The Railhopper: The 90's experiment that did not quite pan out.

Disclaimer: The main bulk of this blog was written originally as a script for an unfinished video I planned to make about a year ago. The main reason this video was unfinished was because during recording and editing I noticed that the subject was a bit boring. Now that I have a blog I realize that the script is much better suited for this format. Small changes have been made to accommodate the medium

Oh hey I get to talk about a hobby of mine for a change! You know, I get so stuck into politics-mind sometimes that I often forget that there is more to life then crippling depression and our selfmade impending doom. A very old hobby of mine that I recently managed to breathe some new life in is trains and railroads. As a kid I was always fascinated by trains, especially steam locomotives. The sounds they made, the smells they produced, the rhythmic thumping of the pistons, it always managed to calm me down somehow. Let's go back in time a bit and talk about a very interesting experiment the Dutch railroads(NS) did in the 90's. Let's welcome the railhopper!

Now with pictures!

I want to talk with you about the Stoptreinmaterieel '90 also known as the Railhopper. This was an NS train that was in service from 1994 till 2005 and did not really have such a hot lifespan. To understand how this all panned out let's go back to the distant time period of the early 1980's.

In 1983 the NS was looking for a proper successor to the venerable Materieel 64(NOTE: Mat 64 was never the official name of these trains, instead they were named Plan T and Plan V). At the time the NS still averaged out the lifespan of their rolling stock to about 30 years. Mat 64 was introduced in 1961 and while still being a very capable train type it was starting to get a bit old and looking a bit long in the teeth.

A Mat 64 EMU shortly before they were taken out of service

It was estimated that these trains would not be in service for much longer, a little over 10 years tops. So a successor was needed. However what kind of successor would be good enough to replace the former "treinstel Toekomst"? The train of the future?

In the 1983 the first plans for this successor were drawn up. The NS wanted a large series of around 250 Electric Multiple Units each being made up of about 2 or 3 units(or coaches) being fitted with the newest technologies. 

The new trains would be equipped with the new induction type motors instead of the older DC Motors that were common at the time. These induction motors would have had less moving parts and a three times longer lifespan as opposed to the DC motors. The brakes would have been electrodynamic in which the power generated by the brakes would have been returned to the overhead power lines or converted into heat for interior heating. 

In 1993 a prototype series consisting of trains 2101 till 2109 were delivered by the Talbot company(nowadays known as Bombardier) from Aachen, Germany.

The EMU's had a width that was different from most NS trains at the time but still somehow managed to stay within the NS max width of 3.20 meters. Because of the way to chassis(that is the shape of the train without the undercarriage) was designed it was possible to make the chassis 30 centimeter wider then most trains and still be able to conform to the max width of the loading gauge. You see the chassis was angled in a way and had a bend in the middle that made this possible. Because of the extra space it suddenly became possible to stuff 5 extra seats into the unit. A aerodynamic front was designed for the train but was cut from the final version because of the high costs of producing such a thing(much to the dismay of the designers).

Outline of the outer body shows the mid and top being wider then the bottom

Trains 2105 till 2109 initially had a 2+3 configuration (that is, 2 seats, an aisle and then 3 seats) for second class coaches. However this proved to be unpopular for the travelers so the trains were reconfigured in 1996 for a more standard 2+2 configuration. In this reconfiguration the uncomfortable hard synthetic seats were replaced with softer upholstered seats as would later by used by the NS Dieselmaterieel 90(also known as the Buffel). 

Buffel

Interestingly were and are the Railhoppers the only Dutch trains ever made with an automatic elevator for people in wheelchairs(even nowadays people in wheelchairs need to rely on station personnel and a special ramp to get on a train).

Wheel chair elevator

Earlier on I mentioned that the lifespan of the Railhoppers was not that hot and if you are even more keen then you may have noticed that the NS had initially planned to get 250 units while only 9 were ever produced.

There are a multitude of reasons for this.

First of all, in 1988 the NS introduced the OV-Studentenkaart, a special ticket for students. Because of this they had expected the amount of train travelers to grow a lot and there suddenly was a huge demand for new material. This kind of rushed the design of the Railhopper a little and led to a multitude of technical problems in it's lifespan.(As a side note, this sudden rush for new material also led to the conversion of the old DDM carriages into the DD-AR trains which still drive nowadays as the refurbished DDZ trains).

DD-AR

DDZ

Second of all, the Railhoppers suffered from a multitude of software problems, especially regarding it's revolutionary braking system. This problem eventually led to them disabling the special features of the braking system and just changed them into regular brakes in 2001. However because the energy and heat now had nowhere to go, this would lead to small fires happening occasionally in the brakes.

Furthermore because this was only a prototype series that was never meant to be used as much as it did a few other issues happened to it as well, most notably rust problems. Because of it's technical problems were the railhoppers confined for use exclusively on the Zwolle-Emmen track so they could stay close to the maintenance plant in Zwolle. 

The sad truth of the matter is that maintenance of a small series of locomotives or train units with divergent designs is quite expensive. Because of the amount of problems was this design not exactly the successor to the "train of the future" that NS had hoped it to be. Due to financial reasons it was therefore decided to not place new orders for these trains and instead they just went back to their old strategy of buying older but reliable designs. After 11 years of service where the final trains finally removed from service in 2005. After their early retirement they were moved to Onnen where they either awaited scrapping or buyers. In 2006, unit 2109 was moved to Vlasakkers near the city of Amersfoort, there it served a short life as a practice train for people to perform training procedures for emergency and disaster work. In Februari 2007 were all of the units(including the practice train) moved to Zwolle and Hasselt where they would be scrapped for parts and recycled. To my knowledge no train completely survives till this day but a collector managed to safe the front of unit 2106 and gave it the Dutch Railway Museum in Utrecht where it probably still resides till this day.

Honestly this is kind of sad

And thus ends the tragic tale of the Railhoppers. 

Despite their limited service, the Railhopper did have an influence on future Dutch railroad equipment.

It's special chassis design would later on be used by the Diesel locomotives known as the "Buffels" or Buffalo's that were from around the same time period. It's revolutionary electrical systems would be improved and later on be used in VIRM intercity trains when they were modernized later on. Finally the failure of the Railhoppers meant that the Mat64 trains would remain in usage for a much longer time then they were originally designed for. The final Mat 64 train would finally be retired in 2016, after 55 years of service. 

This basically wraps up the short and sad tale of the Railhopper.

Source: Dutch and English Wikipedia pages for the Railhopper