Signs, posters & an Erlkönig
Status: 09.05.25
Even though we think our buses and trams are really beautiful in themselves, we do occasionally give them a little makeover. We then like to use them to place clear messages in the cityscape. For example, with our #WeRemember tram, which commemorates Dortmund's Holocaust victims. Or with the Diversity Train, which sets an example against discrimination and in favour of tolerance.
But how do you pimp a light railway?
The answer to this is actually quite simple. Buses and trams can be given a new look fairly quickly with self-adhesive films. The special thing about it? We print the films ourselves. In this case, "we" means a small team of specialists from our paint shop.
However, printing the films is anything but easy. The motifs for the decals are usually supplied by agencies. But before the printers start up, they usually have to be reworked using a professional graphics programme. This ensures that, depending on the type of vehicle, subtleties such as window and door seals or bodywork roundings that cannot be stuck on are taken into account during the wrapping process and that the end result is simply good.
Then you need to decide what type of film to use. Easily removable, particularly durable or suitable for window wrapping? For projects other than vehicle wrapping, there are even more options: reflective, photoluminescent, mesh fabric or lorry tarpaulin - almost nothing is impossible for our colleagues. It takes a lot of expertise to find the right material for the planned application.
Although the technical equipment is excellent, there is no printer that can produce film for an entire urban railway in one piece. But that would be unmanageable once the film was applied. So large motifs first have to be divided into individual pieces before they go to print. At the end, they can then be reassembled when they are applied to the railway.
Wrapping entire light rail vehicles is always a special project for our colleagues. However, the day-to-day work of our colleagues looks a little different. It consists, for example, of printing and affixing films to emergency call pillars or stops. When you consider how many bus stops in the city have to be covered, it's clear that there's a lot of work involved. But they also take care of the production of "traffic signs" for our route network and other signage in the company. The huge symbolic donation cheques that DSW21 hands over at the award ceremony in the #DortMut competition, for example, are just as much a part of their jobs as perhaps the most curious project that the colleagues have been allowed to work on so far. They "uglified" a new vehicle development for a German car manufacturer. With black and yellow foiling, the "Erlkönig" then underwent its first practical test as a follow-me car on the airport grounds before it was allowed to drive on the road.
We don't currently have any vacancies in the paint shop. But perhaps there is a job in another department that offers much more than you would expect at DSW21? Take a look at our job market here!
