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M.A.N.
M.A.N. trolleybuses occupy very special place in the history of Kiev trolleybus. No other type of trolleybus left its trace in history as “first and the only time”. For the first time in history Kiev got imported trolleybuses. For the first and only time Kiev received the whole batch of second-hand trolleybuses. And if we consider pan-Ukrainian level we may see that these were the only trolleybuses that inaugurated the service twice in two different cities.M.A.N. trolleybuses were manufactured in November 1938 by the German M.A.N. plant in Augsburg for the inauguration of trolleybus service in Czernivci (then Czernowitz), where they worked until the beginning of March 1944, when the retreating Germans evacuated them in mid-Romania, into the territory of an Astra electric power plant in Braşov. Due to a catastrophic shortage of rolling stock in Kiev and the grand expansion plans, it was decided not to return these trolleybuses to Czernivci but to ship them to Kiev in the spring of 1945. They continued numbering of JaTB trolleybuses, which in turn were renumbered from the beginning according to the restoration schedule with the last one # 13. Therefore, M.A.N. got numbers 14-17. Unlike the LK and JaTB, the bodies of those trolleybuses were all-metal, welded; windows featured foldaway panes. In the passenger compartment there were transverse wooden benches (9 two-seat on the left, 5 single-seat on the right, one five-seat at the rear). Both rear and front axles had diskless single wheels. The electric equipment came from two different manufacturers: Siemens-Schukkert on the first two, Brown & Bowery (BBC) on two remaining ones. After a repair two of them entered service on the just-opened route 2, and the other two were repaired during October. These years were the crisis years in the history of Kiev trolleybus, so M.A.N. quickly become the main type of rolling stock on route 2. They sometimes serviced route 1 and after its temporary closure at the end of 1946, route 3 as well. In October 1947, the whole batch of four M.A.N.'s was sent to Dnipropetrovsk free of charge, for the inauguration of trolleybus service there. They were accompanied by their drivers, who become the first teachers to Dnipropetrovsk drivers and came back to Kiev at the end of 1947. Last M.A.N. was written off in Dnipropetrovsk in 1951. |
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M.A.N.15Tr |
© Kostj Kozlov, 2004-2011.
Last updated - 17.01.2011.
Last updated - 17.01.2011.