European Railroad Discussion > Stuttgarter Straßenbahnen AG SSB Sunday 24 April

From the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof it was an easy ride on the Stuttgarter Straßenbahnen or SSB to the Hotel Espenlaub which is right at the Olgaeck Halt on Charlottenstraße. Paul Ramer and I were also joined by our friend Bill who flew direct to Stuttgart and rode the S-Bahn from the flughafen, I mean airport.
1) The SSB converted all their tram lines into U-Bahn lines putting them underground in the city centre, somewhat like Pittsburgh but on a larger scale.
2) Everything is high platform loading which is more expensive to build but saves money on equipment and saves time at the halts (stops).
3) I forgot to get a better picture of our hotel than this one. Remember that this day is the day we landed so it's not so easy to think after limited sleep on the overnight flight.
  
 

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The view from the hotel window. Paul traded me rooms so I could get this view, thank you Paul!
4) That is a route 15 car. Rt 15 was the last tram line converted to U-Bahn and standard gauge back on December 8th 2007 [Wiki].
5) Look carefully and you can see that the Meter gauge track has been removed from the inbound track (left) that the car is going up the hill next to.
6)  Not everywhere but there are many places that the Meter gauge track is still in existence running inside the standard gauge U-Bahn track.

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Stuttgart has some more curious operations which we went out as a group to look at. The Olgaeck Halt we were at was only a short distance from the Charlottenplatz where a whole lot more U-Bahn lines cross, all underground. Bill noticed that the Meter gauge track on one side here was a bit shiner than anywhere else. This may be from the Old Timer cars which are operated by the tram museum on certain Sundays. While looking at information right before the trip after planning to ride the Old Timer cars there was a picture of one on the beach. Using Google Translate I discovered that the Old Timer cars and the tram museum were on Holiday for three weeks unfortunately. 
7) U1 takes you to the other two interesting places on the SSB.
8) The SSB had variety, subway, private right of way, center reservation, and even street running as seen here on Böblinger Str at Schickhardtstraße where the U-Bahn comes out of the Subway.
9) SSB 4119 at Südheimer Platz. I never did totally figure out the U-Bahn signals here. In fact some lines used color signals and others where white symbols.

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Also looking at the SSB website right before the trip I found that the Seilbahn which is a funicular to a cemetery was also down for the annual maintenance. it makes sense though to shut it down before the busy season. It also gives me a reason to come back!
10) Notice that there is a bus replacement for the Seilbahn. We missed the bus and decided not to wait the half hour for the next one.
11) The Seilbahn track. The actual car was behind a grate so the picture isn't too good.
12) SSB car with a yellow over green signal across the street from the Seilbahn. 

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We then rode the Zacke which I will put in a separate thread because it is so unique. After a ride on the Zacke we all split up. I came back to hotel before heading out toward Esslingen.
13) At the Olgaeck Halt on Charlottenstraße the signals for the U-Bahn cars are symbols. Here they are up close.
14) These are all integrated with the traffic signals. As soon as the tram crosses the street the left turn arrow comes on as seen here.
15) View from out my window from just outside the bathroom. You can watch trams while you brush your teeth.

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I rode the U7 out to Nellingen Ostfildern part of which had been an Army barracks at one time. I then rode a bus to Esslingen to ride one of the two trolleybus routes there which will also be covered on a separate thread.
16) This route is probably 16 km or longer tram / U-Bahn route. It gets rural and is a good ride.
17) After riding trolleybuses and hanging out in Esslingen I returned and shot night pictures and videos out my hotel window.
18) The other thing I found when looking at the SSB site right before we left was this. The SSB went on a 24 hour work strike the following day, no trams, no buses. We ended up walking to the Hauptbahnhof. Lots of traffic and even some honking which is very unusual for Germany I am told. These 24 hour warning strikes happened in several other places on the trip including a few places we went to.

Thank for looking!

Jim

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Thanks for all these photos.

Nice set Jim.

All great posts, Jim. Cheese pizza while overseas? Come on!

timecruncher

Hey Timecruncher, that was not a pizza it was some kind of French pastry with cheese on it. Very delicious and really introduced me to German cuisine as traditional German food restaurants weren't any easy find over there. I'll have to get crackin' and get the rest of the trip posted on here. Work and sleep keep getting in the way.

Jim