Tatra T3
Encyclopedia
The T3 is a type of tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...

car produced by Tatra. During its period of production, between 1960 and 1989, 13,991 multiple units and 122 sidecars were sold worldwide, mostly in Central and Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

. Well maintained tramcars of this type are very reliable, a late 2000s survey conducted in Prague tram system
Prague Tram System
The Prague tram system is the largest tram system in the Czech Republic, consisting of 140 kilometres of track, over 900 tram cars, and 33 lines with a total route length of 540 km. It is operated by Dopravní podnik hlavního města Prahy a.s., a company owned by the City of Prague. The system...

 has shown 98.9 % reliability, best of the Prague tram system fleet.

T3

The design of the T3 had to meet difficult specifications. The car should have the same capacity as its predecessor (the Tatra T2
Tatra T2
T2 is the name of a tramcar, produced by Tatra. The tramcar was produced between 1955 and 1962, and a total of 771 cars were produced.The very first T2-prototypes were tested as number 6001 and 6002 in Prague in 1955. In 1958, the first series of produced cars were delivered to almost all...

), but be easier to build. In order to achieve this goal for example the vehicle walls were thinner and were fitted with laminate seats instead of cushioned leatherrette seats the T2 used. The T3 was delivered to all tramway companies in the former Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

. It was most numerous in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

, where over 1,000 vehicles were delivered. The T3 still forms (mostly in various modernised versions) the backbone of the Czech tram fleet.

T3SU

(SU for Soviet Union)

As with the T2SU the first T3SU was delivered with the modification of removing the middle door and replacing it with seats. Later cars, however, were delivered with the third door in place. Again the vehicles had a closed operator's compartment and were adapted for the harsh climatic conditions. Altogether 11 368 T3SU were delivered, making it world-wide the largest production of a single type of streetcar. The disadvantage of this, however, was the fact that by producing so many of one type of unit the replacement by more modern cars was slow.

The T3SU was delivered from 1963, (first to Moscow) and later to 33 further Soviet cities.

T3SUCS

(SUCS for Soviet Union-modified Czechoslovakia)

Originally the production of the T3 was stopped 1976 and production was concentrated on newer vehicles. The Slovak city Košice
Košice
Košice is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary...

, however, ordered two motor coaches, as an exception. Starting from 1985 the production of the replacement type KT8D5 should start, however this was by then obsolete. Further production of T3 would have been too expensive, so instead vehicles of the type T3SU were re-imported and adapted. The closed operator's cab was maintained, the vehicles had all three doors in place and differed from the original T3 only in few details. Traction formation with this vehicles is possible and is sometimes practiced.

T3SU Evolution

Looking at T3SU trams manufactured in different times, one can notice minor changes both in exterior appearance and interior design.

Exterior details:
  • Narrow passenger windows - disappeared before the year of 1966
  • The narrow window route designators - disappeared about 1969
  • The illumination of the number of route on top - began in 1980s
  • Oval turn indicator at the front became two rectangular lights. The same lamps began to be fitted to the rear - 1985???
  • Small grid in the forward section of the tram from the left side appeared on all T3SU trams manufactured in 1983 and later.
  • Two small red lamps near the tramcar-to-tramcar "control circuit port" both from the front and from behind - 1985???
  • Additional red horizontal lamps from behind

Interior:
  • sofa-style seats - from the early 1960s until the early 1970s.
  • "toilet"-like seats - from early 1970s until the middle of 1980s.
  • Cream colour of saloon ~ with 1977-1978 (now nevertheless all yellow-dark-blue:))

T3D

(D for Deutschland
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, then DDR)

In Germany (and/or in the former GDR) the first three T3D cars operated started operation in 1964 and 1965 in Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

. The cars were used in part due to their width of 2.5 m (8.2 ft). They operated as single cars or as multiple units (Motor+Motor, Motor+Motor+Trailer) and/or as mini trams (Motor+Trailer). The use of trailer cars was due to the use of original Czech T3 electrical equipment, which had enough power to support trailer cars. However, due to reduced available power, the maximum speed of the streetcar reached only 55 km/h, instead of the usual 65 km/h (40.4 mph).

Only German and Yugoslav networks had trailer cars. The car was designated as B3D and had the same body as T3D. Today, only Chemnitz
Chemnitz
Chemnitz is the third-largest city of the Free State of Saxony, Germany. Chemnitz is an independent city which is not part of any county and seat of the government region Direktionsbezirk Chemnitz. Located in the northern foothills of the Ore Mountains, it is a part of the Saxon triangle...

 uses T3s in full service, having T3D-M (modified).

T3YU

(YU for Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....

)

From 1967 onwards, vehicles supplied to Yugoslavia differed from the standard type T3 by having different pantograph
Pantograph (rail)
A pantograph for rail lines is a hinged electric-rod device that collects electric current from overhead lines for electric trains or trams. The pantograph typically connects to a one-wire line, with the track acting as the ground wire...

s and trucks. In addition, trailer cars were used, as in the GDR. Beside two Czechoslovakian and one Soviet tram networks, the vehicles were the only narrow profile cars of the type.

T3R

(R for Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

)

Romania was instructed by Comecon
Comecon
The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance , 1949–1991, was an economic organisation under hegemony of Soviet Union comprising the countries of the Eastern Bloc along with a number of communist states elsewhere in the world...

 at the end of the 1960s to order RA cars. The first vehicles came in 1967 to the city of Galaţi
Galati
Galați is a city and municipality in Romania, the capital of Galați County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, in the close vicinity of Brăila, Galați is the largest port and sea port on the Danube River and the second largest Romanian port....

 and differed from the Czechoslovak vehicles by having different electrical equipment, necessary for the network's 750 V DC voltage. Since the car boxes were built too wide for use elsewhere, the cars remain in Galaţi.

Same name has type shortly manufactured in 1997.

Modernized Tatra-T3 trams

In most Czech cities and in some foreign cities such as Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...

, Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

, Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...

 and Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...

, Tatra-T3 trams became very common pieces of equipment. As a result the service personnel and maintenance workers became very good with repairing and servicing the equipment. This served as one of the reasons (the other being the expense of buying new vehicles) for modifying the existing Tatra-T3 trams, rather they buying newer cars.

The modernization normally includes:
  • Restoration of the car body
  • Digital/Electronic destination sign installation
  • Acoustic information system
  • Installation of new traction motor
    Traction motor
    Traction motor refers to an electric motor providing the primary rotational torque of a machine, usually for conversion into linear motion ....

    s
  • Thyristor
    Thyristor
    A thyristor is a solid-state semiconductor device with four layers of alternating N and P-type material. They act as bistable switches, conducting when their gate receives a current trigger, and continue to conduct while they are forward biased .Some sources define silicon controlled rectifiers and...

    -Controlled traction system for the motors.
  • Re-design of the interior, which varies by city and transit authority.
  • Pantograph replacements (also depends on the transport authority)


More radical modernization includes insertion of a low floor section.

Production

14,113 trams were produced and delivered to:
City Year T3 T3SUCS T3SU T3D B3D T3YU B3YU T3R Total
 Russia Barnaul
Barnaul
-Russian Empire:Barnaul was one of the earlier cities established in Siberia. Originally chosen for its proximity to the mineral-rich Altai Mountains and its location on a major river, the site was founded by the wealthy Demidov family in the 1730s. In addition to the copper which had originally...

1967–1985 0 0 444 0 0 0 0 0 444
 Slovakia Bratislava
Bratislava
Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...

1964–1989 58 130 0 0 0 0 0 0 188
 Czech Republic Brno
Brno
Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...

1963–1989 109 53 0 0 0 0 0 0 162
 Germany Karl-Marx-Stadt (today Chemnitz
Chemnitz
Chemnitz is the third-largest city of the Free State of Saxony, Germany. Chemnitz is an independent city which is not part of any county and seat of the government region Direktionsbezirk Chemnitz. Located in the northern foothills of the Ore Mountains, it is a part of the Saxon triangle...

)
1966–1988 0 0 0 132 62 0 0 0 194
 Ukraine Dnipropetrovsk
Dnipropetrovsk
Dnipropetrovsk or Dnepropetrovsk formerly Yekaterinoslav is Ukraine's third largest city with one million inhabitants. It is located southeast of Ukraine's capital Kiev on the Dnieper River, in the south-central region of the country...

1968–1987 0 0 370 0 0 0 0 0 370
 Ukraine Dniprodzerzhynsk
Dniprodzerzhynsk
Dniprodzerzhynsk is an industrial city in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast of Ukraine, and a port on the Dnieper River.-History:The first written evidence of settlement in the territory of Dniprodzerzhynsk appeared in 1750. At that time the villages of Romankovo and Kamianske, which make the modern city,...

1972–1986 0 0 183 0 0 0 0 0 183
 Ukraine Donetsk
Donetsk
Donetsk , is a large city in eastern Ukraine on the Kalmius river. Administratively, it is a center of Donetsk Oblast, while historically, it is the unofficial capital and largest city of the economic and cultural Donets Basin region...

1967–1987 0 0 251 0 0 0 0 0 251
 Kingdom of Romania Galați
Galati
Galați is a city and municipality in Romania, the capital of Galați County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, in the close vicinity of Brăila, Galați is the largest port and sea port on the Danube River and the second largest Romanian port....

1971–1974 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 50 50
 Russia Grozny
Grozny
Grozny is the capital city of the Chechen Republic, Russia. The city lies on the Sunzha River. According to the preliminary results of the 2010 Census, the city had a population of 271,596; up from 210,720 recorded in the 2002 Census. but still only about two-thirds of 399,688 recorded in the 1989...

1981–1986 0 0 70 0 0 0 0 0 70
 Russia Irkutsk
Irkutsk
Irkutsk is a city and the administrative center of Irkutsk Oblast, Russia, one of the largest cities in Siberia. Population: .-History:In 1652, Ivan Pokhabov built a zimovye near the site of Irkutsk for gold trading and for the collection of fur taxes from the Buryats. In 1661, Yakov Pokhabov...

1967–1968 0 0 30 0 0 0 0 0 30
 Russia Izhevsk
Izhevsk
Izhevsk is the capital city of the Udmurt Republic, Russia, situated on the Izh River in the Western Urals. Population: From 1984 to 1987 Izhevsk carried the name Ustinov |Minister of Defense of the USSR]], Marshal of the Soviet Union, Dmitry Ustinov). The city is an important industrial center,...

1966–1986 0 0 270 0 0 0 0 0 270
 Ukraine Kharkiv
Kharkiv
Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...

1967–1987 0 0 735 0 0 0 0 0 735
 Ukraine Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....

1964–1987 0 0 923 0 0 0 0 0 923
 Slovakia Košice
Košice
Košice is a city in eastern Slovakia. It is situated on the river Hornád at the eastern reaches of the Slovak Ore Mountains, near the border with Hungary...

1963–1989 97 89 0 0 0 0 0 0 184
 Ukraine Kramatorsk
Kramatorsk
Kramatorsk is a city in the eastern Ukraine within Donetsk Oblast. Its population is about 200,000 people, including surrounding settlements under Kramatorsk City Council government....

1967 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2
 Russia Krasnodar
Krasnodar
Krasnodar is a city in Southern Russia, located on the Kuban River about northeast of the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. It is the administrative center of Krasnodar Krai . Population: -Name:...

1980–1986 0 0 115 0 0 0 0 0 115
 Ukraine Kryvyi Rih
Kryvyi Rih Metrotram
The Kryvyi Rih Metrotram is a partially underground rapid tram system that serves the city of Kryvyi Rih, the eighth largest city in Ukraine...

1986–1987 0 0 50 0 0 0 0 0 50
 Russia Kursk
Kursk
Kursk is a city and the administrative center of Kursk Oblast, Russia, located at the confluence of the Kur, Tuskar, and Seym Rivers. The area around Kursk was site of a turning point in the Russian-German struggle during World War II and the site of the largest tank battle in history...

1966–1987 0 0 278 0 0 0 0 0 278
 Czech Republic Liberec
Liberec
Liberec is a city in the Czech Republic. Located on the Lusatian Neisse and surrounded by the Jizera Mountains and Ještěd-Kozákov Ridge, it is the fifth-largest city in the Czech Republic....

1965–1987 20 34 0 0 0 0 0 0 54
 Ukraine Mariupol
Mariupol
Mariupol , formerly known as Zhdanov , is a port city in southeastern Ukraine. It is located on the coast of the Azov Sea, at the mouth of the Kalmius River. Mariupol is the largest city in Priazovye - a geographical region around Azov Sea, divided by Russia and Ukraine - and is also a popular sea...

1967–1975 0 0 32 0 0 0 0 0 32
 Russia Moscow 1963–1987 0 0 2069 0 0 0 0 0 2069
 Czech Republic Most
Most
Most is the capital city of the Most District, situated between the Czech Central Mountains and the Ore Mountains, approximately northwest of Prague along the Bílina River and southwest of Ústí nad Labem.-Etymology:...

1967–1987 9 67 0 0 0 0 0 0 76
 Russia Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod
Nizhny Novgorod , colloquially shortened to Nizhny, is, with the population of 1,250,615, the fifth largest city in Russia, ranking after Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk, and Yekaterinburg...

1978–1986 0 0 220 0 0 0 0 0 220
 Russia Novokuznetsk
Novokuznetsk
Novokuznetsk is a city in Kemerovo Oblast, Russia. It serves as the administrative center of Novokuznetsky District, but it is not administratively a part of it...

1967–1986 0 0 215 0 0 0 0 0 215
 Ukraine Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...

1966–1987 0 0 484 0 0 0 0 0 484
 Czech Republic Olomouc
Olomouc
Olomouc is a city in Moravia, in the east of the Czech Republic. The city is located on the Morava river and is the ecclesiastical metropolis and historical capital city of Moravia. Nowadays, it is an administrative centre of the Olomouc Region and sixth largest city in the Czech Republic...

1966–1987 30 39 0 0 0 0 0 0 69
 Russia Oryol
Oryol
Oryol or Orel is a city and the administrative center of Oryol Oblast, Russia, located on the Oka River, approximately south-southwest of Moscow...

1976–1985 0 0 85 0 0 0 0 0 85
 Independent State of Croatia Osijek
Osijek
Osijek is the fourth largest city in Croatia with a population of 83,496 in 2011. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja county...

1966–1982 0 0 0 0 0 26 4 0 30
 Czech Republic Ostrava
Ostrava
Ostrava is the third largest city in the Czech Republic and the second largest urban agglomeration after Prague. Located close to the Polish border, it is also the administrative center of the Moravian-Silesian Region and of the Municipality with Extended Competence. Ostrava was candidate for the...

1965–1987 97 127 0 0 0 0 0 0 224
 Czech Republic Pilsen 1964–1989 48 80 0 0 0 0 0 0 128
 Czech Republic Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

1960–1989 901 272 20 0 0 0 0 0 1193
 Russia Pyatigorsk
Pyatigorsk
Pyatigorsk is a city in Stavropol Krai on the Podkumok River, about from Mineralnye Vody. Since January 19, 2010 it has been the administrative center of the North Caucasian Federal District of Russia...

1967–1987 0 0 117 0 0 0 0 0 117
 Latvia Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...

1974–1987 0 0 243 0 0 0 0 0 243
 Russia Rostov-on-Don
Rostov-on-Don
-History:The mouth of the Don River has been of great commercial and cultural importance since the ancient times. It was the site of the Greek colony Tanais, of the Genoese fort Tana, and of the Turkish fortress Azak...

1967–1987 0 0 405 0 0 0 0 0 405
 Russia Samara
Samara, Russia
Samara , is the sixth largest city in Russia. It is situated in the southeastern part of European Russia at the confluence of the Volga and Samara Rivers. Samara is the administrative center of Samara Oblast. Population: . The metropolitan area of Samara-Tolyatti-Syzran within Samara Oblast...

1964–1986 0 0 619 0 0 0 0 0 619
 Bosnia and Herzegovina Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....

1967–1969 0 0 0 0 0 20 0 0 20
 Germany Schwerin
Schwerin
Schwerin is the capital and second-largest city of the northern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The population, as of end of 2009, was 95,041.-History:...

1973–1988 0 0 0 115 56 0 0 0 171
 Uzbekistan Tashkent
Tashkent
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...

1983–1985 0 0 18 0 0 0 0 0 18
 Russia Ufa
Ufa
-Demographics:Nationally, dominated by Russian , Bashkirs and Tatars . In addition, numerous are Ukrainians , Chuvash , Mari , Belarusians , Mordovians , Armenian , Germans , Jews , Azeris .-Government and administration:Local...

1966–1987 0 0 360 0 0 0 0 0 360
 Russia Ulyanovsk
Ulyanovsk
Ulyanovsk The city is the birthplace of Vladimir Lenin , for whom it is named.-History:Simbirsk was founded in 1648 by the boyar Bogdan Khitrovo. The fort of "Simbirsk" was strategically placed on a hill on the Western bank of the Volga River...

1966–1986 0 0 401 0 0 0 0 0 401
 Russia Tula
Tula, Russia
Tula is an industrial city and the administrative center of Tula Oblast, Russia. It is located south of Moscow, on the Upa River. Population: -History:...

1965–1986 0 0 401 0 0 0 0 0 401
 Russia Tver
Tver
Tver is a city and the administrative center of Tver Oblast, Russia. Population: 403,726 ; 408,903 ;...

1967–1986 0 0 306 0 0 0 0 0 306
 Russia Vladikavkaz
Vladikavkaz
-Notable structures:In Vladikavkaz, there is a guyed TV mast, tall, built in 1961, which has six crossbars with gangways in two levels running from the mast structure to the guys.-Twin towns/sister cities:...

1972–1987 0 0 129 0 0 0 0 0 129
 Russia Volgograd
Volgograd
Volgograd , formerly called Tsaritsyn and Stalingrad is an important industrial city and the administrative center of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. It is long, north to south, situated on the western bank of the Volga River...

1967–1987 0 0 425 0 0 0 0 0 425
 Russia Volzhsky
Volzhsky
Volzhsky , Volzhskaya , or Volzhskoye may refer to:*Volzhsky District, name of several districts and city districts in Russia...

1967–1980 0 0 75 0 0 0 0 0 75
 Russia Voronezh
Voronezh
Voronezh is a city in southwestern Russia, the administrative center of Voronezh Oblast. It is located on both sides of the Voronezh River, away from where it flows into the Don. It is an operating center of the Southeastern Railway , as well as the center of the Don Highway...

1977–1986 0 0 209 0 0 0 0 0 209
 Russia Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg is a major city in the central part of Russia, the administrative center of Sverdlovsk Oblast. Situated on the eastern side of the Ural mountain range, it is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District with a population of 1,350,136 , making it Russia's...

1964–1986 0 0 530 0 0 0 0 0 530
 Ukraine Zaporizhia
Zaporizhia
Zaporizhia or Zaporozhye [formerly Alexandrovsk ] is a city in southeastern Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper River. It is the administrative center of the Zaporizhia Oblast...

1966–1987 0 0 304 0 0 0 0 0 304
Total 1369 911 11368 247 118 46 4 50 14113


Note: This is production list. Public transport companies may sell used trams to other companies, thus number of cities where are (or were) these trams may be higher.

External links

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