90-489: The Kirnitzschtal tramway , also known as the Kirnitzschtalbahn , is an electric tramway in Saxony , Germany . The line runs through the valley of the Kirnitzsch river in Saxon Switzerland , from the town of Bad Schandau up to the Lichtenhain Waterfall , in the municipality of Sebnitz . The line is principally a tourist service, being the only tramway to serve a National Park in Germany , and uses historical rolling stock built between 1925 and 1968. The line
180-622: 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
270-520: 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
360-525: A final motor car in 2007. These vehicles came from various East German cities, and, along with the trailers acquired in 1984 are collectively known as Gothawagen . Their arrival allowed the retirement of the remaining Erfurter motor cars and MAN trailers. Between October 1993 and May 1994, the line underwent extensive construction work, including rebuilds of the depot and the Lichtenhainer Wasserfall stop. The very serious flooding of
450-490: A replacement bus operating between Bad Schandau and Waldhäusel. The following year the remaining two trailers acquired in 1984 were brought into service. The line into Bad Schandau reopened as far as Botanischer Garten stop in 1989 and to the Kurpark terminus on 3 August 1990. In 1992, the line acquired two motor cars similar to the trailers acquired in 1984. A further two motor cars and two trailers were acquired in 1995 and
540-726: 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
630-946: 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
720-679: Is operated by the Regionalverkehr Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge GmbH (RVSOE). This company also operates local and regional bus services in Saxon Switzerland and the adjoining Osterzgebirge (Eastern Ore Mountains), together with boat services on the Elbe river. The first plans for the line were introduced in 1893. These were for a tramway from Bad Schandau to Kirnitzschschänke (now Zadní Jetřichovice [ cs ] in
810-556: Is paralleled throughout by OVPS bus route 241, which accepts VVO fares. On the parallel stretch, bus service varies from half-hourly, on summer weekends, to a few journeys a day, on winter weekdays. During 2008, motor car 5 and trailer 12 were used in the filming of The Reader , based on Bernhard Schlink 's novel of the same name . Filming took place both on the Görlitz tramway and on the Kirnitzschtal line. During filming on
900-640: 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
990-734: 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
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#17327931572421080-713: 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
1170-550: The Czech Republic ). The decision on the form of propulsion to use was controversial, with both steam locomotives and electric traction proposed. However steam propulsion proved uneconomic, and electrification was chosen, requiring the construction of a power plant. The line opened from Bad Schandau as far as the Lichtenhain Waterfall on Saturday 28 May 1898. The remainder of the line, to Kirnitzschschänke,
1260-933: 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,
1350-715: 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
1440-824: 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
1530-1241: 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
1620-713: 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
1710-420: 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
1800-481: 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
1890-462: 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
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#17327931572421980-522: The Elbe in 2002 caused service to be suspended, as the line's Bad Schandau terminus, along with the rest of the town, was under 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) of flood water. Reconstruction of the Kirnitzschtal road, together with extensive track replacement, again caused suspension in 2003. On 7 August 2010, heavy flooding in the Kirnitz Valley caused damage to both the line and its vehicles. The depot
2070-774: 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
2160-583: 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
2250-667: The Kirnitzschtal line, the actress Kate Winslet acted as the conductress of the tram set. Electric tramway 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
2340-650: The Nasser Grund stop, and Lichtenhainer Wasserfall was not reached until 24 May 1973. As a further modernisation move, the line took over five motorcars from the Lockwitztal tramway in 1977, after the closure of that line. These vehicles were built between 1938 and 1944 for the Erfurt tramway , and are thus called Erfurter . They replaced the MAN motor cars of 1928, but the trailers from that era were retained to run with
2430-545: 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,
2520-789: 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
2610-747: 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
2700-577: 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;
2790-887: 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
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2880-410: 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
2970-508: 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
3060-417: The authorities ordered the closure of line, and its long-term future was in doubt. In December 1969, after some debate, the city council decided to retain the line, a decision that was endorsed by the district council of Dresden in March. However the necessary reconstruction of the track was delayed and it was not until 25 July 1972 that the line reopened. Even then the reopened section only stretched as far as
3150-460: 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
3240-439: 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
3330-458: 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
3420-402: 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,
3510-409: 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
3600-470: 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. Gothaer Waggonfabrik Gothaer Waggonfabrik ( Gotha , GWF)
3690-416: 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
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3780-416: The depot and the entire fleet. Service was restored on August 12 and continued until October 31 using cars borrowed from the Lößnitz Tramway . In 1928, a new fleet of five motorcars and six trailers built by MAN were put into service and the Lößnitz Tramway cars were returned to Radebeul . However a maintenance car from the Lößnitz Tramway remained on the Kirnitzschtal tramway until 1954, over 20 years after
3870-430: 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
3960-518: The end of the war. The Ho 229 V3 ended up in American hands, and is currently at the NASM 's Udvar-Hazy Center , under evaluation for restoration. On 22 February 1944, a squadron of American bombers was sent from Britain to bomb the factory, but due to bad weather, the mission was cancelled before they reached Gotha. On the way back, the Dutch border city of Nijmegen was bombed instead as a 'target of opportunity', killing hundreds of civilians. On 24 February 1944, 239 American B-24s are dispatched to
4050-446: 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
4140-429: 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
4230-439: 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
4320-405: The first all-steel standard car body produced by Ambi-Budd in Berlin and, incongruously to some modern readers, was shared with the Adler Standard 6 , a more powerful and higher priced six cylinder car from one of Germany's mainstream auto-makers of the 1930s. The sale by Gothaer Waggonfabrik of the cash-strapped Dixi business to BMW meant an end to Cyklon's access to a sales network, and highlighted
4410-487: The first heavier-than-air aircraft used in this role. Several dozen of these bombers were built in a number of subtypes - the Ursinus-based Gotha G.I , and the succeeding Burkhard-designed G.II , G.III , G.IV , and G.V . This last variant was the most prolific, with thirty-six in squadron service at one point. Whilst Germany was prohibited from military aircraft manufacture by the Treaty of Versailles , Gotha returned to its railway endeavours, but returned to aviation with
4500-543: The former East Germany . The tram production ended in 1967, after East Germany started importing ČKD-Tatra trams from Czechoslovakia. From 1983 on, parts for the Wartburg 535 / 1.3 were produced. After the end of the Wartburg production in Eisenach after 1991 the production concentrated on truck trailers. In 1997 the company was split and privatized by the Treuhandanstalt . Today the Schmitz Cargobull Gotha GmbH (production site of Schmitz Cargobull AG ) produces around 4000 truck trailers per year. The second successor
4590-418: The lack of cash for running the auto-business which rapidly fizzled out after 1928, although Cyklon was not formally wound up until 1931. Gotha's main contribution to the new Luftwaffe was the Gotha Go 145 trainer , of which 1,182 were built. The firm also produced the Gotha Go 242 assault glider and licence-built Messerschmitt Bf 110 . Perhaps the most famous Gotha product of World War II , however,
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#17327931572424680-444: 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
4770-402: 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
4860-428: The line having to be closed for a week whilst the resulting debris was removed. As of 1 January 2019, the Oberelbische Verkehrsgesellschaft Pirna Sebnitz mbH (OVPS), which had previously operated the line, became part of the Regionalverkehr Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge GmbH (RVSOE), which now operates the tramway. The line is 7.9 kilometres (4.9 mi) long, of metre gauge , electrified at 600 volts DC on
4950-403: The line was truncated by approximately 350 metres (1,150 ft) at the Bad Schandau end, because of increasing traffic congestion in the town. The former terminus at the Hotel Lindenhof and the stop at Forellenbrücke were replaced by a new terminus at Stadtpark, now Kurpark. A month later, on 21 July, one of the line's motor cars overturned and all of the passengers suffered injuries. As a result,
5040-428: The line's older rolling stock, which is also available for private charter. In the 1990s the line installed solar cells on the roof for the depot, which contribute about 20% of the electricity used by the system. Although RVSOE is a member of the Verkehrsverbund Oberelbe (VVO), that organisation's common fare structure does not apply to the Kirnitzschtal Tramway, reflecting its predominantly tourist nature. The line
5130-475: 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
5220-493: The new motorcars. In 1984, four trailers built by Gothaer Waggonfabrik in the 1960s were acquired, and two of them were placed into service. However at the end of 1985 poor track condition forced another closure of the line, and again the line's future was in doubt. Public pressure led to a decision to retain the line, and after reconstruction of 650 metres (2,130 ft) of track, the section between Waldhäusel and Lichtenhainer Wasserfall stops reopened on 18 August 1986, with
5310-421: 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
5400-434: The other borrowed cars had been scrapped. It was transferred to the Lockwitztal tramway , where it remained in regular transport service until 1968. In 1938, the line finally started running during the winter months. It largely escaped any damage during the Second World War and operation resumed on 7 June 1945, but by the end of the 1960s the line was in increasingly poor condition, with several derailments. On 23 June 1969,
5490-425: The overhead line system, and uses four-wheeled motor coaches and trailers. It has seven stopping points in addition to the two termini. The single track line has two passing loops , one at the depot and the other between the Forsthaus and Nasser Grund stops. There are also loops at both termini, to enable the motorcars to run around their trailers. Principally a tourist service, the line transports passengers to
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#17327931572425580-415: 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
5670-476: The primary target at Gotha, Germany (169 bomb Gotha); the lead bombardier from 2AD suffered from anoxia due to a faulty oxygen mask and mistook Eisenach as the primary target, 43 other B-24s released on his mistake (44 bomb Eisenach); they claim 50-10-20 Luftwaffe aircraft; 34 B-24s are lost and 29 are damaged; casualties are: 3 KIA, 6 WIA and 324 MIA. Following the war, Gotha once again returned to its original purpose, building trams and light rail vehicles in
5760-419: The rise of the Nazi government and the abandonment of the Treaty's restrictions. In 1921 the company purchased Automobilwerk Eisenach , thereby entering automobile production and, with the Dixi 3/15 DA-1 playing an important part in expanding the German auto-market to buyers who hitherto would have ridden motorcycles, if at all. The company encountered a cash crisis in 1928 and the Dixi branded auto-business
5850-427: The road. Currently the line operates throughout the year. In the winter months it operates every 70 minutes, whilst in the summer months it operates every half hour. The winter timetable is typically operated by a single Gothawagen motor car operating on its own, whilst the summer timetable requires three such motor cars, each pulling one or two matching trailers. Additional public trips are operated on some days using
5940-419: 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
6030-401: The track is laid in the southern, eastbound, lane of the S165 Kirnitzschtalstrasse road. Thus westbound trams heading towards Bad Schandau travel against the normal flow of road traffic, requiring heightened attention from both tram and road vehicle drivers. Although some of the line's tramcars are double-ended, only the doors on the south side are used, as all the stops are on the south side of
6120-436: 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
6210-416: 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
6300-407: 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
6390-427: 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 ,
6480-474: The viable sales and distribution network of Dixi and aspirations to become a serious auto-producer. Between 1927 and 1929 the company produced the Cyklon 9/40 which at the time was the most inexpensive six cylinder powered car sold in Germany. The conservative looking car featured a modern all-steel body produced by Germany's leading producer of steel car bodies, Ambi-Budd 's Berlin based business. It was, in fact,
6570-494: The waterfall and to a number of access points for hiking, including along the Malerweg or Painters' Way [ de ] . Adjacent to its waterfall terminus is the half-timbered Lichtenhainer Wasserfall hotel, which has been described by The Guardian as "delightfully kitsch". The line is unusual in that it is mostly "gutter running", a type of track layout once common on rural tramways in Germany. In this tramway,
6660-804: 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
6750-409: 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
6840-532: 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,
6930-401: 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
7020-552: Was a German manufacturer of rolling stock established in the late nineteenth century at Gotha . During the two world wars, the company expanded into aircraft building. In World War I , Gotha was the manufacturer of a highly successful series of bombers based on a 1914 design by Oskar Ursinus and developed by Hans Burkhard. From 1917, the Burkhard-designed twin pusher biplane bomber aircraft were capable of carrying out strategic bombing missions over England ,
7110-682: 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
7200-540: Was an aircraft that never entered service, the Horten Ho 229 . This was an exotic jet -powered, flying wing fighter aircraft designed by the Horten brothers , who lacked the facilities to mass-produce it. Two prototypes flew, the second (powered) version lost in an accident on its third flight. The third prototype- built to a modified design - was almost complete and four more were in various stages of manufacture before
7290-491: 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
7380-518: Was flooded as high as the tram floors, causing damage to the cars' motors, gears and axles. The line did not operate again until Easter 2011, and when it reopened it was curtailed to Beuthenfall as a retaining wall on the approach to the Lichtenhain Waterfall terminus had to be rebuit. This last section did not reopen until December 2012. Further flooding by the Kirnitzsch river in July 2021 resulted in
7470-487: 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
7560-486: Was never built for economic reasons, and service was initially limited to the summer months. The initial vehicle fleet comprised six enclosed motorcars and six open trailers, which were built by Busch in Bautzen . In 1926, the overhead electricity supply was completely renewed, the existing cars were modernised and two new cars were purchased from Waggonbau Görlitz . However, during the night of 26 July 1927, fire destroyed
7650-621: 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
7740-579: Was sold to BMW : the Dixi 3/15 DA-1 was rebadged in 1928 as the BMW 3/15 DA-2 , the name by which today the little car is better remembered. In 1924 the Cyklon Maschinenfabrik , a manufacturer that had concentrated on motor-bikes and cycle cars came to be merged into the larger Gothaer Waggonfabrik business, through a rather indirect route of company purchases and sales. This gave Cyklon access to
7830-628: 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
7920-635: 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
8010-411: 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
8100-830: 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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