Afternoon all!

Posted the following on Early Risers a few minutes ago, but wouldn't want to keep this set of photos from the rest of RMweb, of course.

I hadn't been able to pay that much attention to trams recently – any part of railfanning, actually – but even so, I was thinking of a couple of spots I might like to revisit now that I have some unexpected time… Forecast predicted increasing cloud cover by about noon and rain to become likely by the afternoon, so I first decided to ride down to Markkleeberg, which is a town of approximately 24,000 residents immediately south of Leipzig. Due to being located in the Leipzig New Lakes District, as the area of now-closed and re-naturalised opencast brown coal mines south of the city is officially called, Markkleeberg has become an attractive place for home builders.

The town also has excellent public transport connections due to being served by the S 2, S 4 and S 5 and S 5X suburban lines, as well as tram lines 9 and 11. Line 9 has its southern terminus in the western part of Markkleeberg, while Line 11 terminates in its east.

As a specialty, Line 9 also comprises the single remaining tram/railway intersection, which is on Rathausstraße:

The Markkleeberg Mitte stop, seen in the background, is no longer served by passenger trains, with the Plagwitz-Gaschwitz Railway on which it is located acting as a freight bypass only.

Note how the 15 kV AC railway OHLE is separated from the 600 V DC tram OHLE through double insulation sections to prevent any flashovers. As per the El 2, "Close Circuit Breaker" signal located at the platform access – corresponding to an El 1, "Open Circuit Breaker" signal facing the other way – railway motive power must shut down power and open the circuit breaker in order to coast through the neutral section to eliminate any remaining risk of 15 kV flashovers.

A view of the crossing arrangement of the two contact wires.

Due to trams having to "hop" over the railway rail heads and strongly relying on the wheel flanges for guidance, speed through this intersection is restricted to 10 kph. Looking closely, you can spot the flange traces across the rail heads as the wheelsets effectively ride on the flanges for a brief moment.

NGT8 car 1145 "Martin Luther" is seen here riding through the intersection. I walked to the Markkleeberg West terminus afterwards and rode Line 9 back to the city, but I'd have imagined the jolting across the intersection to be worse.

It began clouding over by the time I was back in Leipzig, so I changed my plan a bit…

…first shooting a couple of photos at Goerdelerring, which is a key junction for the tram lines. Line 12 turns right towards Pfaffendorfer Straße and the zoo – roughly behind the tram on the right track – while Lines 4, 7 and 15 proceed straight along Jahnallee, and Lines 1 and 9 turn left onto Goerdelerring proper. Furthermore, it's a calling point for Line 14 – a circle line from Plagwitz Station running clockwise around the city centre.

Here, NGT8 car 1119 "Kaiser Friedrich III." rides across the major intersection on Line 4 down to Stötteritz. The NGT8 cars are also known as Type 36. –

Contrary to plans made just a couple of years ago, the Tatra T4D-M cars are now set to remain in revenue service until well after 2020. Car 2174 is at the head of a Line 3 service to Taucha, which is a town of about 14,500 residents immediately northeast of Leipzig.

Having mentioned that the NGT8 cars are also known as Type 36 brings me to a bit of nerdy background information! –

Leipzig Transport Authority have an internal type designation system for their tram stock. As per this system, the T4D cars as delivered during the GDR era were called Types 33a and 33b. In the 1990s and early 2000s, the T4Ds were refurbished, but as a cost-cutting measure, only 2101 through 2197 received the full refurbishment package. Among other items, this full refurbishment comprised new bogie frames and enhanced suspension, flange greasers, cab air conditioning, and a static inverter which is set under the prominent rooftop fairing at the aft end. The fully refurbished cars were designated Type 33c internally, and T4D-M1 generally.

2030 through 2099 were initially given a reduced refurbishment to bring them to the standard called T4D-M2, lacking the cab air conditioning and the static inverter. These cars were designated Type 33d. However, 2091 through 2099 did get a smaller static inverter, and were designated Type 33e. By 2002, all Type 33d cars but were retrofitted with static inverters, so all T4D-M2 cars were regrouped as Type 33d.

Still with me? Good, because the story's not finished yet!

More recently, part of the T4D-M fleet was again modified to allow triple formations of motor cars which had not been possible previously.

To that end, cars 2184 through 2195 received a modification to the Integrated Onboard Information System (designated "IBIS" as per its German name) and can now work as intermediate cars in triple formations. These are now designated Type 33i. In addition, cars 2154 through 2165 were modified to work as rear cars in triple formations, which required changes to the holding brake and current transfer conduits. The latter batch are designated Type 33h.

All T4D-M cars can be freely combined for formations up to the traditional "Großzug" of two motor cars and one trailer; however, for a triple formation of motor cars, the rule is that the intermediate car must be a Type 33i and the rear car a Type 33h. The leading car can be any of the existing subtypes.

To continue! –

The NGT12-LEI cars are designated Type 38 internally. Here, 1228 "Essen" is rolling across the intersection on Line 15…

…soon followed by Leoliner (Type 37) car 1338 "Lindenthal" and company on Line 7. More precisely, the prototypes are designated plain Type 37, the 1st batch production cars Type 37a, and the 2nd production batch – visually characterised by coloured destination displays – Type 37b.

I then caught the next Line 14 service and rode to Plagwitz Station as I wanted to catch one of the two Leoliner prototypes which are predominantly found on this line.

And indeed, 1301 rolled along Karl-Heine-Straße several minutes upon my arrival. The Leoliner prototypes have been refurbished to bring them to a similar standard as the production cars, now featuring coloured LED destination displays.

Initially, the Leoliner cars were designed such that in double formations, the leading car would supply traction power to the rear car and the rear car could run with the pantograph down, similar to the solution adopted for the T4D cars decades earlier. However, the production cars were eventually specified to have foldable couplers to be hidden behind swing-up valances, which could not be built to also supply traction power. The production Leoliners therefore need to run with both pans up.

As the original couplers for the Leoliner prototypes have been put out pf production, the two cars were also modified such that 1301 has a full mechanical/electrical coupler only at the front, while 1302 has this coupler only at the aft end. The rear coupler on 1301 and the front coupler on 1302 now are mechanical couplers only, so that a double formation is now possible only with 1302 at the head.

To visualise what I mean:

Rear coupler on 1301…

..and the front coupler with weather protection hood.

Taken from the platform access at Plagwitz Station at the end of my tour before catching the suburban train home: