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91-563: The Gettysburg Electric Railway was a borough trolley that provided summer access to Gettysburg Battlefield visitor attractions such as military engagement areas, monuments, postbellum camps , and recreation areas (e.g., Wheat-field Park and the Pfeffer baseball diamond). Despite the 1896 Supreme Court ruling under the Takings Clause against the railway, battlefield operations continued until 1916. The trolley generating plant
182-584: A mounted Camp Gobin lieutenant. Three days later the "Slocum" and 1909 closed "Sedgwick " cars collided (1 fatality) near Devil's Den where there was a siding. A heated winter car with a closed vestibule was acquired in December 1910. During the July 1913 Gettysburg reunion , 2 trolley cars collided near Devil's Den , and in September a trolley in the borough was rear-ended when a "drunken passenger" pulled
273-622: 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), British India (from 1885) and the Dublin & Blessington Steam Tramway (from 1888) in Ireland. Steam tramways also were used on
364-588: A "Peace Jubilee", with a noon July 3 placement of the cornerstone for a " Great Peace Memorial ". The August 26, 1912, US Congress bill appropriated $ 150,000 and directed the War Department to establish the camp. Because the memorial funding was not approved, the Peace Jubilee plans were removed from the schedule. The site of the camp and the 8 acres (3.2 ha) for the Great Tent, west of
455-466: A 50-cent maximum for taxi fares in the borough, and a request from a few Missouri veterans for "a few good widows or old maids ... good housekeepers and not too young" to go west after the reunion. (The "kind-hearted mayor", J. A. Holtzworth, agreed to forward photos to the veterans in the "Cupid ... operations".) The War Department's Great Camp (Gettysburg Encampment, Anniversary Camp, or Veterans Camp) provided tents and support facilities for
546-520: A Vermont blacksmith, had invented a battery-powered electric motor which he later patented. The following year he used it to operate a small model electric car on a short section of track four feet in diameter. Attempts to use batteries as a source of electricity were made from the 1880s and 1890s, with unsuccessful trials conducted in among other places Bendigo and Adelaide in Australia, and for about 14 years as The Hague accutram of HTM in
637-685: A commemorative medal, and a souvenir program of poems by attending "Veteran Scout" Jack Crawford . The Pennsylvania Railroad added "a telephone line between Gettysburg and Hanover along the Western Maryland Railway , over which the Pennsy [would] operate a large number of trains during the battle anniversary". On the Chambersburg -Gettysburg turnpike and the Gettysburg- Petersburg turnpike, tolls ended for
728-543: A different group. Anticipating that some veterans might arrive early (especially those traveling a long distance), the Great Camp was opened for supper on June 29. Pennsylvania veterans who attended the state reunion, which adjourned on June 28 , made up most of the over 21,000 arrivals that day. Other veterans arriving early included two Confederate veterans of Culp's Hill , who arrived on June 26. Captain McCaskey of
819-503: A hospital) were all expected to recover, and most were released from the hospital the next day. Dismantling of the Great Camp began immediately after the July 4 tribute. The hospital closed on July 5, and the last veteran left on July 8. The annual military instructional camp (250 college students) used several tents in the veterans' camp at the "Meadeboro" camp (Newspaper Row) from July 7 to August 15. The quartermaster headquarters on Baltimore Street closed on August 13, and by August 15
910-406: A moterman struck his head against "an electric pole that was close to the track", and the " Slocum " trolley car jumped the tracks on April 27. A 1904 trolley struck Joseph Keagy, and during both 1904 and the 1908 Camp Hays , lightning storms disabled trolley operations (a Major was struck getting on a car). In 1909 the " Reynolds " car collided with an automobile, and on August 12, 1910, a car struck
1001-726: A similar technology, Pirotsky put into service the first public electric tramway in St. Petersburg, which operated only during September 1880. The second demonstration tramway was presented by Siemens & Halske at the 1879 Berlin Industrial Exposition. The first public electric tramway used for permanent service was the Gross-Lichterfelde tramway in Lichterfelde near Berlin in Germany, which opened in 1881. It
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#17327797474771092-471: A total of 57,198 "persons quartered and subsisted in the Great Camp". The camp had a temporary U. S. Post Office; 90 Pennsylvania Health Department latrines throughout the camp, with a seating capacity of 3,476; and (near the Great Tent) an emergency station and two health-department Comfort Houses which supplied the Great Tent water fountains. The Pennsylvania commission set up a temporary morgue in
1183-946: A well-known tourist attraction . A single cable line also survives in Wellington (rebuilt in 1979 as a funicular but still called the " Wellington Cable Car "). Another system, with two separate cable lines and a shared power station in the middle, operates from the Welsh town of Llandudno up to the top of the Great Orme hill in North Wales , UK. Hastings and some other tramways, for example Stockholms Spårvägar in Sweden and some lines in Karachi , used petrol trams. Galveston Island Trolley in Texas operated diesel trams due to
1274-640: Is still in operation in modernised form. The earliest tram system in Canada was built by John Joseph Wright , brother of the famous mining entrepreneur Whitaker Wright , in Toronto in 1883, introducing electric trams in 1892. In the US, multiple 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
1365-734: Is the sole survivor of the fleet). In Italy, in Trieste , the Trieste–Opicina tramway was opened in 1902, with the steepest section of the route being negotiated with the help of a funicular and its cables. 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
1456-713: The Bleecker Street Line until its closure in 1917. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , had its Sarah Street line drawn by horses until 1923. The last regular mule-drawn cars in the US ran in Sulphur Rock, Arkansas , until 1926 and were commemorated by a U.S. postage stamp issued in 1983. The last mule tram service in Mexico City ended in 1932, and a mule tram in Celaya, Mexico , survived until 1954. The last horse-drawn tram to be withdrawn from public service in
1547-824: The Gettysburg National Park Commission met with Gettysburg borough officials about the event. Stuart held a sub-committee meeting on October 25, and addressed the General Assembly about the matter in January 1909. On May 13, 1909, the Pennsylvania Assembly created the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg Commission. The commission's "first tentative programme" of October 13, 1910 included
1638-933: The Lamm fireless engines then propelling the St. Charles Avenue Streetcar in that city. 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. The first city-wide electric streetcar system was implemented in 1886 in Montgomery, Alabama , by the Capital City Street Railway Company, and ran for 50 years. In 1888,
1729-715: The Richmond Union Passenger Railway began to operate trams in Richmond, Virginia , that Frank J. Sprague had built. Sprague later developed multiple unit control, first demonstrated in Chicago in 1897, allowing multiple cars to be coupled together and operated by a single motorman. This gave rise to the modern subway train. Following the improvement of an overhead "trolley" system on streetcars for collecting electricity from overhead wires by Sprague, electric tram systems were rapidly adopted across
1820-824: The West Midlands Metro in Birmingham , England adopted battery-powered trams on sections through the city centre close to Grade I listed Birmingham Town Hall . Paris and Berne (Switzerland) operated trams that were powered by compressed air using the Mekarski system . Trials on street tramways in Britain, including by the North Metropolitan Tramway Company between Kings Cross and Holloway, London (1883), achieved acceptable results but were found not to be economic because of
1911-1241: The 1850s, after which the "animal railway" became an increasingly common feature in the larger towns. The first permanent tram line in continental Europe was opened in Paris in 1855 by Alphonse Loubat who had previously worked on American streetcar lines. The tram was developed in numerous cities of Europe (some of the most extensive systems were found in Berlin, Budapest , Birmingham , Saint Petersburg , Lisbon , London , Manchester , Paris , Kyiv ). The first tram in South America opened in 1858 in Santiago, Chile . The first trams in Australia opened in 1860 in Sydney . Africa's first tram service started in Alexandria on 8 January 1863. The first trams in Asia opened in 1869 in Batavia (Jakarta), Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia) . Limitations of horsecars included
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#17327797474772002-713: The 1894-built horse tram at Victor Harbor in South Australia . New horse-drawn systems have been established at the Hokkaidō Museum in Japan and also in Disneyland . A horse-tram route in Polish gmina Mrozy , first built in 1902, was reopened in 2012. 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
2093-420: The 1980s. The history of passenger trams, streetcars and trolley systems, began in the early nineteenth century. It can be divided into several distinct periods defined by the principal means of power used. Precursors to the tramway included the wooden or stone wagonways that were used in central Europe to transport mine carts with unflanged wheels since the 1500s, and the paved limestone trackways designed by
2184-658: The 48 states attended (all except Nevada and Wyoming ). Despite official concerns "that there might be unpleasant differences, at least, between the blue and gray" (as after England's War of the Roses and the French Revolution ), the peaceful reunion was characterized by instances of Union–Confederate camaraderie. President Woodrow Wilson 's July 4 reunion address summarized the spirit: "We have found one another again as brothers and comrades in arms, enemies no longer, generous friends rather, our battles long past,
2275-481: 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. 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
2366-462: The British newspaper Newcastle Daily Chronicle reported that, "A large number of London's discarded horse tramcars have been sent to Lincolnshire where they are used as sleeping rooms for potato pickers ". Horses continued to be used for light shunting well into the 20th century, and many large metropolitan lines lasted into the early 20th century. New York City had a regular horsecar service on
2457-617: The Civil War veterans and extended from both sides of Long Lane on the north to within 500 yd (460 m) of the Bliss House. The Great Camp included the Great Tent (Big Tent, measuring 200 ft × 450 ft [61 m × 137 m]) "with its thirteen thousand chairs"; the veterans' tents; quarters for 1,466 War Department soldiers (including camp commander General Liggitt) and 2,179 mess personnel; 385 camp Boy Scouts from Washington, and other camp personnel for
2548-705: The Codori House, were selected in 1912 and mapped by the Gettysburg National Park Commission. The commission also painted avenue fencing, gun carriages, iron tablets, pyramids, and shells from 1912 through June 30, 1913. On April 13, 1913, the Pennsylvania commission completed the Pennsylvania State Memorial and mailed invitations to 40,000 veterans. On June 28, President Woodrow Wilson notified
2639-774: The Entertainment Centre, and work is progressing on further extensions. Sydney re-introduced trams (or light rail) on 31 August 1997. A completely new system, known as G:link , was introduced on the Gold Coast, Queensland , on 20 July 2014. The Newcastle Light Rail opened in February 2019, while the Canberra light rail opened on 20 April 2019. This is the first time that there have been trams in Canberra, even though Walter Burley Griffin 's 1914–1920 plans for
2730-571: The Grand Camp had been removed except for "four great water storage reservoirs". A film, United at Gettysburg , documented the reunion and was shown at local theaters. Lt. Col. Lewis E. Beitler, Secretary of the Commission, finished compiling the organizations' reports on December 31, 1913. To commemorate the reunion, a colonial portico was opened in May 1914 at the seminary's Old Dorm; only
2821-800: The Hagerstown Road. A "model Camp" for a Pennsylvania cavalry squadron was on the "College Athletic Field" adjoining the commission's headquarters. A total of 527 people were quartered at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg and Pennsylvania College (renamed Gettysburg College in 1921), including the Pennsylvania Gettysburg Commission, four troops of the Pennsylvania State Police, and (in tents) Governor Tener's staff. Additional nearby encampments included
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2912-583: The Irish coach builder John Stephenson , in New York City which began service in the year 1832. The New York and Harlem Railroad's Fourth Avenue Line ran along the Bowery and Fourth Avenue in New York City. It was followed in 1835 by the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad in New Orleans, Louisiana , which still operates as the St. Charles Streetcar Line . Other American cities did not follow until
3003-430: The Netherlands. 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, more recently during the 1950s, a longer battery-operated tramway line ran from Milan to Bergamo . In China there is a Nanjing battery Tram line and has been running since 2014. In 2019,
3094-436: The North Sydney line from 1886 to 1900, and the King Street line from 1892 to 1905. 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. They also worked around "Upper Douglas" in the Isle of Man from 1897 to 1929 (cable car 72/73
3185-569: The Pennsylvania commission that he would attend the reunion for a "very limited period". The 33 contributing states provided a total of $ 1,033,000 for the reunion, with $ 450,000 coming from Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania commission headquarters at Gettysburg was at 231 Baltimore Street, with the Harrisburg office of the Secretary (later nicknamed the "Duke of Gettysburg") in Pennsylvania State Capitol 's Room 509. Commemorative tokens and programs were designed for attendees, including three types of Pennsylvania badges ("Press", "Guest", and "Scout"),
3276-406: The Quartermasters Corps had estimated that 6,000 men might arrive on June 29, and temporarily struggled with shortages of food and supplies. Some veterans left without staying another night. On June 30, the 1912 base of the Virginia Monument was dedicated; the rest of the monument was completed later. About 12,000 veterans had already left on July 2, and about the same number on July 3. During
3367-463: The Romans for heavy horse and ox-drawn transportation. By the 1700s, paved plateways with cast iron rails were introduced in England for transporting coal, stone or iron ore from the mines to the urban factories and docks. The world's first passenger train or tram was the Swansea and Mumbles Railway , in Wales , UK. The British Parliament passed the Mumbles Railway Act in 1804, and horse-drawn service started in 1807. The service closed in 1827, but
3458-422: The SE corner of Washington St and the steamtrain tracks was taken over by the Surefoot Heel and Rubber Co. in 1920. A pedestrian bridge was later constructed across Rose Run on the trolley rail trail between Brooke and De Trobriand avenues. Remnants of the trolley system were registered as historic district contributing structures of the Gettysburg Battlefield Historic District on January 23, 2004; and sections of
3549-413: The Second Street Cable Railroad, which operated from 1885 to 1889, and the Temple Street Cable Railway, which operated from 1886 to 1898. 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;
3640-562: The UK at Lytham St Annes , Trafford Park , Manchester (1897–1908) and Neath , Wales (1896–1920). 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, later renamed the Australian Timetable Association. The world's first electric tram line operated in Sestroretsk near Saint Petersburg invented and tested by inventor Fyodor Pirotsky in 1875. Later, using
3731-410: The UK took passengers from Fintona railway station to Fintona Junction one mile away on the main Omagh to Enniskillen railway in Northern Ireland. The tram made its last journey on 30 September 1957 when the Omagh to Enniskillen line closed. The "van" is preserved at the Ulster Transport Museum . Horse-drawn trams still operate on the 1876-built Douglas Bay Horse Tramway on the Isle of Man , and at
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3822-508: The advantages over earlier forms of transit was the low rolling resistance of metal wheels on steel rails, allowing the trams to haul a greater load for a given effort. Another factor which contributed to the rise of trams was the high total cost of ownership of horses. Electric trams largely replaced animal power in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Improvements in other vehicles such as buses led to decline of trams in early to mid 20th century. However, trams have seen resurgence since
3913-542: The area from June 25 to July 25. The department set up a field hospital on the Kurtz property facing Brickyard Lane on the north foot of East Cemetery Hill and six comfort stations in the borough: one at each railroad station . The department tested borough wells and mitigated contamination sources upstream from the water-works supply on Marsh Creek . The American Red Cross Society and 72 additional Boy Scouts operated fourteen 7 ft × 7 ft (2.1 m × 2.1 m) relief stations for first aid and rest on
4004-400: The battlefield-park roads. Gettysburg's Tuberculosis Dispensary was also used as a relief station. Attached to the Great Camp were a battery of the Third United States Field Artillery and several companies of regular infantry. Companies A-D (14 officers and 285 men) of the Fifteenth United States Cavalry arrived on June 26 to guard the battlefield, camping west of Seminary Ridge on
4095-438: The brake cable. The last trolley car ran in November 1916 when the railway had become obsolete both with disrepair and with increased tourists' use of automobiles on Army-improved battlefield avenues. After 1917 Army appropriations , the tracks were removed by summer crews under foreman Hugh McIlhenny; and plans for trolley extensions from Gettysburg were never completed to several cities: The trolley barn ("track car house") at
4186-460: The busiest tram line in Europe, with a tram running once per minute at rush hour. Bucharest and Belgrade ran a regular service from 1894. Ljubljana introduced its tram system in 1901 – it closed in 1958. Oslo had the first tramway in Scandinavia , starting operation on 2 March 1894. The first electric tramway in Australia was a Sprague system demonstrated at the 1888 Melbourne Centennial Exhibition in Melbourne ; afterwards, this
4277-501: The camp. A special platform on the Round Top Branch was built for veterans to disembark from steam trains into the camp; in February, trolleys of the Gettysburg Electric Railway had been prohibited from using the branch. After the state health department's chief engineer estimated that Gettysburg (with a population of 4,500) would be inundated with 100,000 people, the borough accepted the commissioner of health's request for his department to take over medical and sanitation efforts in
4368-439: The capital then in the planning stage did propose a Canberra tram system. In Japan, the Kyoto Electric railroad was the first tram system, starting operation in 1895. By 1932, the network had grown to 82 railway companies in 65 cities, with a total network length of 1,479 km (919 mi). By the 1960s the tram had generally died out in Japan. Two rare but significant alternatives were conduit current collection , which
4459-458: 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. The San Francisco cable cars , though significantly reduced in number, continue to provide regular transportation service, in addition to being
4550-402: The cars to coast by inertia, for example when crossing another cable line. The cable then had 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,
4641-409: The city's hurricane-prone location, which would have resulted in frequent damage to an electrical supply system. Although Portland, Victoria promotes its tourist tram as being a cable car it actually operates using a diesel motor. The tram, which runs on a circular route around the town of Portland, uses dummies and salons formerly used on the Melbourne cable tramway system and since restored. In
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#17327797474774732-465: The classic tramway built 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. 1913 Gettysburg reunion The 1913 Gettysburg reunion
4823-416: The combined coal consumption of the stationary compressor and the onboard steam boiler. The Trieste–Opicina tramway in Trieste operates a hybrid funicular tramway 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
4914-705: The concrete base remains. The Congressional committee used the name "Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg", but other organizations and officials used numerous other names: · Celebration of the Semi-Centenary of the Civil War · Gettysburg Celebration · Reunion Celebration at Gettysburg · Gettysburg Reunion · Gettysburg Peace Reunion · Great Peace Reunion · Great Peace Jubilee · Golden Jubilee · Great Reunion · Grand Reunion · Blue and Gray Reunion and, in
5005-430: The downhill run. For safety, the cable tractors are always deployed on the downhill side of the tram vehicle. Similar systems were used elsewhere in the past, notably on the Queen Anne Counterbalance in Seattle and the Darling Street wharf line in Sydney. In the mid-20th century many tram systems were disbanded, replaced by buses, trolleybuses , automobiles or rapid transit . The General Motors streetcar conspiracy
5096-522: The electric power company was chartered on June 15. Tracks were planned along The Angle 's stone wall, but instead the trolley used 8,400 ft (2,600 m) of the Emmitsburg Road on which trolleys crossed the Round Top Branch (the trolley was denied right-of-way on the steam train line in both 1893 and 1913.) Beginning April 1, 1894, the trolley was extended from Wible's Woods through Tipton Station to Round Top Station (the line had 7 stops). A new trolley powerhouse of Hummelstown brownstone replaced
5187-446: 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. A major drawback of this style of tram was the limited space for the engine, so that these trams were usually underpowered. Steam trams faded out around the 1890s to 1900s, being replaced by electric trams. Another motive system for trams
5278-429: The entire length of cable (typically several kilometres) had 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 did not lose traction as they climbed or descended a steep hill. The moving cable pulled
5369-503: The evening of July 2 at the Hotel Gettysburg. W. B. Henry (a Southerner living in Philadelphia) uttered a "vile epithet" about President Abraham Lincoln and caused an argument at his table. A Union man threw his drink at Henry, who stabbed and slashed men at the table and on his way out to the street before he was apprehended. The Virginia governor spoke to officials on behalf of Henry, and his father (a Confederate major) posted bail for his son. The victims (all but one of whom were taken to
5460-439: The fact that any given animal could only work so many hours on a given day, had to be housed, groomed, fed and cared for day in and day out, and produced prodigious amounts of manure, which the streetcar company was charged with storing and then disposing. Since a typical horse pulled a streetcar for about a dozen miles a day and worked for four or five hours, many systems needed ten or more horses in stable for each horsecar. In 1905
5551-444: 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 (1921–1951); between Jelenia Góra , Cieplice , and Sobieszów in Poland (from 1897); and in
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#17327797474775642-402: The late 19th and early 20th centuries. There was one particular hazard associated with trams powered from a trolley pole off an overhead line on the early electrified systems. Since the tram relies on contact with the rails for the current return path, a problem arises if the tram is derailed or (more usually) if it halts on a section of track that has been heavily sanded by a previous tram, and
5733-417: The leased Newspaper Row ("Meadeboro") for 155 journalists north of Gettysburg National Cemetery , an encampment of 30 Boy Scouts near Cashtown (west of Gettysburg) for traveler services on the Chambersburg-Gettysburg Pike, and Philadelphia and Baltimore Salvation Army members encamped at Stonesifer's Grove in Biglerville . The commission planned a four-day series of events, with each day dedicated to
5824-475: The necessity of overhead wire and a trolley pole for street cars and railways. While at the University of Denver he conducted experiments which established that multiple unit powered cars were a better way to operate trains and trolleys. Electric tramways spread to many European cities in the 1890s, such as: Sarajevo built a citywide system of electric trams in 1895. Budapest established its tramway system in 1887, and its ring line has grown to be
5915-421: The oldest operating electric tramway in the world. Also in 1883, Mödling and Hinterbrühl Tram was opened near Vienna in Austria. It was the first tram in the world in regular service that was run with electricity served by an overhead line with pantograph current collectors . The Blackpool Tramway was opened in Blackpool, UK on 29 September 1885 using conduit collection along Blackpool Promenade. This system
6006-493: The original which had burned down by January 22, 1895; and by October 1895 total trackage was 8.5 miles (13.7 km). The 1896 Supreme Court ruled in US v. Gett. Elec. Ry. Co. that the use of eminent domain for historic preservation "seems" to be "a public use". In 1900, the trolley overhead power line broke at Wible's Woods, and a car derailed in 1901 (trolley machinery was improved in 1902 before Camp Lawton ). Events in 1903 included an attempted derailment by sabotage,
6097-415: The poor paving of the streets in American cities which made them unsuitable for horsebuses , which were then common on the well-paved streets of European cities. Running the horsecars on rails allowed for a much smoother ride. There are records of a street railway running in Baltimore as early as 1828, however the first authenticated streetcar in America, was the New York and Harlem Railroad developed by
6188-457: The quarrel forgotten—except that we shall not forget the splendid valor." After a number of smaller Gettysburg reunions, including the 1906 Philadelphia Brigade - Pickett's Division reunion during which Brigadier General Lewis Armistead 's captured sword was returned to the South, in April 1908 General Henry S. Huidekoper of Philadelphia suggested a 1913 50th anniversary reunion to Pennsylvania Governor Edwin Sydney Stuart . On September 8,
6279-564: The railbed remain discernable in modern overhead images. Tram#Electric A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in the United States) is a type of urban rail transit consisting of either individual railcars or self-propelled multiple unit trains that run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way . The tramlines or tram networks operated as public transport are called tramways or simply trams/streetcars. Because of their close similarities, trams are commonly included in
6370-417: The reunion. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the 1911 Sproul Roads Act on June 27, enabling the Commonwealth to acquire private toll roads and make them free for the public. Water wells were being drilled for the July encampment by February 1, 1913, and hotels in Hanover, Chambersburg, Hagerstown, and "the Blue Ridge section [were] filling rapidly" by June 26. For entertainment, a Gettysburg facility
6461-419: The suburban tramway lines around Milan and Padua ; the last Gamba de Legn ("Peg-Leg") tramway ran on the Milan- Magenta -Castano Primo route in late 1957. The other style of steam tram had the steam engine in the body of the tram, referred to as a tram engine (UK) or steam dummy (US). The most notable system to adopt such trams was in Paris. French-designed steam trams also operated in Rockhampton , in
6552-558: The tracks. Siemens later designed his own version of overhead current collection, called the bow collector . One of the first systems to use it was in Thorold, Ontario , opened in 1887, and it was considered quite successful. While this line proved quite versatile as one of the earliest fully functional electric streetcar installations, it required horse-drawn support while climbing the Niagara Escarpment and for two months of
6643-416: The tram and completing the earth return circuit with their body could receive a serious electric shock. If "grounded", the driver was required to jump off the tram (avoiding simultaneous contact with the tram and the ground) and pull down the trolley pole, before allowing passengers off the tram. Unless derailed, the tram could usually be recovered by running water down the running rails from a point higher than
6734-466: The tram loses electrical contact with the rails. In this event, the underframe of the tram, by virtue of a circuit path through ancillary loads (such as interior lighting), is live at the full supply voltage, typically 600 volts DC. In British terminology, such a tram was said to be 'grounded'—not to be confused with the US English use of the term, which means the exact opposite. Any person stepping off
6825-427: The tram, the water providing a conducting bridge between the tram and the rails. With improved technology, this ceased to be an problem. In the 2000s, several companies introduced catenary-free designs: Alstom's Citadis line uses a third rail, Bombardier's PRIMOVE LRV is charged by contactless induction plates embedded in the trackway and CAF URBOS tram uses ultracaps technology As early as 1834, Thomas Davenport ,
6916-804: The wider term light rail , which also includes systems separated from other traffic. Tram vehicles are usually lighter and shorter than main line and rapid transit trains. Most trams use electrical power, usually fed by a pantograph sliding on an overhead line ; older systems may use a trolley pole or a bow collector . In some cases, a contact shoe on a third rail is used. If necessary, they may have dual power systems—electricity in city streets and diesel in more rural environments. Occasionally, trams also carry freight . Some trams, known as tram-trains , may have segments that run on mainline railway tracks, similar to interurban systems. The differences between these modes of rail transport are often indistinct, and systems may combine multiple features. One of
7007-409: The winter when hydroelectricity was not available. It continued in service in its original form into the 1950s. Sidney Howe Short designed and produced the first electric motor that operated a streetcar without gears. The motor had its armature direct-connected to the streetcar 's axle for the driving force. Short pioneered "use of a conduit system of concealed feed" thereby eliminating
7098-532: The world's first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle tramcar at an assembly facility in Qingdao . The chief engineer of the CSR subsidiary CSR Sifang Co Ltd. , Liang Jianying, said that the company is studying how to reduce the running costs of the tram. Trams have been used for two main purposes: for carrying passengers and for carrying cargo. There are several types of passenger tram: There are two main types of tramways,
7189-401: The world. Earlier electric trains proved difficult or unreliable and experienced limited success until the second half of the 1880s, when new types of current collectors were developed. 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 delivering electric shocks to people and animals crossing
7280-655: Was a Gettysburg Battlefield encampment of American Civil War veterans for the Battle of Gettysburg 's 50th anniversary. The June 29 – July 4 gathering of 53,407 veterans (about 8,750 Confederate) was the largest Civil War veteran reunion. All honorably-discharged veterans in the Grand Army of the Republic and the United Confederate Veterans were invited, and veterans from 46 of
7371-682: Was a case study of the decline of trams in the United States. In the 21st century, trams have been re-introduced in cities where they had been closed down for decades (such as Tramlink in London), or kept in heritage use (such as Spårväg City in Stockholm). Most trams made since the 1990s (such as the Bombardier Flexity series and Alstom Citadis ) are articulated low-floor trams with features such as regenerative braking . In March 2015, China South Rail Corporation (CSR) demonstrated
7462-491: Was built by Werner von Siemens who contacted Pirotsky. This was the world's first commercially successful electric tram. It drew current from the rails at first, with overhead wire being installed in 1883. In Britain, Volk's Electric Railway was opened in 1883 in Brighton. This two kilometer line along the seafront, re-gauged to 2 ft 8 + 1 ⁄ 2 in ( 825 mm ) in 1884, remains in service as
7553-502: Was chartered August 4, 1891, and incorporated July 28, 1892. In January 1893 the borough of Gettysburg granted trolley right-of-way for all principal streets, and the $ 150,000 bond was for street operations planned for July 1, 1893. The railway eventually secured rights-of-way for a route west and north of the borough to the area of the Battle of Gettysburg, First Day ; but which were never built. Railbed construction began in April 1893, and
7644-810: Was established in 1912 to display the Boston version of the Gettysburg Cyclorama and the Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History ; The Battle of Gettysburg , a now-lost film , first played at Walter's Theatre on June 26. Local planning for the reunion included expanding the Gettysburg hackman tax to automobiles (upheld by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 1914),
7735-487: Was installed as a commercial venture operating between the outer Melbourne suburb of Box Hill and the then tourist-oriented country town Doncaster from 1889 to 1896. Electric systems were also built in Adelaide , Ballarat , Bendigo , Brisbane , Fremantle , Geelong , Hobart , Kalgoorlie , Launceston , Leonora , Newcastle , Perth , and Sydney . By the 1970s, the only full tramway system remaining in Australia
7826-1004: Was leased by the Electric Light, Heat, and Power Company of Gettysburg to supply streetlights and homes until electricity was imported from Hanover. The 94-passenger, 14-bench " Brill double- truck summer cars " used the main line of 5.7 mi (9.2 km) on 10-minute intervals and were powered by a 150 ft × 100 ft (46 m × 30 m) electric plant with 150 hp (110 kW) Corliss steam engine (s) driving 500 volt Westinghouse railway generator(s). Employees included superintendent Hal J. Gintling, managers Thomas P. Turner & Harry Cunningham; crewmen Charles W Culp Jr, Mr. Grinder, William Shields, George Hughes, Norman Murray, Reuben Rupp, Walter Plank, Harry Robinson; conductors John Thomas, William G. Weaver, & Edward Weikert; and motormen Warfield Collins, Mr. Emmons, Gervus W. Myers, Arthur "Ott" Shields, & S. A. Troxell. The Gettysburg Electric Railway Company
7917-621: Was restarted in 1860, again using horses. It was worked by steam from 1877, and then, from 1929, by very large (106-seat) electric tramcars, until closure in 1960. The Swansea and Mumbles Railway was something of a one-off however, and no street tramway appeared in Britain until 1860 when one was built in Birkenhead by the American George Francis Train . Street railways developed in America before Europe, due to
8008-628: 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 , from 1881 to 1957. The most extensive cable system in the US was built in Chicago in stages between 1859 and 1892. New York City developed multiple cable car lines, that operated from 1883 to 1909. Los Angeles also had several cable car lines, including
8099-635: Was the Melbourne tram system. However, there were also a few single lines remaining elsewhere: the Glenelg tram line , connecting Adelaide to the beachside suburb of Glenelg , and tourist trams in the Victorian Goldfields cities of Bendigo and Ballarat. In recent years the Melbourne system, generally recognised as the largest urban tram network in the world, has been considerably modernised and expanded. The Adelaide line has been extended to
8190-411: Was the cable car, which was pulled along a fixed track by a moving steel cable, the cable usually running in a slot below the street level. The power to move the cable was normally provided at a "powerhouse" site a distance away from the actual vehicle. The London and Blackwall Railway , which opened for passengers in east London, England, in 1840 used such a system. The first practical cable car line
8281-878: Was widely used in London, Washington, D.C., and New York City, and the surface contact collection method, used in Wolverhampton (the Lorain system), Torquay and Hastings in the UK (the Dolter stud system), and in Bordeaux , France (the ground-level power supply system). The convenience and economy of electricity resulted in its rapid adoption once the technical problems of production and transmission of electricity were solved. Electric trams largely replaced animal power and other forms of motive power including cable and steam, in
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