Edmonton Radial
Railway Society
1970 Siemens/ Duwag JM6D #601
operated by Hannover, Germany
#601 was built as a prototype for
Hannover by Siemens/ Duwag in 1970. After it's trial period and the delivery of
the cars built to a style similar to it, the car was retired from service in
Germany and later sold to the B.C. Government who were in the planning stages of
a rail transit line in Vancouver. Eventually the UTDC's Skytrain technology was
selected leaving 601 with nothing to do except sit at the Skytrain yards. The
car was purchased by the ERRS in December 1987, arriving in Edmonton in January
1988. It was moved to D.L. McDonald Transit Yards in 1989 and making 2 trips on
the LRT mainline on September 13, 1998. For this outing it was fitted with a
single arm pantograph like that used on the U2's. The trucks had to have the
right type of wheel installed to run on the mainline. This was done with the
support of Siemens.
#601 remained at D.L. McDonald until 2004 when it was moved to the HLB line. It
never operated in revenue service in 2004, however, after necessary work was
done to the overhead on the line, and the car was fixed up it entered service.
It was mainly used on Saturdays. On July 1, 2005 it operated all day with #247.
Later in the operating season #247 was sidelined and #601 ran in regular service
up until the end of the operating season on Monday, October 10, 2005. The 2006
season saw #601 provide the majority of the service after #247 suffered further
problems. However, 601 experience its first failure that resulted in ex
Melbourne #930 being brought out sooner than planned.
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 April 26, 2003 #601 at D.L. McDonald during the 25th Anniversary of LRT in Edmonton. |
 April 26, 2003 Interior of #601 |
 April 26, 2003 Interior of #601 (zoomed) |
 April 23, 2003 Doors of #601. Growing up with orange on the inside of LRV doors made this seem strange! Note the door controls similar to U2's, and the fold downs steps. |
 April 26, 2003 Single door on #601. |
 April 26, 2003 Motorman's cab of #601. |
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