A tram (also known as a tramcar; a streetcar or
street car; and a trolley, trolleycar, or
trolley car) is a
rail vehicle which runs on
tracks along public urban streets (called
street running), and also sometimes on separate
rights of way. Trams powered by electricity, which were the most
common type historically, were once called electric street railways.
Trams also included
horsecar railways which were widely used in urban areas before
electrification.
Trams may also run between cities and/or towns (for example,
interurbans,
tram-train), and/or partially
grade separated even in the cities (light
rail). Trams very occasionally also carry
freight.
Tram vehicles are usually lighter and shorter than conventional
trains
and
rapid transit trains. However, the differences between these modes
of public transportation are often indistinct. Some trams (for instance
tram-trains) may also run on
ordinary railway tracks, a tramway may be upgraded to a light rail
or a rapid transit line, two urban tramways may be united to an
interurban, etc.
Most trams today use electrical power, usually fed by an overhead
pantograph; in some cases by a sliding shoe on a
third rail or
trolley pole. If necessary, they may have several pow
er systems. Another power source is
diesel oil; a few trams use electricity in urban streets, and diesel
in more rural environments. Steam, petrol (gasoline), gas and draft
animals have historically been used as power sources.
Horse
and mule driven trams do still occur, mostly for the tourist trade.
Certain types of
cable
car are also known as trams.
Tramways are now included in the wider term "light
rail",[1]
which also includes segregated systems. Some systems have both
segregated and street running sections, but are usually then referred to
as trams, because it is the equipment for street running which tends to
be the decisive factor. Vehicles on wholly segregated light rail systems
are generally called "trains", although cases have been known of train
equipment built for a segregated system being sold to new owners and
becoming "trams".[citation
needed]
Etymology
and terminology
Old tram stop on-demand notifier
The terms tram and tramway are derived from the
Scots word tram,[2]
referring respectively to a type of truck used in
coal mines, and the tracks on which they ran. The word tram
probably derived from Middle Flemish tram ("beam, handle of a
barrow, bar, rung"), a
North Sea Germanic word of unknown origin meaning the beam or shaft
of a barrow or sledge, also the barrow itself. Tram-car is
attested from 1873.[3]
Although the terms tram and tramway have been adopted
by many languages, they are not used universally in English; North
Americans prefer streetcar, trolley, or trolleycar.
The term streetcar is first recorded in 1840, and originally
referred to
horsecars drawn by draft horses. When electrification came,
Americans began to speak of trolleycars or later, trolleys.
These terms are believed to derive from the troller (possibly
from the words traveler and roller), a four-wheeled device
that was dragged along dual overhead wires by a cable that connected the
troller to the top of the car and collected electrical power from the
overhead wires.[4]
The troller design frequently fell off the wires, and was soon
replaced by the more reliable
trolley pole. This newer device was fitted to the top of the car,
and was spring-loaded in order to keep a small trolley wheel or
alternately, a grooved lubricated "skate" mounted at the top of the
pole, firmly in contact with the underside of the overhead wire. The
terms trolley pole and trolley wheel both derive from the
troller.[5]
Trams using trolley-pole current collection are normally powered through
a single pole, with return current earthed through the steel wheels and
rails. Modern trams often have an overhead
pantograph
mechanical linkage to connect to power, abandoning the trolley pole
altogether.
In North America, trams are sometimes called trolleys, even
though strictly this may be incorrect, and the term may even be applied
to cable cars, or
conduit cars that instead draw power from an underground supply.
Conventional diesel
tourist buses
decorated to look like streetcars are sometimes called trolleys
in the US (tourist
trolley). Furthering confusion, the term tram has instead
been applied to open-sided, low-speed segmented vehicles on rubber tires
generally used to ferry tourists short distances, for example on the
Universal Studios backlot tour.
Over time, the term trolley has fallen into informal use, and
may be applied loosely to a wide variety of different vehicle types. The
word has taken on a historic or picturesque connotation, and is often
associated with tourist or leisure travel. In North America,
professional or formal documents generally use more precise alternative
terms, such as streetcar or light rail vehicle (LRV).
Although the use of the term trolley for tram was not adopted
in Europe, the term was later associated with the
trolleybus, a rubber-tyred vehicle running on hard pavement,
which draws its power from pairs of overhead wires. These electric
buses, which use twin trolley poles (one for live current, one for
return), are also called trackless trolleys (particularly in the
northeastern US), or sometimes simply trolleys (in the UK, as
well as in
Seattle
and
Vancouver).
History
Horse-drawn
The very first tram was on the
Swansea and Mumbles Railway in south
Wales,
UK; it was horse-drawn at first, and later moved by steam and electric
power. The Mumbles Railway Act was passed by the British Parliament in
1804, and the first passenger railway (similar to streetcars in the US
some 30 years later) started operating in 1807.[6]
The first streetcars, also known as
horsecars in North America, were built in the United States and
developed from city
stagecoach lines and
omnibus lines
that picked up and dropped off passengers on a regular route without the
need to be pre-hired. These trams were an
animal railway, usually using teams of horses and sometimes
mules to
haul the cars, usually two as a team. Occasionally other animals were
put to use, or humans in emergencies. The first streetcar line,
developed by Irish born
John Stephenson, was the
New York and Harlem Railroad's
Fourth Avenue Line which ran along
the Bowery and
Fourth Avenue in New York City. Service began in 1832. It was
followed in 1835 by
New Orleans, Louisiana, which has the oldest continuously operating
street railway system in the world, according to the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers.[7]
These early forms of public transport developed out of industrial
haulage routes or from the
omnibus that
first ran on public streets, using the newly invented iron or steel rail
or 'tramway'. These were local versions of the stagecoach lines and
picked up and dropped off passengers on a regular route, without the
need to be pre-hired. Horsecars on tramlines were an improvement over
the omnibus as the low rolling resistance of metal wheels on iron or
steel rails (usually grooved from 1852 on), allowed the animals to haul
a greater load for a given effort than the omnibus and gave a smoother
ride. The horse-drawn streetcar combined the low cost, flexibility, and
safety of animal power with the efficiency, smoothness, and all-weather
capability of a rail right-of-way.
Steam
Steam hauled tram in
Italy c 1890s
Main article:
Tram engine
The first mechanical trams were powered by
steam. Generally, there were two types of steam tram. The first and
most common had a small
steam locomotive (called a
tram engine in the UK) at the head of a line of one or more
carriages, similar to a small train. Systems with such steam trams
included
Christchurch, New Zealand; Sydney, Australia; other city systems in
New South Wales;
Munich,
Germany (from August 1883 on)[8]
and the Dublin & Blessington Steam Tramway in Ireland. Steam tramways
also were used on the suburban tramway lines around
Milan;
the last Gamba de Legn ("Peg-Leg") tramway ran on the Milan-Magenta-Castano
Primo route in late 1958.[citation
needed]
Tram engines usually had modifications to make them suitable for
street running in residential areas. The wheels, and other moving parts
of the machinery, were usually enclosed for safety reasons and to make
the engines quieter. Measures were often taken to prevent the engines
from emitting visible smoke or steam. Usually the engines used
coke rather than coal as fuel to avoid emitting smoke;
condensers or
superheating were used to avoid emitting visible steam.
The other style of steam tram had the steam engine in the body of the
tram, referred to as a
tram engine or
steam dummy. The most notable system to adopt such trams was in
Paris. French-designed steam trams also operated in
Rockhampton, in the Australian state of
Queensland between 1909 and 1939.
Stockholm, Sweden, had a steam tram line at the island of
Södermalm between 1887 and 1901. A major drawback of this style of
tram was the limited space for the engine, so that these trams were
usually underpowered.
Cable-hauled
The next motive system for trams was the cable car, which was pulled
along a
fixed track by a moving steel cable. The power to move the cable was
normally provided at a "powerhouse" site a distance away from the actual
vehicle.
The first practical cable car line was tested in
San Francisco, in 1873. Part of its success is attributed to the
development of an effective and reliable
cable grip mechanism, to grab and release the moving cable without
damage. The second city to operate cable trams was
Dunedin in New Zealand, from 1881 to 1957. From 1885 to 1940, the
city of
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia operated one of the largest cable
systems in the world, at its peak running 592 trams on 75 kilometres
(47 mi) of track. There were also two isolated cable lines in
Sydney,
New South Wales, Australia.[when?]
New York City developed at least seven cable car lines.[when?]
A line in
Washington DC ran to Georgetown (where some of the underground cable
vaults can still be seen today).[citation
needed] Los Angeles also had several cable car
lines, including the
Second Street Cable Railroad, which operated from 1885 to 1889, and
the
Temple Street Cable Railway, which operated from 1886 to 1898. The
most extensive cable system in the US was in
Chicago.[when?][citation
needed]
In
Dresden, Germany, in 1901 an elevated
suspended cable car following the Eugen Langen one-railed
floating tram system started operating. Cable cars operated on
Highgate Hill in North London and
Kennington to
Brixton
Hill In South London.[when?]
They also worked around "Upper Douglas" in the
Isle of Man[when?]
(cable car 72/73 is the sole survivor of the fleet).
Cable tram dummy and trailer on the St. Kilda Line in
Melbourne in 1905.
Cable cars suffered from high
infrastructure costs, since an expensive system of
cables,
pulleys,
stationary engines and lengthy underground vault structures beneath
the rails had to be provided. They also required physical strength and
skill to operate, and alert operators to avoid obstructions and other
cable cars. The cable had to be disconnected ("dropped") at designated
locations to allow the cars to coast by momentum, for example when
crossing another cable line. The cable would then have to be "picked up"
to resume progress, the whole operation requiring precise timing to
avoid damage to the cable and the grip mechanism.
Breaks and frays in the cable, which occurred frequently, required
the complete cessation of services over a cable route while the cable
was repaired. Due to overall wear, the entire length of cable (typically
several kilometres) would have to be replaced on a regular schedule.
After the development of reliable electrically powered trams, the costly
high-maintenance cable car systems were rapidly replaced in most
locations.
Cable cars remained especially effective in hilly cities, since their
nondriven wheels would not
lose traction as they climbed or descended a steep hill. The moving
cable would physically pull the car up the hill at a steady pace, unlike
a low-powered steam or horse-drawn car. Cable cars do have wheel brakes
and
track brakes, but the cable also helps restrain the car to going
downhill at a constant speed. Performance in steep terrain partially
explains the survival of cable cars in San Francisco. However, the
extensive cable car system of Chicago operated over a large relatively
flat area.
The
San Francisco cable cars, though significantly reduced in number,
continue to perform a regular transportation function, in addition to
being a well-known
tourist attraction. A single cable line also survives in
Wellington, New Zealand (rebuilt in 1979 as a
funicular but still called the "Wellington
Cable Car").
Hybrid
funicular electric
Former second generation cable tractor, used between 1978
and 2005, assisting a tramcar on the cable section of the
Opicina Tramway in
Trieste, Italy.
The
Opicina Tramway in
Trieste
operates a hybrid funicular electric system. Conventional electric trams
are operated in
street running and on
reserved track for most of their route. However, on one steep
segment of track, they are assisted by cable tractors, which push the
trams uphill and act as brakes for the downhill run. For safety, the
cable tractors are always deployed on the downhill side of the tram
vehicle.
Electric
(trolley cars)
Historic German electric tram
Electric trams (known as streetcars or trolleys in North America)
were first experimentally installed in
Saint Petersburg, Russia, invented and tested by
Fyodor Pirotsky as early as 1880. These trams, like virtually all
others mentioned in this section, used either a trolley pole or a
pantograph, to feed power from electric wires strung above the tram
route. Nevertheless, there were early experiments with
battery-powered trams but these appear to have all been
unsuccessful. The first trams in
Bendigo,
Australia, in 1892, were battery-powered but within as little as three
months they were replaced with horse-drawn trams. In New York City some
minor lines also used storage batteries. Then, comparatively recently,
during the 1950s, a longer battery-operated tramway line ran from Milan
to
Bergamo.
The first regular electric tram service using pantographs or trolley
poles, the
Gross-Lichterfelde Tramway, went into service in
Lichterfelde, a suburb of Berlin, Germany, by
Siemens & Halske AG, in May 1881.[9]
The company
Siemens
still exists.
Another was by
John Joseph Wright, brother of the famous mining entrepreneur
Whitaker Wright, in
Toronto
in 1883. Earlier installations proved difficult or unreliable. Siemens'
line, for example, provided power through a live rail and a return rail,
like a
model train, limiting the
voltage
that could be used, and providing electric shocks to people and animals
crossing the tracks.[10]
Siemens later designed his own method of current collection, from an
overhead wire, called the
bow collector.
First type of Mödling and Hinterbrühl tramcars, bipolar
overhead line
In 1883,
Magnus Volk constructed his 2 feet (610 mm) gauge
Volk's Electric Railway along the eastern seafront at
Brighton, England. This two kilometer line, re-gauged to 2 feet
9 inches (840 mm) in 1884, remains in service to this day, and is the
oldest operating electric tramway in the world. The first tram
for permanent service with
overhead lines was the
Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram in Austria. It began operating in
October 1883, but was closed in 1932.
Multiple functioning experimental electric trams were exhibited at
the 1884
World Cotton Centennial World's Fair in
New Orleans, Louisiana, but they were not deemed good enough to
replace the
Lamm fireless engines that then propelled the
St. Charles Avenue Streetcar in that city.
Electric trams were first tested in service in the United States in
Richmond, Virginia, in 1888, in the
Richmond Union Passenger Railway built by
Frank J. Sprague, though the first commercial installation of an
electric streetcar in the United States was built in 1884 in
Cleveland, Ohio and operated for a period of one year by the East
Cleveland Street Railway Company.[11]
The first electric street tramway in Britain, the
Blackpool Tramway, was opened on 29 September 1885 using conduit
collection along Blackpool Promenade. Since the closure of the
Glasgow Corporation Tramways in 1962, this has been the only
first-generation operational tramway in the UK.
Sarajevo had the first electric trams on the continent of Europe,
with a city-wide system in 1885.[12]
Budapest
established
its tramway system in 1887, and this line has grown to be the
busiest tram line in Europe, with a tram running every 60 seconds at
rush hour (however Istanbul's line T1, with a minimum headway of two
minutes, probably carries more passengers – 265,000 per day).
Bucharest and
Belgrade[13]
ran a regular service from 1894.[14][15]
Ljubljana introduced
its tram system in 1901 – it closed in 1958.[16]
In Australia there were electric systems in
Sydney,
Newcastle,
Broken Hill,
Geelong,
Ballarat,
Bendigo,
Brisbane,
Adelaide,
Perth,
Kalgoorlie,
Laverton,
Hobart and
Launceston. By the 1970s, the only tramway system remaining in
Australia was the extensive
Melbourne system other than a few single lines remaining elsewhere:
the
Glenelg Tram, connecting Adelaide to the beachside suburb of
Glenelg, and tourist trams in the Victorian
Goldfields cities of
Bendigo and
Ballarat. An unusual line that operated from 1889 to 1896 connected
Box Hill, then an outer suburb of Melbourne, to
Doncaster, then a favoured picnic spot but now a dormitory suburb.
In recent years the Melbourne system, generally recognised as one of the
largest in the world, has been considerably moderrnised and expanded.
The Adelaide line has also been extended to the Entertainment Centre,
and there are plans to expand further.
In 1904 trams were put into operation in Hong Kong. The
Hong Kong Tramway is still in operation today and uses double-decker
trams exclusively.
Gas trams
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries a number of systems in
various parts of the world employed trams powered by gas,
naphtha
gas or
coal gas in particular. Gas trams are known to have operated between
Alphington and
Clifton Hill in the northern suburbs of
Melbourne, Australia (1886–1888); in Berlin and
Dresden,
Germany; in
Estonia
(1920s–1930); between
Jelenia Góra,
Cieplice, and
Sobieszów in Poland (from 1897); and in the UK at
Lytham St Annes,
Neath
(1896–1920), and
Trafford Park, Manchester (1897–1908).
On 29 December 1886 the Melbourne newspaper
The Argus reprinted a report from the
San Francisco Bulletin that Mr Noble had demonstrated a new ‘motor
car’ for tramways 'with success'. The tramcar ‘exactly similar in size,
shape, and capacity to a cable grip car’ had the ‘motive power’ of gas
‘with which the reservoir is to be charged once a day at power stations
by means of a rubber hose’. The car also carried an electricity
generator for ‘lighting up the tram and also for driving the engine on
steep grades and effecting a start’.[17]
Comparatively little has been published about gas trams. However,
research on the subject was carried out for an article in the October
2011 edition of "The Times", the historical journal of the
Australian Association of Timetable Collectors.[18][19]
A tram system powered by
compressed gas was due to open in
Malaysia in 2012,[20]
but as at January 2013 there was no evidence of anything having
happpened, in fact news about the project appeared to have dried up.
Other power
sources
In some places, other forms of power were used to power the tram.
Hastings and some other tramways, for example
Stockholms Spårvägar in Sweden and some lines in
Karachi,
used
petrol trams. Paris operated trams that were powered by
compressed air using the
Mekarski system.
Galveston Island Trolley in Texas operates
diesel trams due to the city's hurricane-prone location, which would
result in frequent damage to an electrical supply system.
Although
Portland, Victoria promotes its tourist tram[21]
as being a cable car it actually operates using a hidden diesel motor.
The tram, which runs on a circular route around the town of Portland,
uses dummies and salons formerly used on the extensive
Melbourne cable tramway system and now beautifully restored.
Design
Low floor
Two Trams in Braunschweig, Germany. The left one is an 1981
high-floor tram, the right one a 2007 low-floor
The latest generation of light rail vehicles is of partial or fully
low-floor design, with the floor 300 to 360 mm (11.8 to 14.2 in) above
top of rail, a capability not found in older vehicles. This allows them
to load passengers, including those in
wheelchairs, directly from low-rise platforms that are not much more
than raised footpaths/sidewalks. This satisfies requirements to provide
access to disabled passengers without using expensive
wheelchair lifts, while at the same time making boarding faster and
easier for other passengers.
Various companies have developed particular low-floor designs,
varying from part-low-floor (with internal steps between the low-floor
section and the high-floor sections over the bogies), e.g. Citytram[22]
and
Siemens S70, to 100% low-floor, where the floor passes through a
corridor between the drive wheels, thus maintaining a relatively
constant (stepless) level from end to end of the tram.
Prior to the introduction of the
Škoda ForCity,[citation
needed] this carried the mechanical penalty of
requiring bogies to be fixed and unable to pivot (except for less than 5
degrees in some trams) and thus reducing
curve negotiation. This creates undue wear on the tracks and wheels.
Passengers appreciate the ease of boarding and alighting from
low-floor trams and moving about inside 100% low-floor trams. Passenger
satisfaction with low-floor trams is high.[23]
Low-floor trams are now running in many cities around the world,
including
Amsterdam, Dublin,
Hiroshima,
Houston,
Istanbul,
Melbourne, Milan,
Prague,
Riga,
Strasbourg, Vienna,
Zagreb,
Helsinki and
Zürich.
Ultra low floor
The Ultra Low Floor or (ULF) tram is a type of low-floor tram
operating in
Vienna,
Austria
and Oradea,
Romania,
with the lowest floor-height of any such vehicle. In contrast to other
low-floor trams, the floor in the interior of ULF is at sidewalk height
(about 18 cm or 7 inches above the road surface), which makes access to
trams easy for passengers in wheelchairs or with baby carriages. This
configuration required a new undercarriage. The axles had to be replaced
by a complicated electronic steering of the
traction motors. Auxiliary devices are installed largely under the
car’s roof.
Articulated
Articulated trams, invented and first used by the
Boston Elevated Railway in 1912–13[24]
at a total length of about twelve meters long (40 ft) for each
pioneering example of twin-section articulated tram car, have two or
more body sections, connected by flexible
joints and a round platform at their pivoting midsection(s). Like
articulated buses, they have increased passenger capacity. In
practice, these trams can be up to 53 metres (174 ft) long[25]
(such as in Budapest, Hungary), while a regular tram has to be much
shorter. With this type, the articulation is normally suspended between
carbody sections.
In the
Škoda ForCity, which is the world's first 100% low floor tram with
pivoting bogies, a
Jacobs bogie supports the articulation between the two or more
carbody sections. An articulated tram may be
low-floor variety or high (regular) floor variety. Newer model trams
may be up to 72 metres (236 ft) long and carry 510 passengers at a
comfortable 4 passengers/m2. At
crush loadings this would be even higher.[26]
Double decker
A double deck London tram in 1910
Double decker trams were commonplace in Great Britain and
Dublin
Ireland before most tramways were torn up in the 1950s and 1960s.
Hobart,
Tasmania, Australia made extensive use of double decker trams. Arguably
the most unusual double decker tram used to run between the isolated
Western Australian
outback
village of
Laverton and its small suburb of
Gwalia.
Double decker trams still operate in
Alexandria,
Blackpool and
Hong Kong.
Tram-train
Tram-train operation uses vehicles such as the
Flexity Link and Regio-Citadis,
which are suited for use on urban tram lines and also meet the necessary
indication, power, and strength requirements for operation on main-line
railways. This allows passengers to travel from suburban areas into
city-centre destinations without having to change from a train to a
tram.
It has been primarily developed in Germanic countries, in particular
Germany and Switzerland.
Karlsruhe is a notable pioneer of the tram-train.
Non-commuter
Cargo trams
Since the 19th century goods have been carried on rail vehicles
through the streets, often near docks and steelworks, for example the
Weymouth Harbour Tramway in
Weymouth, Dorset.[27]
Belgian
vicinal tramway routes were used to haul timber and
coal from Blégny colliery while in the USA several of the US
interurbans carried freight. In Australia, three different "Freight
Cars" operated in
Melbourne between 1927 and 1977[28]
and the city of
Kislovodsk in Russia had a freight-only tram system consisting of
one line which was used exclusively to deliver bottled Narzan mineral
water to the railway station.[29]
Today, the German city of
Dresden
has a regular
CarGoTram service, run by the world's longest tram trainsets
(59.4 metres (195 ft)), carrying car parts across the city centre to its
Volkswagen factory.[30]
In addition to Dresden, the cities of
Vienna
and
Zürich currently use trams as mobile recycling depots.
At the turn of the 21st century, a new interest has arisen in using
urban tramway systems to transport goods. The motivation now is to
reduce air pollution, traffic congestion and damage to road surfaces in
city centres.
One recent proposal to bring cargo tramways back into wider use was
the plan by
City Cargo Amsterdam to reintroduce them into the city of
Amsterdam. In the spring of 2007 the city piloted this cargo tram
operation, which among its aims aimed to reduce
particulate pollution in the city by 20% by halving the number of
lorries (5,000) unloading in the
inner city during the permitted timeframe from 07:00 till 10:30. The
pilot involved two cargo trams, operating from a distribution centre and
delivering to a "hub" where special electric trucks delivered the trams'
small
containers to their final destination. The trial was successful,
releasing an intended investment of €100 million in a
fleet of 52 cargo trams distributing from four peripheral "cross
docks" to 15 inner-city hubs by 2012. These specially built vehicles
would be 30 feet (9.14 m) long with 12
axles and a
payload
of 30 tonnes
(33.1 short
tons; 29.5 long
tons). On weekdays, trams are planned to make 4 deliveries per hour
between 7 a.m. and 11 a.m. and two per hour between 11 a.m. and 11 p.m.
With each unloading operation taking on average 10 minutes, this means
that each site would be active for 40 minutes out of each hour during
the morning rush hour. In early 2009 the scheme was suspended owing to
the
financial crisis impeding fund-raising.[31]
Hearse-tram
Specially appointed hearse trams were used for funerals in Milan,
Italy, from the 1880s (initially horse-drawn) to the 1920s. The main
cemeteries, Cimitero Monumentale and Cimitero Maggiore, included funeral
tram stations. Additional funeral stations were located at Piazza
Firenze and at Porta Romana.[32]
In the mid-1940s at least one special hearse tram was used in Turin,
Italy. It was introduced due to the wartime shortage of automotive fuel.[33]
Newcastle, NSW, Australia also operated two hearse trams[34]
between 1896 and 1948.
Dog car
In
Melbourne a "dog car" was used between 1937 and 1955 for
transporting dogs and their owners to the
Royal Melbourne Showgrounds.[28]
Contractors' mobile offices
Two former passenger cars from the
Melbourne system were converted and used as mobile offices within
the
Preston Workshops between 1969 and 1974, by personnel from
Commonwealth Engineering and
ASEA who were connected with the construction of Melbourne's Z Class
cars.[28]
Restaurant trams
A number of systems have introduced restaurant trams, particularly as
a tourist attraction. This is specifically a modern trend. Inter alia,
tram systems which have or have had restaurant trams include:
Adelaide, Australia;
Bendigo,
Australia;
Brussels, Belgium,
Christchurch, New Zealand, (currently suspended pending post
earthquake infrastructure assessment);
Melbourne, Australia;
Milan,
Italy; Moscow, Russia;
Turin,
Italy;
Zürich, Switzerland.
These type of vehicles are particularly popular in Melbourne where
three of the iconic "W" class trams have been converted to restaurant
trams. All three often run in tandem and there are usually multiple meal
sittings. Bookings often close months in advance.
Bistro trams with buffets operate between
Krefeld
and
Düsseldorf in Germany,[35]
while
Helsinki in Finland has a
pub
tram.
Frankfurt, Germany has a tourist circle line called
"Ebbelwei-Express", in which the traditional local drink "Apfelwein" is
served.[36]
Mobile Libary
Service
Munich tram No.24, delivered in 1912, was refurbished as a mobile
library in 1928. Known as "Städtischen Wanderbücherei München", it was
in public service until 1970. It was preserved and is now on public
display in a railway museum in Hannover.[37]
Nursery tramways
After
World War Two, in both
Warsaw
and
Wrocław,
Poland,
so-called tramways-nurseries[38]
were in operation, collecting children from the workplaces of their
parents (often tram employees). These mobile nursuries either carried
the children around the system or delivered them to the nursery school
run by transport company.[39]
Work Trains
and others
Most systems had cars that were converted to specific uses on the
system, other than simply the carriage of passengers. As just one
example, the
Melbourne system used or uses the following "technical" cars : a
Ballast Motor, Ballast Trailers, a Blow Car, Breakdown Cars, Conductors
and/or Drivers' Instruction Cars, a Laboratory Testing Car, a Line
Marking Car, a Pantograph Testing Car, Per Way Locomotives, Rail
Grinders, a Rail Hardner Loco., a Scrapper Car, Scrubbers, Sleeper
Carriers, Track Cleaners, a Welding Car, a Wheel Transport Car and a
Workshops Locomotive.[28]
Advertising
Many systems have passenger carrying vehicles with all-over
advertising on the exterior and/or the interior.
Tramway operation
There are two main types of Tramways, the classic tramway build in
the early 20th century with the tram system operating in mixed traffic
and the later type which is most often associated with the tram system
having its own right of way. Tram systems that have their own right of
way are often called
Light Rail but this does not always hold true. Though these two
systems differ in their operation their equipment is much the same.
- Infrastructure and equipment
- Tram stop
- Controls
Main article:
Tram controls
- Track
Main article:
Tramway track
- Power supply
Tram and light-rail transit systems around the world
Czech
Tatra T3 – 14,113 units sold worldwide make it one of
the highest-selling types of tram.
Throughout the world there are many tram systems; some dating from
the late 19th or early 20th centuries. However a large number of the old
systems were closed during the mid-20th century because of such
perceived drawbacks as route inflexibility and maintenance expense. This
was especially the case in North American, British, French and other
West European cities. Some traditional tram systems did however survive
and remain operating much as when first built over a century ago. In the
past twenty years their numbers have been augmented by modern tramway or
light rail systems in cities that had discarded this form of transport.
Popularity
Tramways with tramcars (British
English) or street railways with streetcars (American
English) were common throughout the industrialised world in the late
19th and early 20th centuries but they had disappeared from most
British, Canadian, French and US cities by the mid-20th century.[40]
By contrast,
trams in parts of continental Europe continued to be used by many
cities, although there were contractions in some countries, including
the Netherlands.[41]
Since 1980 trams have returned to favour in many places, partly
because their tendency to dominate the roadway, formerly seen as a
disadvantage, is now considered to be a merit. New systems have been
built in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, France and many
other countries.
In Milan, Italy, the old "Ventotto"
trams are considered by its inhabitants a "symbol" of the city.
Largest tram
systems
The five largest tram networks in the world by track length are;
Melbourne, Australia (250 km (160 mi)),[42]
St. Petersburg (240 km (150 mi)),
Berlin (190 km (120 mi)),
Moscow (181 km (112 mi)) and
Vienna (172 km (107 mi)).[43]
The longest single tram line in the world is the
Belgian Coast Tram, which runs almost the entire length of the
Belgian coast. Other large systems include (but not limited to),
Amsterdam,
Brussels,
Bucharest,
Budapest,
Kiev,
Leipzig,
Milan,
Prague, the
Silesian Interurbans,
Toronto,
Turin,
Warsaw,
Zagreb and
Zurich.
Before its decline the
BVG in Berlin operated a very large network with 634 km of route.
The largest tram system ever with 857 km existed in
Buenos Aires before the 1960s. During a period in the 1980s the
world's largest tram system was in
Leningrad, USSR, being included in
Guinness World Records.
Until the system started to be converted to trolleybus (and later
bus) in the 1930s, the first-generation London network was also one of
the world's largest, with 526 km (327 mi) of route in 1934.[44]
While the largest streetcar network in the world used to be located in
Chicago, with over 850 kilometres (530 mi) of track,[45]
all of it was converted to bus service by the late 1950s.
Asia
A double-decker tram in Hong Kong
Main article:
Trams in Asia
Tramway systems were well established in the Asian region at the
start of the 20th century, but started a steady decline during the mid
to late 1930s. The 1960s marked the end of its dominance in public
transportation with most major systems closed and the equipment and
rails sold for scrap; however, some extensive original lines still
remain in service in Hong Kong and Japan. In recent years there has been
renewed interest in the tram with modern systems being built in Japan,
the Philippines, and South Korea.
Trams still operate in Calcutta, India. Trams were discontinued in
Bombay, India in 1960. There were Trolley Buses also in Bombay (now
called Mumbai), the last of which operated between Mazagon and Grant
Road, which was discontinued in the late 1970s.
The Northern and Central areas of the City of Colombo in SriLanka had
an electric Tram Car system (42" Gauge). This system commenced
operations about 1900 and was discontinued by 1960. The original
operator was the Colombo Electric Tram Car and Lighting Company Ltd.
(represented by Boustead Brothers), and after an infamous Tram Car
Strike, the Colombo Municipal Council took over operations.
Subsequently, the tram car system was phased out.
Other countries with discontinued tram systems include Malaysia,
Thailand, Pakistan and Vietnam. However, a tram system is planned for
construction in Gwadar, Pakistan where construction started in late
2011. In China the cities of Beijing, Zhuhai, Nanjing and Shenzhen are
planning tram networks for the future.
The first Japanese tram line was inaugurated in 1895 as the Kyoto
Electric Railroad. The tram reached its zenith in 1932 when 82 rail
companies operated 1,479 kilometers of track in 65 cities. The tram
declined in popularity through the remaining years of the 1930s, a trend
that was accelerated by the damage of the War and continued through the
Occupation and rebuilding years. During the 1960s many of the remaining
operational tramways were shut down and dismantled in favor of auto,
bus, and rapid rail service; however, when one compares the number of
operational lines that survived this era to their American counterparts,
they can be defined as quite extensive.
Europe
In many European cities much tramway infrastructure was lost in the
mid-20th century, though not always on the same scale as in other parts
of the world such as North America. Most of Eastern Europe retained
tramway systems until recent years but some cities are now reconsidering
their transport priorities. In contrast, some Western European cities
are rehabilitating, upgrading, expanding and reconstructing their old
tramway lines. Many Western European towns and cities are also building
new tramway lines.
North America
In North America, trams are generally known as "streetcars" (or
sometimes as "trolleys"); the term tram is more likely to be
understood as a
tourist trolley, an
aerial tramway, or a
people-mover.
In most North American cities, streetcar lines were largely torn up
in the mid-20th century for a variety of financial, technological and
social reasons, mainly as a result of the
Great American Streetcar Scandal. Exceptions included
Boston,
New Orleans,
Newark,
Philadelphia (with a much shrunken network),
Pittsburgh,
San Francisco,
Cleveland, and
Toronto.
Pittsburgh had kept most of its streetcar system serving the city and
many suburbs until severe cutbacks on 27 January 1967, making it the
longest-lasting large-network US streetcar system.[citation
needed]
Toronto currently has the
largest streetcar system in the Americas in terms of track length
and ridership, operated by the
Toronto Transit Commission. This is the only large-scale streetcar
system existing in Canada, not including the light rail systems that
some Canadian cities currently operate, or
heritage streetcar lines operating only seasonally. Toronto's system
uses
Canadian Light Rail Vehicles and
Articulated Light Rail Vehicles, after a history of using
PCCs,
Peter Witt cars, and horse-drawn carriages. The TTC has ordered a
fleet of
Bombardier's
Flexity Outlook (also used in some European tram systems) as a
replacement, and is in acceptance testing as of Fall 2012.[46]
Streetcars once existed in
Edmonton and
Calgary,
but both Canadian cities have since converted their systems to support
light rail vehicles instead. Streetcars also once existed in
Ottawa,
Montreal,
Kitchener,
Hamilton,
Kingston and
Peterborough. Some of these cities have restored their old
streetcars and run them as a heritage feature for tourists, such as the
Vancouver Downtown Historic Railway.
In a trend started in the 1980s, some American cities have brought
back streetcars, examples of these being
Memphis,
Portland,
Tampa,
Little Rock,
Seattle
and
San Diego. In the late 20th century, several cities installed
light rail systems, in part along the same corridors as the old
streetcars. Several additional cities, such as
Washington DC,
Tucson,
Detroit
and
Sacramento are planning or proposing new streetcar systems.
Portland revived its streetcar system in 1986. More recently,
Portland received over $23 million in federal funding to enhance
transportation connections throughout this Oregon city. Overall, the
streetcar project costs were over $148 million, and a new 3.3-mile route
was the most expensive streetcar expansion in US history.
Oregon Iron Works, the only US company currently producing a modern
streetcar, holds a contract valued at over $19 million with the city of
Portland. The project is behind schedule, as only one of the five
streetcars has been delivered.[citation
needed]
Oceania
A heritage H-Class model (foreground) and modern Flexity
tram (background) in Glenelg, Adelaide
In Australia, trams are used extensively only in Melbourne, and to a
lesser extent,
Adelaide, all other major cities having largely dismantled their
networks by the 1970s.
Sydney reintroduced its tram in 1997 as a modern system (Metro
Light Rail), while
Ballarat reintroduced their trams as a heritage system.
Bendigo had a heritage system for a while which has recently been
upgraded to a simple public transport system through an increase in
frequency.
A distinctive feature of many Australian trams was the early use of a
lowered central section between
bogies (wheel-sets). This was intended to make passenger access
easier, by reducing the number of steps required to reach the inside of
the vehicle. It is believed that the design first originated in
Christchurch, New Zealand, in the first decade of the 20th century. Cars
with this design feature were frequently referred to as "drop-centres".
Trams for Christchurch and Wellington built in the 1920s with an
enclosed section at each end and an open-sided middle section were also
known as boon cars, but did not have the drop-centre. Trams built
since the 1970s have had conventional high or low floors.
New Zealand's last public transport tramway system, that of
Wellington, closed in 1966.
Christchurch however subsequently reintroduced heritage trams over a
new CBD route, but the overhead wiring plus some track was damaged by
the
earthquake of 2011 and reintroduction of the system is currently
tied into the debates about what form the city should take in the
future.
Auckland has recently introduced heritage trams into the Wynyard
area, near the CBD using former Melbourne trams as no operable former
Auckland cars are believed to exist. A heritage line exists in Queen
Elizabeth Park on the
Kapiti Coast, running through open countryside.
South America
Buenos Aires in Argentina had once one of the most extensive tramway
networks in the world with over 857 km (535 mi) of track, most of it
dismantled during the 1960s in favor of bus transportation. Now slowly
coming back, the 2 km
Puerto Madero Tramway running in the
Puerto Madero district is spearheading the move with extensions to
Retiro station and
La Boca
in the planning stages. Another line, the
PreMetro line E2 system feeding the
Line E of the
Buenos Aires Subway has been operating for the past few years on the
outskirts of Buenos Aires, and a unique leisure "Tren
de la Costa", an artery that stretches for 15 kilometres by the
River Plate, from
Olivos to the village of
Tigre has also been running in Buenos Aires.
Also in the city
Mendoza, in
Argentina, a new tramway system is in construction, the
Metrotranvía of Mendoza, which will have a route of 12.5 km and will
link five districts of the
Greater Mendoza conurbation. The opening of the system is scheduled
for August 2011.
In
Medellín, Colombia, there is a tram line under construction and the
opening schedule is for December 2011.[47]
Bogota, Colombia used to have a very extensive tram system until the
violent events of the Bogotazo in 1948.[48]
Pros
and cons of tram systems
All transit services, except personal rapid transit, involve a
trade-off between speed and frequency of stops. Services that stop
frequently have a lower overall speed, and are therefore less attractive
for longer trips. Metros, light rail,
monorail, and
bus rapid transit are all forms of
rapid transit, which generally signifies high speed and widely
spaced stops. Trams are often used as a form of local transit, making
frequent stops. Thus, the most meaningful comparison of advantages and
disadvantages is with other forms of local transit, primarily the local
bus.
Advantages
- Steel wheels on steel track create about one-seventh as much
friction as rubber tyres on
bitumen, thus creating dramatically less pollution when carrying
the same load.[49]
- Unlike omnibuses, but like
trolleybuses, (electric) trams give off no exhaust emissions at
point of use.
- Most trams can be driven from either end (the major exception
being the
PCC car used in North America). This means that the
infrastructure needed at termini can be quite simple. In comparison,
trolleybuses usually require loops that take up much space, and
omnibuses often travel over a circular route at termini thus doing
damage to more roads, as well as being confusing to potential
passengers.
- Compared to motorbuses the
noise
of trams is generally perceived to be less disturbing.[citation
needed] However, the use of solid axles with
wheels fixed to them causes slippage between wheels and tracks when
negotiating curves. This produces a characteristic squeal.
- They can use overhead wire set to be shared with trolleybuses (a
three wire system).
- The existence of a fixed route gives people confidence in the
robustness and long-term future of the system, allowing them to rely
on it and build their lifestyles around it. A bus route could be
cancelled at any time, but a tram line is far less likely to close
down.
- Some trams can adapt to the number of passengers by adding more
cars during rush hour (and removing them during off-peak hours). No
additional driver is then required for the trip in comparison to
buses.
- In general, trams provide a higher capacity service than buses.
- Multiple entrances allow trams to load faster than suburban
coaches, which tend to have a single entrance. This, combined with
swifter acceleration and braking, lets trams maintain higher overall
speeds than buses, if congestion allows.[50]
- The trams' stops in the street are easily accessible, unlike
stations of subways and commuter railways placed underground (with
several escalators, stairways etc.) or in the outskirts of the city
center.
- Rights-of-way for trams are narrower than for buses. This saves
valuable space in cities with high population densities and/or
narrow streets.
- Trams can
trackshare with mainline railways, servicing smaller towns
without requiring special track as in
Stadtbahn Karlsruhe and at greater speed than buses.
- Passenger comfort is normally superior to buses because of
controlled acceleration and braking and curve easement. Rail
transport such as used by trams provides a smoother ride than road
use by buses.
- Because the tracks are visible, it is easy for potential riders
to know where the routes are.
- Because trams run on rails, the ride is far more comfortable
than that of a rubber-tyred bus. Blemishes in the road surface are
far less noticeable.
- Vehicles run more
efficiently and overall operating costs are lower.[51]
- Trams can run on renewable electricity without the need for very
expensive and short life batteries.[52]
- Consistent market research and experience over the last 50 years
in Europe and North America shows that car commuters are willing to
transfer some trips to rail-based public transport but not to buses.
Typically light rail systems attract between 30 and 40% of their
patronage from former car trips. Rapid transit bus systems attract
less than 5% of trips from cars, less than the variability of
traffic.[52]
Disadvantages
- Tram infrastructure (such as island platforms) occupies urban
space at ground-level, sometimes to the exclusion of other users.
- The capital cost is higher than for buses, even though a tramcar
usually has a much longer lifetime than a bus.
- One study concluded that it would cost less to buy new fuel
efficient cars for the low income riders of light rail who do not
have cars than it does to subsidize light rail.[53]
However, others assert the study was "poorly researched and
analytically deficient"[54]
or otherwise deficient.[55]
- Trams can cause speed reduction for other transport modes
(buses, cars) when stops in the middle of the road do not have
pedestrian refuges, as in such configurations other traffic cannot
pass whilst passengers alight or board the tram.
- When operated in mixed traffic (street
running), trams are more likely to be delayed by disruptions in
their lane. Buses, by contrast, can sometimes manoeuver around
obstacles. Opinions differ on whether the deference that drivers
show to trams—a cultural issue that varies by country—is sufficient
to counteract this disadvantage.
Sign warning cyclists of tram tracks
- Tram tracks can be hazardous for cyclists, as bikes,
particularly those with narrow tyres, may get their wheels caught in
the track grooves.[56]
It is possible to close the grooves of the tracks on critical
sections by rubber profiles that are pressed down by the
wheelflanges of the passing tram but that cannot be lowered by the
weight of a cyclist. If not well-maintained, however, these lose
their effectiveness over time.
- When wet, tram tracks tend to become slippery and thus dangerous
for bicycles and motorcycles, especially in traffic.[56][57][58]
In some cases, even cars can be affected.[59]
- Steel wheel trams are noisier than rubber-wheeled buses or
trolleybuses when cornering if there are no additional measures
taken (e.g. greasing wheel flanges, which is standard in new-built
systems). In older trams, the wheels are fixed onto axles so they
have to rotate together, but going around curves, one wheel or the
other has to slip, and that causes loud unpleasant squeals. A
related improvement is rubber isolation between the wheel disc and
the rim, as used on Boston (Massachusetts, US)
Green Line 3400 and 3600 series cars. These cars are much
quieter than those with solid metal wheels. (This construction
requires a flexible cable to electrically connect the tire to the
wheel body.)[citation
needed]
- Trams usually have less effective suspension systems than buses,
which tends to negate the ride quality benefits of steel rails.[citation
needed]
- The opening of new tram and light rail systems has sometimes
been accompanied by a marked increase in car accidents, as a result
of drivers' unfamiliarity with the physics and
geometry of trams.[60]
Though such increases may be temporary, long-term conflicts between
motorists and light rail operations can be alleviated by segregating
their respective rights-of-way and installing appropriate signage
and warning systems.[61]
- Rail transport can expose neighbouring populations to moderate
levels of low-frequency noise. However, transportation planners use
noise mitigation strategies to minimize these effects.[62]
Most of all, the potential for decreased private motor vehicle
operations along the trolley's service line because of the service
provision could result in lower ambient noise levels than without.
- In the event of a breakdown or accident, or even roadworks and
maintenance, a whole section of the tram network can be blocked.
Buses and trolleybuses can often get past minor blockages, although
trolleybuses are restricted by how far they can go from the wires.
Conventional buses can divert around major blockages as well, as can
most modern trolleybuses that are fitted with auxiliary engines or
traction batteries. The tram blockage problem can be mitigated
by providing regular crossovers so a tram can run on the opposite
line to pass a blockage, although this can be more difficult when
running on road sections shared with other road users or when both
tracks happen to be blocked. On extensive networks diversionary
routes may be available depending on the location of the blockage.
Breakdown related problems can be reduced by minimising the
situations where a tram would be stuck on route, as well as making
it as simple as possible for another tram to rescue a failed one.
- Exclusive
right of way (by law, or by physical exclusion) today can also
be achieved by other modes of transport, which may claim to have a
lower cost for a new system (like
ULTra
personal rapid transit). Dedicated busways with diesel or
electric buses can support commuter services (such as Bus à Haut
Niveau de Service in Paris, and BHNS High Level Service Bus in UK)
with features (such as Solaris Urbino 18 Hybrid MetroStyle) similar
to new trams. New technologies have blurred the previously rigid
lines among traditional rail services, traditional bus services, and
private automobiles, with new hybrid mode systems under development.
Experimental vehicles, such as China's
straddle bus promise new capabilities and flexibility not seen
in traditional systems.
In media
In literature
One of the earliest literary references to trams occurs on the second
page of
Henry James's novel
The Europeans:
- From time to time a strange vehicle drew near to the place
where they stood—such a vehicle as the lady at the window, in spite
of a considerable acquaintance with human inventions, had never seen
before: a huge, low, omnibus, painted in brilliant colours, and
decorated apparently with jingling bells, attached to a species of
groove in the
pavement, through which it was dragged, with a great deal of
rumbling, bouncing, and scratching, by a couple of remarkably small
horses.
Published in 1878, the novel is set in the 1840s, though horse trams
were not introduced in Boston till the 1850s. Note how the tram's
efficiency surprises the European visitor; how two "remarkably small"
horses sufficed to draw the "huge" tramcar.
James also makes comical reference to the novelty and excitement of
trams in
Portrait of a Lady (1881):
- Henrietta Stackpole was struck with the fact that ancient
Rome had been paved a good deal like New York, and even found an
analogy between the deep chariot-ruts traceable in the antique
street and the overjangled iron grooves which express the intensity
of American life.[63]
A quarter of a century later, Joseph Conrad described Amsterdam's
trams in chapter 14 of The Mirror of the Sea (1906): From afar
at the end of Tsar Peter Straat, issued in the frosty air the tinkle of
bells of the horse tramcars, appearing and disappearing in the opening
between the buildings, like little toy carriages harnessed with toy
horses and played with by people that appeared no bigger than children.
In episode 6 (Hades)
of
James Joyce's
Ulysses (1918), the party on the way to Paddy Dignam's funeral
in a horse-drawn carriage idly debates the merits of various tramway
improvements:
- - I can't make out why the corporation doesn't run a tramline
from the parkgate to the quays, Mr Bloom said. All those animals
could be taken in trucks down to the boats.
- - Instead of blocking up the thoroughfare, Martin Cunningham
said. Quite so. They ought to.
- - Yes, Mr Bloom said, and another thing I often thought is to
have
municipal funeral trams like they have in Milan, you know. Run
the line out to the cemetery gates and have special trams, hearse
and carriage and all. Don't you see what I mean?
- – O that be damned for a story, Mr Dedalus said. Pullman car and
saloon diningroom.
- – A poor lookout for Corny [the undertaker], Mr Power added.
- – Why? Mr Bloom asked, turning to Mr Dedalus. Wouldn't it be
more decent than galloping two abreast?[64]
In his fictionalised but autobiographical
Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, published in 1930,
Siegfried Sassoon's narrator ruminates from his hospital bed in
Denmark Hill, London, in 1917 that "Even the screech and rumble of
electric trams was a friendly sound; trams meant safety; the troops in
the trenches thought about trams with affection."[65]
Danzig trams figure extensively in the early stages of
Günter Grass's Die Blechtrommel (The
Tin Drum). In the last chapter the novel's hero
Oskar Matzerath and his friend Gottfried von Vittlar steal a tram
late at night from outside Unterrath depot on the northern edge of
Düsseldorf.
It is a
surreal journey. Von Vittlar drives the tram through the night,
south to Flingern and Haniel and then east to the suburb of
Gerresheim. Meanwhile, inside, Matzerath tries to rescue the
half-blind Victor Weluhn (who had escaped from the
siege of
the
Polish post office in Danzig at the beginning of the book and of the
war) from his two green-hatted would-be
executioners. Mazerath deposits his
briefcase, which contains Sister Dorotea's severed
ring finger in a
preserving jar, on the dashboard "where professional motorman put
their
lunchboxes". They leave the tram at the
terminus and the executioners tie Weluhn to a tree in von Vittlar's
mother's garden and prepare to
machine-gun him. But Matzerath drums, Weluhn sings, and together
they conjure up the Polish
cavalry,
who spirit both victim and executioners away. Matzerath asks von Vittlar
to take his briefcase in the tram to the police HQ in the Fürstenwall,
which he does.
The latter part of this route is today served by tram route 703
terminating at Gerresheim
Stadtbahn station ("by the glassworks" as Grass notes, referring to
the famous glass factory).[66]
In his 1967
spy
thriller
An Expensive Place to Die,
Len Deighton misidentifies the
Flemish coast tram: "The red glow of
Ostend
is nearer now and yellow trains rattle alongside the motor road and over
the bridge by the Royal Yacht Club[67]..."[68]
In popular culture
- Dziga Vertov's experimental 1929 film
Man with a Movie Camera includes shots of trams (at 10 and 42
minutes).
- The
Rev W. Awdry wrote about
GER Class C53 called
Toby the Tram Engine, which starred his
The Railway Series with his faithful coach, Henrietta.
-
A Streetcar Named Desire (play)
-
A Streetcar Named Desire (1951 film)
-
Black Orpheus (1959), of which the main male character Orfeu
is a tram driver in Rio de Janeiro's tram system.
-
Toonerville Folks comic strip (1908–55) by
Fontaine Fox featuring the "Toonerville Trolley that met all the
trains."
- The children's TV show
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood featured a trolley.
- The central plot of the film
Who Framed Roger Rabbit involves Judge Doom, the villain,
dismantling the streetcars of Los Angeles.
- "The
Trolley Song" in the film
Meet Me in St. Louis received an Academy Award nomination.
- The
1944 World Series was also known as the "Streetcar Series".
-
Malcolm (film), an Australian film about a tram
enthusiast who uses his inventions to pull off a bank heist.
-
Luis Buñuel filmed
La Ilusión viaja en tranvía[69]
(English:
Illusion Travels by Streetcar) in Mexico in 1953.
- In
Akira Kurosawa's film
Dodesukaden a mentally ill boy pretends to be a tram
conductor.
- The
Stompin' Tom Connors song "To It And At It" mentions a man who
"can't afford the train, he's sittin' on a streetcar, but he's
eastbound just the same."
- The predominance of trams (trolleys) gave rise to the
disparaging term
trolley dodger for residents of the borough of
Brooklyn in New York City. That term, shortened to "Dodger"
became the nickname for the
Brooklyn Dodgers (now the Los Angeles Dodgers).
-
Jens Lekman has a song titled "Tram No. 7 to Heaven", a
reference to line 7 of the
Gothenburg tram which passes through his native borough of
Kortedala.
- The band
Beirut has a song titled "Fountains and Tramways" on the EP
Pompeii.
- The Elephant Will Never Forget, an 11-minute film made in
1953 by
British Transport Films to celebrate the London tram network at
the time of the last few days of its operation.
- A W-class tram was used at the opening ceremony of the
2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.
-
The Full Monty, set in
Sheffield, managed to squeeze a tram passing in the background
into three scenes.
- 2009 Thomas Haggerty composed and produced 'Tram' generations 1,
2 and 3 for the popular group TRAM.
- A collaboration between John Ward and Elizabeth Harrod: "a great
tram."
- In Chrome Shelled Regios, trams are being used in the Academy
City Zuelni.
- Trams feature in the opening credits of the world's longest
running TV soap opera
Coronation Street, set in a fictional suburb of
Greater Manchester. A
Blackpool tram killed one of the main characters in 1989 and the
most recent faked accident involved a tram (modelled on the
Manchester Metrolink) careering off a viaduct into the set in
2009.
In the news
- In the
Tottenham Outrage in 1909, two armed robbers hijacked a tram and
were chased by the police in another tram.
- On 7 June 1926 Catalan architect
Antoni Gaudí was knocked down by a
Barcelona tram and subsequently died.
In scale modelling
German models of trams (Düwag and Siemens) and a bus in H0
scale
Model trams are popular in
HO
scale (1:87) and
O scale
(1:48 in the US and generally 1:43,5 and 1:45 in Europe and Asia). They
are typically powered and will accept plastic figures inside. Common
manufacturers are
Roco and
Lima, with many custom models being made as well. The German firm
Hödl[70]
and the Austrian Halling[71]
specialize in 1:87 scale.[72]
In the US,
Bachmann Industries is a mass supplier of HO trams and kits.
Bowser Manufacturing has produced white metal models for over 50
years.[73]
There are many boutique vendors offering limited run epoxy and wood
models. At the high end are highly detailed brass models which are
usually imported from Japan or Korea and can cost in excess of $500.
Many of these run on 16.5 mm (0.650 in)
gauge track, which is correct for the representation of
4 ft 8 1⁄2 in
(1,435 mm) (standard gauge) in HO scale as in US and Japan, but
incorrect in 4 mm (1:76.2) scale, as it represents
4 ft 8 1⁄2 in
(1,435 mm). This scale/gauge hybrid is called OO scale. O scale
trams are also very popular among tram modellers because the increased
size allows for more detail and easier crafting of overhead wiring. In
the US these models are usually purchased in epoxy or wood kits and some
as brass models. The Saint Petersburg Tram Company[74]
produces highly detailed polyurethane non-powered O Scale models from
around the world which can easily be powered by trucks from vendors like
Q-Car.[75]
In the US, one of the best resources for model tram enthusiasts is
the
East Penn Traction Club of Philadelphia.[76]
It is thought that the first example of a working model tramcar in
the UK built by an amateur for fun was in 1929, when Frank E. Wilson
created a replica of London County Council Tramways E class car 444 in
1:16 scale, which he demonstrated at an early Model Engineer Exhibition.
Another of his models was London E/1 1800, which was the only tramway
exhibit in the Faraday Memorial Exhibition of 1931. Together with
likeminded friends, Frank Wilson went on to found the Tramway & Light
Railway Society[77]
in 1938, establishing tramway modelling as a hobby.
Types
Regional
See also