Gullfisk - Operation

Operation

During World War II, the rationing of petroleum fuels gave a boom to ridership on the electric tramways. To handle the massive increase in ridership, the trams were equipped with two conductors. The single-center-door solution that worked excellently before the war became a bottle-neck as the trams became packed with riders. Lack of parts, particularly for the British Vickers-motors, caused long waits for defect vehicles at the depots. From 1942, the Kolsås Line was transferred to terminate at Nationaltheatret in the city center, and the Class B was operated along the Lilleaker Line from the west. Trams 164–166 were sent to Düsseldorf in Germany, but were never used because the city lacked balloon loops and the trams were too wide.

After the end of the war, Oslo Sporveier decided to transfer all the remaining trams to Bærumsbanen. Their high speed made them well suited on the light rail, but the center door reduced their capacity. The order of the SM53-series from Høka gave Oslo Sporveier sufficient stock to operate the street lines, and from 1952 to 1957, the company transferred the 19 trams to Bærumsbanen. Here, they were given the designation Class E. No. 163 was in too bad condition to be used on the line, and was retired. In October 1949, no. 184 burned up and was taken out of service. On 2 August 1958, five people perished and 17 were injured in the Strømsveien tram fire, the worst disaster in the tramway's history.

The Østensjø Line became part of the Oslo Metro in 1967, and several of the Class E trams were transferred to other parts of the tramway. However, the Lilleaker Line was instead tied to the Ekeberg Line on the east side of the city, and the trams started operating on the Jar–Ljabru service. After the last bus route had been converted to single-man operation and the conductor replaced with a ticket-selling motorman, Oslo Sporveier started the process to convert their tram fleet. No. 176 was converted as a trial, and after 1971, all the remaining Gullfisks were converted. Because the trams had been delivered with a single front door, the cost of converting the trams was very little, and the single-manning highly profitable.

In 1976, no. 1976 was retired after it had lost braking power and crashed. After this, only selected trams were given overhauls, the last being no. 170 in 1980. Following the delivery of the articulated SL79, the Class B and E were gradually retired, with the last tram running into 1985. Oslo Tramway Museum has kept six trams, while Oslo Sporveier kept two, converted them to maintenance vehicles and painted them yellow with zebra stripes.