3rd door being simple folding.
Internally the drivers cabin was separated from the passenger compartment. In the drivers cabin, apart from the driving controls and door switches, a megaphone for the passenger compartment was included, so the tram driver could communicate to the passengers.
The passenger interior varied for the motor car and trailer car. At 5 passengers/m², 61 people could fit in the motor car and 76 in the trailer car. At 8 passengers/m², 98 people would fit in a motor car and 122 in a trailer car. Initially both the motor car and the trailer car had 24 seats. Illumination was provided by 6 tubes of neon lighting. Ventilation was done not only naturally, through hatches placed on the roof that could be opened, but also through "heaters" (aeroterme), where air from the outside would be introduced into the inside of the tramcars, with the help of 4 "heaters" placed under the seats. In the cold winters, they would recirculate air and heat it up.
The trucks/bogeys were made by the Grivița Auto Repair Works (I.R.A. Grivița), which at the time was producing axles for trams. The power was supplied by 2 axle-mounted traction motors, giving a combined output of 240 kW. In the case of networks that had 600 V DC electrification networks instead of the 750 V DC electrification network, the output of these motors was reduced to 190 kW, combined. Separated, these traction motors would have a power output of 120 kW and 95 kW, respectively.
Modifications brought over the years The tram type suffered many modifications during the time while it was in production from 1972 to 1990. Below is a full list of modifications that were done along the years:
The first trams, numbered 230–234 (trailer cars 1–4, see numbering scheme below) did not have openable windows on the door side. Starting with tram 235-5, the openable windows were fitted on both sides The first 5 tram sets had electrically operated doors, but due to the fact that the passengers would get stuck in them and the electric mechanisms would overheat, so starting from the 6th tram set, the factory opted for pneumatic door mechanisms. The first 14 trams had a throttle and braking equipment made by Kiepe Elektrik of Düsseldorf, Federal Republic of Germany. This mechanism had 20 throttle notches and 17 braking notches. However starting from the 15th car, made in 1974, to reduce costs, it was decided to switch to locally made Eltim-made throttle and brake equipments instead. By the end of 1976, when tram set 289-59 was made, the seating was made out of plastic and had 2 pieces and it was painted in yellow. Starting from 1977, red fiberglass seats were introduced. Also in 1977, the ownership of the tramcar factory is switched. Due to unknown reasons, the Timișoara Transport Executive can no longer manufacture trams and own the factory. After a long process, the factory is sold to Electrometal, a company that was established in 1959, and before the take over (as previously mentioned), was making the throttle and brake equipments starting from 1974. On some trams, the slipping windows were placed, so that the driving cab was also much better ventilated. It is unknown how many trams had this type of ventilation. For the last sets that were produced, the manufacturer mounted a rear-facing headlamp just behind the first door at the level of the upper edge of the window. This served to better monitor the passengers entering and exiting in the dark, in particular, preventing trapping the passengers in the doors. Due to the 1980s austerity policies launched by Nicolae Ceaușescu, the production of these trams was affected. Steel could no longer be imported from other countries, and local made steel had to be used. This meant that the older 1970s-made trams were qualitatively better than the last ones made in the 1980s. In 1981/1982, the last major modification took place. It involved modification of destination displays, replacement of the folding windows with sliding windows, the bare handrails was then covered in tubing, shorter neon lighting tubes, full partition of the drivers cab (retrofitted on all Timiș tram cars that didn't have them) and two handle bars under the windscreen.
Service The trams had a total lifespan of 42 years, starting in 1969 with the prototype that ran in Timișoara and ending in 2011 with the last examples that ran in Cluj-Napoca.
In Timișoara The first examples that ran in Timișoara were introduced in revenue service in 1971, and introduction began slowly, starting with 1972 when the first series production cars were made, and by the end of that year they were already introduced on line 2. Due to technical problems, it was not until May 1974 when another new batch was introduced. Starting with the late 1970s and 1980s, these became the backbone of the Timișoara tram network. However once with the arrival of second-hand trams from Germany (from Bremen, Karlsruhe, Frankfurt a.M., Munich and Düsseldorf), withdrawnals began, being finalised around 2005.
Below is a list of all Timiș 2 trams that were delivered to the I.T.T (Timișoara Transport Executive):
Year of manufacture Number of motor cars made Number of trailer cars made Allocated circulation numbers of motor cars Allocated circulation numbers of trailer cars Notes 1969 1 – 231 – Prototype, originally with neon lightning, before 1972 no allocated circulation number 1970 – 1 – 1 Prototype, originally with neon lightning, before 1972 no allocated circulation number 1972 2 2 232–233 2–3 1973 5 5 234–238 4–8 From sets 235-5 onwards, openable windows on both sides of tram. From sets 236-6 onwards, pneumatic doors 1974 10 10 239–248 9–18 Before car 245, Kiepe throttle and brake system, after car 245, Eltim throttle and brake system 1975 17 17 249–265 19–35 Production for other towns begins 1976 24 24 266–289 36–59 1977 22 22 290–311 60–81 Production is moved to Electrometal Timișoara 1978 8 8 312–319 82–89 1979 6 6 320–325 90–95 1982 5 1 326–330 96 With facelift. Number 230 went to an articulated prototype. 1983 3 – 331–333 – 1985 7 3 312II, 334–339 107–109 Car 312II was made in this year, to replace another one that was previously burnt out 1986 7 7 340–346 110–116 from set 343-113 with a modified livery 1988 5 5 347–351 117–121 with a modified livery 1989 8 8 352–359 122–129 with a modified livery 1990 4 4 361–364 131–134 with a modified livery
The numbering started from 230 because trams that were numbered 210 to 229 were Electroputere V54s.
In other cities "Export" to other cities began in 1975, at first starting with Oradea and Brăila, followed by Galați in 1977. Because of import restrictions imposed once with the austerity measures that hit Romania in the 1980s, the import of Tatra T4R trams ended in 1981. Arad and Iași were the most affected by this decision, because they still needed a modern tram to replace the older ones (the towns were importing Tatras since 1974 and 1978 respectively). To come up with a solution, metre gauge versions were introduced in the affected towns in 1981, also including Sibiu in 1985 to 1987. Also in the 1980s, due to the "electrification" programme of the Romanian transport companies, more trams were introduced. While the Timiș 2 trams were successful from the early years, they entered a fierce competition with Bucharest's V2A and V3A articulated tramcars. Below is a list of tramcars that were "exported" to other cities :