Škoda 14Tr Specifications, Photos and Videos

The Škoda 14Tr was a Czech trolleybus produced from 1981 to 1998. Prototypes were built in 1972 and 1974.

After the unsuccessful attempt to merge the Karosa ŠM 11 bus and the Škoda T 11 trolleybus and the cancelled Škoda 13Tr project, a new style of trolleybus was designed in the early 1970s, designated the 14Tr. Development was halted because of plans to replace trolleybuses by diesel buses, but the 1973 oil crisis led to a re-evaluation and work on the 14Tr resumed.

The 14Tr is a two-axle trolleybus with unibody construction. Its structure consists of mutually welded elements: the frame, side walls, roof and ends. Each component is welded together from steel shapes and castings. The body is covered with a steel skin; the section below the windows is thermally insulated and soundproofed. The interior is surfaces with plastic paneling. Domestic buses have three twin-leaf folding doors on the right side, while export units only have two. Transverse passenger seats are covered in leatherette. Electrical equipment uses the same thyristor pulse control as the 9Tr trolleybus.

Between 1972 and 1998, 3,263 14Tr trolleybuses were built, plus two bodies that were used for the prototype TV-14Tr trolley-train (a total of 3,265 units).

From 1994 to 2004, Electric Transit, Inc. (a joint venture between Škoda and AAI Corporation) assembled 297 14Tr-based trolleybuses for the transit operators in two cities of the United States: Dayton, Ohio and San Francisco, designated 14TrE/E2 ("E" for "E"xport) and 14TrSF ("S"an "F"rancisco), respectively. To meet "Buy America" requirements for federally-subsidized transit vehicle purchases, incomplete "shells" were manufactured at the Škoda plant in the Czech Republic and shipped to an American facility in Hunt Valley, Maryland for initial fitting-out. Final fitting-out was performed at leased facilities in the client cities.

Summary

14TrM production started in 1981 and continued until 2003. A planned order for Gatchina, Russia was cancelled when construction of the trolleybus system stopped in 2005.

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