ZiU-9
The ZiU acronym stands for "Zavod imeni Uritskogo", which means a factory named after Moisei Uritsky, the Russian revolutionary.
The ZiU-9 was first built in 1966, although it was only put into mass production in 1972 and it was still assembled along with other more advanced trolleybus vehicles in the Trolza (former ZiU) factory until 2015.
The small door at the front end of the vehicle is smaller, yet nonetheless comfortable for the driver and for outgoing passengers.
While western designers developed new semiconductor-based control devices, Soviet engineers decided to retain the old resistor-based system for ease of maintenance.
However, after launching mass production, the new trolleybus received a new index, '682' from the unified classification of non-rail public transport vehicles.
All series went by the ZiU-682 designation, but the number '682' proved difficult to pronounce and the shorter '9' still lives in the everyday language of drivers and servicemen.
[2] Elements of the appearance and number of design decisions were borrowed from contemporary to the time foreign firms MAN and Chausson.
The rear area had a lowered floor, to reduce the number of steps at the back door, thus allowing the loading of wheelchairs, prams, and large items.
In 1991 developers replaced the high-speed separator handrail attached to the door, but by this time all storage sites were at three stages from sidewalk level.
For natural ventilation, the roof of the cabin was equipped with four ceiling hatches, and sliding side window panes.
At the end of 1976, mass production of the updated ZiU-682V began, which replaced the ZiU-682B, the key difference being leaf springs instead of track bars.
Lights original form, informally called "boats" have been replaced by unified and offset edges closer to route indicators.
In 1985, the nameplate trolley was partially aligned with the standards forming the VIN code, which led to a change in marking HTI682V00.
In 1989, production started in parallel transition modification ZiU- 682V0B on which the electric drive door opener was replaced with a pneumatic system.
As a result, in severe operating conditions (e.g. in Nizhny Novgorod) over 5 years, these structural elements had a tendency to corrode to the extent that they could be punctured with the gentle tap of a screwdriver.
Based on ZiU- 682G -012 began the further modernization of trolley conducted mainly commissioned Mosgortransa (as most other Russian cities at that time became insolvent) and divided into several stages.
The trolleybuses began to possess higher corrosion protection, a number of components now composed of aluminum, stainless steel, and fiberglass.
Exterior siding boards became run from extruded galvanized steel sheets, which improved the appearance of the trolley and increased its corrosion resistance.
Back in the mid-1990s, it became apparent that the location of electrical equipment underneath the trolley did not meet modern requirements of the current equipment, because it does not protect it from moisture, anti-icing agents or other debris and damaging conditions, and also allows the bus to drag the assembly through puddles should their depth exceed ten centimeters.
From 2002 to request the trolley began to be produced in variants with altered appearance cabin (this applied fiberglass pad).
To improve the electrical introduced fiberglass boards, electrical insulation flaps passenger doors from the body, external electrical insulation rod current collectors, insulation monitoring device UKI, emergency switch, the imposition of mostly electric traction kit from under the floor to the roof, technological track on the roof to move attendants, rear stopper rods pantographs fitted to three electrical insulators, locking the trolley system with open doors, emergency (spare) the passenger area lighting system ANTI passenger doors, emergency exits through the windows of the cabin, equipment service doors from inside and outside governments to open in an emergency installation on the roof of a high-speed circuit-breaker with remote control, etc.
Its main difference from ZiU - 682G - 016.02 is that the frame (base) body is made of an open profile (sill), which increases the rigidity and makes it more resistant to corrosion.
Optionally, the vehicle may be installed with a swing-slide-type front double door (which is especially important for use in Moscow, as one must pay for travel validation).
As changes in the rank of permanent options included installing electronic route signs and a marquee in the passenger compartment and ABS that ZiU-682G-ZiU 016.02 and 016.03-682G-performed by the customer.
This machine has a total 016.04 with a different numbering and control system - TrSU " Chergos " instead of the standard rheostat- contactor.
In Hungary, ZiU-9 trolleys still operate in recent years, but they have been retired in Debrecen (DKV), Budapest (BKV), and Szeged (SzKT).
In the latter, the EDTU (Empresa Distrital de Transportes Urbanos) was a larger operator of these buses; they were in a very bad conservation state in the former Eastern Bloc countries.
