Added 312 to the data base.

Wow, a 3-car train. 312 has a higher base, while 351 has a lower base. Most likely 312 is a motorized trailer. So the tram consist must be a motor сar, a motorized trailer, and a motorless trailer.

Zitat (Yury LRTA, 12.04.2020):
> Added 312 to the data base.
>
> Wow, a 3-car train. 312 has a higher base, while 351 has a lower base. Most likely 312 is a motorized trailer. So the tram consist must be a motor сar, a motorized trailer, and a motorless trailer.

I think that's a mistake. They are all motorless trailers. The trains run very slowly and have hardly climbed uphill. In Iasi it was tested for a couple of years, but has partly stopped on the slopes. The motorcars were underpowered. However, in 1988-1991, so many motorcars were not ready to drive that you had to help yourself.

@ Alex: A great series from Galaţi, thanks for that!

Цитата (1173 R, 12.04.2020):
> I think that's a mistake. They are all motorless trailers. The trains run very slowly and have hardly climbed uphill. In Iasi it was tested for a couple of years, but has partly stopped on the slopes. The motorcars were underpowered. However, in 1988-1991, so many motorcars were not ready to drive that you had to help yourself.

Galaţi has some terrain issues, especially on the industrial park lines to the east and tho the west, including a lengthy grade on the line to Arcelor Mittal for which 3-car trains were no doubt designed for. The classic motor-trailer-trailer consist would have a power problem under regular conditions, and such consists were never used elsewhere in Romania. Provided the Galaţi's terrian and the fact that in all pictures of 3-car trains from Galaţi the 1st trailer is higher than the 2nd trailer - thus the suspicion of local alteration of the trailers is often mentioned with regard to these Galaţi trains. It is my recollection, also visible in some pictures, that some original Timiș trailers in Romanian cities had a lower ride than motors (but not all of them). Something to ask locals about...

I just posted a picture of trailer 307.
The specialists can find out if motorization was possible / was present.
I suppose that the trailers were delivered without motorization, but that doesn't mean that the local workshop could come up with something. But that didn't guarantee that it would ever have worked...

https://transphoto.org/photo/1323571/?aid=6255

Цитата (focus1965, 12.04.2020):
> https://transphoto.org/photo/1323571/?aid=6255

The question is whether this trailer worked as the 2nd car in the 3-car consist, and thus was possibly altered and motorized. All regular Timiș trailers that operated behind motors in standard 2-car consists were motorless by definition.

Zitat (Yury LRTA, 12.04.2020):
> that operated behind motors in standard 2-car consists were motorless by definition.

I think in this picture of the 312 you can see very well that the car has no motors in the bogie. I saw these trains in August 1990 and also went with them. That was a long time ago, but I didn't write down any motorization of the trailers in my notebook.

Цитата (1173 R, 12.04.2020):
> I think in this picture of the 312 you can see very well that the car has no motors in the bogie.

Actually you might be right! I didn't look there at first. So the long-standing stereotype might be incorrect.

Amazing that these trains actually operated on the Poarta SIDEX (Arcelor Mittal) line with a grade. Here is a picture of the 3-car train operating on the Line 3:
https://transphoto.org/photo/800068/

I wonder what the reason for the height difference between the trailers was? And why it is always the last trailer that is riding lower.

Zitat (Yury LRTA, 13.04.2020):
> I wonder what the reason for the height difference between the trailers was? And why it is always the last trailer that is riding lower.

There are various reasons for the height of the trailer. The two trailers on this picture come from different delivery series. In 1980/81 there was also an update with various small changes. But I also saw pictures where the trailers are the same height or the higher one hangs at the end.
Maybe it has something to do with the profile of the steel tires.
The cars were also very poorly made, which can also lead to different heights.