Tatra T3RF

In the mid-1990s, the ČKD Tatra-Smíchov plant attempted to return to the market of Eastern Europe, offering in its assets modern cars of the time for the models T6 and KT8D5. However, the latter were more expensive than their predecessors, and the production of cars of the original T3 line ceased in 1989. In this regard, the enterprise management commissioned to develop a new model of the tram car in the back of the T3 model, but with the use of modern electrical equipment identical to the cars of the latest models.

The development of the new car went in parallel with the release of the sister model T3R, which was carried out in the process of modernization of individual car bodies of T3SUCS. By the time the new car was created, the modification index had to be changed, since the Soviet Union had ceased to exist six years earlier. Instead of the T3SU, the car received the designation T3RF.

Tatra T3RF - an updated version of the T3SU modification wagons. The body is made of steel profiles and covered with metal sheets from the outside. In this version, a new body design was applied, developed by the famous Czech designer and architect Patrick Kotace for the modernized T3R modifications. Panoramic glass is made of fiberglass. On the right side there are three folding doors of the "screen" type. Passengers were replaced with new ones (similar to KT8D5 ) and placed in the cabin in one row (in Izhevsk cars, the seats on one side were installed in two rows), an accumulative platform is located in the rear of the car. The floor is covered with rubber, all side windows have sliding windows. As in the T3SU, the driver’s cab is closed, the car is controlled by a hand controller, and the control panel is modified.

The electrical equipment of T3RF is similar to T3R wagons operating in large numbers in the Czech Republic. It uses the same transistor control system ČKD TV14, Alstom SMTK 6.3R static converter and four TE 022 traction motors that drive the car from each axis.

Two T3RF wagons delivered in Brno were subsequently modernized. The basis of the modernization of the T3RF type included the body and design of the T3R car, with electrical equipment from T3M.3. The modernized cars are equipped with an improved version of the TE 023 traction engines. Pantographs remain original, but are supplemented by electric taps and other heads. The interior of the wagons remained unchanged, an electronic information system with digital panels was installed in the cabin, the introduction of buttons for addressing door opening by passengers was introduced as a new element. Other minor changes were made to the cab and other parts of the car.

T3RF cars arrived in Samara in the spring of 1999. They entered the Northern Tramway Depot and received tail numbers 1205 (plant number 180405) and 1206 (plant number 180406). The first flight of the new cars took place on April 14, 1999. Initially, both cars worked individually, but in June 2003 they were coupled into the 1206 + 1205 system. The reason why the depot mastered the work of cars according to the system of many units (CME) turned out to be prosaic: a windshield cracked at the car 1205. There was no replacement for him, and it is forbidden to operate a car with such a defect. Therefore, the wagons decided to couple the train, putting 1205 second. In the summer of 2006, after the next regular repair, the cars were repainted from the factory red-gray-white color to the standard red-white color of the Samara tram. From 1999 to this day, T3RF wagons operate mainly on route 20.

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• An article on the site "Public Transport of the Samara Region"