On 15/01/2012 20:07, Wolfgang Schwanke wrote:
wrote
in :

With what did they plan to replace the AIs and AIIs, particularly the
wide-profile ones?

With Giselas only. That's how the line operated from then on until it
was joined with its western counterpart in 1993. Of course they didn't
know that in 1989, so they must have been planning to run it with
Giselas indefinetely.

Now I am confused. I thought that Giselas could not run on the
wide-profile U-Bahn line. Thus, if BVB was withdrawing wide-profile
A-series trains from revenue service, with what did they plan to replace
them?

I'll try to explain it as clearly as I can. The U2 line is narrow
profile. All rolling stock that has ever operated on it has been narrow
profile, and will have to be narrow profile for all eternity. AI and
AII, which we see in the video, were narrow profile stock from the
1900s and 1920s, respectively. G[isela] is narrow profile. AIII, which
is a collective label for a number of varieties constructed in West
Berlin during the 1950s through 1980s, is all narrow profile. The 1990s
designed HK stock, which can sometimes be seen on that line nowadays,
is narrow profile. (Where HK is thus named because it's the
"Kleinprofil", i.e. narrow profile twin of the wide profile H stock
from the same era).

I see.


Other narrow profile lines are U1, U3 and U4. They all share the same
rolling stock, or can in principle.

Yes, the "Waisentunnel" is a connection between U8 and U5 near
Alexanderplatz. I think the D carriages were transported through it.

And this tunnel existed during the city's partition?

Yes. I just read that the bend in that tunnel is too narrow for EIII
carriages, who are longer than U-Bahn carriages of other stock because
they're really reconstructed S-Bahn carriages. Therefore they could not
be transferred from U5 to other lines, and not to a different
maintenance facility. Otherwhise they might have survived longer than
they did.

Weren't some S-Bahn carriages also taken from Berlin to Moscow as war
reparations, and put into revenue service there.

It was indeed on the U-Bahn. The station was elevated but covered. Just
beyond the station, the track curved slightly to the right and went over
a steel bridge. Literally below that bridge were railroad tracks that
simply stopped, literally cut before the border.

First guess Gleisdreieck?

http://www.bz-berlin.de/multimedia/a...ck_129488k.jpg

It's an interchange between two elevated U-Bahn lines, both of which
were operational in 1999. Below the U-Bahn bridges there used to be
railway lines who connected to the "Potsdamer Bahnhof" station nearby,
which used to occupy the green space in the middle of the photo. The
rails serving it have always ended there because it was a terminus,
not because of the border. But the station has been abandoned in
1950ish, and flattened shortly after. It's been replaced by a
subterranean through station opened in 2003 in the same location
(Potsdamer Platz). In 1999 you might have seen construction works for
it from the U-Bahn platform.

Second best guess: Mendelssohn-Bartholdy-Park?

http://img.fotocommunity.com/photos/9465310.jpg

A new station opened in 1998 on U2 close to Gleisdreieck. You probably
had a good view on the same situation from there.

Third guess: Schönhauser Allee?

http://www.bahnbilder.de/name/einzel...stationen.html

An elevated U-Bahn along a wide lane street, crossing S-Bahn line in
a cutting. The S-Bahn there is the ring, for which there would have been
a construction site just west of the station in 1999 preparing it
for the reconnection with its western branch. To see it you would have
had to leave the U-Bahn and look down from the road bridge.

Last guess: Warschauer Straße?


Definitely not the first three. May be it was Warschauer Strasse. I
remember that the steel bridge was roundish.

Also, what did the BVB seal look like?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...BVB_Berlin.jpg

Was U2 physically cut off?

I've seen that before. Was that the seal used for all of Berlin at one
point, perhaps before World War II?


Yes, at Potsdamer Platz

Perhaps they changed polarity before it was
cut off for military purposes, such as to prevent transport of French,
British and US troops as one method of marching into East Berlin?

I don't think East Germany was particularly worried about the Allies
trying to invade them from West Berlin out of all places. And if so
the U-Bahn would not have been a wise choice as a means of transport
for an invasion army .

No, certainly they would not have had to worry about an invasion coming
out of West Berlin, particularly as it would have been surrounded. I
think that West Berlin would have had more cause to be worried about
Soviet and East German troops coming across the border, rather than
vice-versa.

I was thinking that if there would have been something more large-scale
than just from West Berlin, it would have been useful to transport
troops at later stages.

Just a guess, really.


Was the U-Bahn fare in East Berlin the same as on the U-Bahn at a flat
rate of 20 pfennigs?

Yes

How did one pay the fare, via POP or through turnstiles installed at
stations? Were tokens used at any point?