Modelling
A tram, tramcar, trolley, trolley car, streetcar, or light rail vehicle is a railborne vehicle, lighter than a train, designed for the transport of passengers (and/or, very occasionally, freight) within, close to, or between villages, towns and/or cities. The infrastructure along which a tram runs is a tram system (also tramway, street railway).
Usage of the term
Main article: History of Trams History
History of the different types of trams
Calcutta was developing fast as a British trading and business centre. It was a town, where transport was mainly by palanquins carried on the shoulder by men, phaetons pulled by horses, etc. In 1867, The Calcutta Corporation with financial assistance from the Government of Bengal developed mass transport. The first tramcar rolled out on 24.2.1873 on the streets of Calcutta with horse drawn coaches running on steel rails between Sealdah and Armenian Ghat via Bowbazar and Dalhousie Square, (now BBD Bag). The Corporation entered into an agreement on 2.10.1879 with 3 industrial magnates of England : Robinson Soutter, Alfred Parrsh and Dilwyn Parriih. Registered in London, the Calcutta Tramways Company came into existence in 1880 after the sanction of The Calcutta Tramways Act, 1880.
By 1902 Messrs Kilburn & Co completed the electrification of the Calcutta tramways and the first electric tramcar was introduced in the Kidderpore section.
Calcutta (now Kolkata) remains the only Indian city, which has maintained tramway system. As of now, it remains an unreliable but very comfortable & eco-friendly transport.
Steam trams
History of the different types of trams
Calcutta was developing fast as a British trading and business centre. It was a town, where transport was mainly by palanquins carried on the shoulder by men, phaetons pulled by horses, etc. In 1867, The Calcutta Corporation with financial assistance from the Government of Bengal developed mass transport. The first tramcar rolled out on 24.2.1873 on the streets of Calcutta with horse drawn coaches running on steel rails between Sealdah and Armenian Ghat via Bowbazar and Dalhousie Square, (now BBD Bag). The Corporation entered into an agreement on 2.10.1879 with 3 industrial magnates of England : Robinson Soutter, Alfred Parrsh and Dilwyn Parriih. Registered in London, the Calcutta Tramways Company came into existence in 1880 after the sanction of The Calcutta Tramways Act, 1880.
By 1902 Messrs Kilburn & Co completed the electrification of the Calcutta tramways and the first electric tramcar was introduced in the Kidderpore section.
Calcutta (now Kolkata) remains the only Indian city, which has maintained tramway system. As of now, it remains an unreliable but very comfortable & eco-friendly transport.
Steam trams
Main article: Cable car (railway) Cable pulled cars
In some parts of the United Kingdom, other forms of power were used to power the tram. Hastings and some other tramways, for example Stockholms Spårvägar in Sweden, used petrol driven trams and Lytham St Annes used gas powered trams. Paris successfully operated trams that were powered by compressed air using the Mekarski system. In New York City, some minor lines used storage batteries rather than installing an expensive conduit current collection system in the street.
Other power sources
Multiple functioning experimental electric trams were exhibited at the 1884 World Cotton Centennial World's Fair in New Orleans, Louisiana; however they were deemed as not yet adequately perfected to replace the Lamm fireless engines then propelling the St. Charles Avenue Streetcar in that city.
Electric-powered trams (trolley cars, so called for the trolley pole used to gather power from an unshielded overhead wire), were first successfully tested in service in Richmond, Virginia, in 1888, in the Richmond Union Passenger Railway built by Frank J. Sprague. There were earlier commercial installations of electric streetcars, including one in Berlin, as early as 1881 by Werner von Siemens and the company that still bears his name, and also one in Saint Petersburg, Russia, invented and tested by Fyodor Pirotsky in 1880. Another was by John Joseph Wright, brother of the famous mining entrepreneur Whitaker Wright, in Toronto in 1883. The earlier installations, however, proved difficult and/or unreliable. Siemens' line, for example, provided power through a live rail and a return rail, like a model train setup, limiting the voltage that could be used, and providing unwanted excitement to people and animals crossing the tracks. Siemens later designed his own method of current collection, this time from an overhead wire, called the bow collector. Once this had been developed his cars became equal to, if not better than, any of Sprague's cars. The first electric interurban line connecting St. Catharines and Thorold, Ontario was operated in 1887, and was considered quite successful at the time. While this line proved quite versatile as one of the earliest fully functional electric streetcar installations, it still required horse-drawn support while climbing the Niagara Escarpment and for two months of the winter when hydroelectricity was not available. This line continued service in its original form well into the 1950s.
Since Sprague's installation was the first to prove successful in all conditions, he is credited with being the inventor of the trolley car. He 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 birth to the modern subway train.
Two rare but significant alternatives were conduit current collection, which was widely used in London, Washington, D.C. and New York, and the Surface Contact Collection method, used in Wolverhampton (The Lorain System) and Hastings (The Dolter Stud System), UK.
Attempts to use on-board batteries as a source of electrical power were made in the 1880s and 1890s, with unsuccessful trials conducted in (among other places) Bendigo and Adelaide in Australia.
A very famous Welsh example of a tram system was usually known as the Mumbles Train, or more formally as the Swansea and Mumbles Railway. Originally built as the Oystermouth Railway in 1804, on March 25, 1807 it became the first passenger-carrying railway in the world. Converted to an overhead cable-supplied system it operated electric cars from March 2, 1929 until its closure on January 5, 1960. These were the largest tram cars built for use in Britain and could each seat 106 passengers.
Another early tram system operated from 1886 until 1930 in Appleton, Wisconsin, and is notable for being powered by the world's first hydroelectric power station, which began operating on September 30, 1882 as the Appleton Edison Electric Company.
Electric trams (trolley cars)
In some parts of the United Kingdom, other forms of power were used to power the tram. Hastings and some other tramways, for example Stockholms Spårvägar in Sweden, used petrol driven trams and Lytham St Annes used gas powered trams. Paris successfully operated trams that were powered by compressed air using the Mekarski system. In New York City, some minor lines used storage batteries rather than installing an expensive conduit current collection system in the street.
Other power sources
Multiple functioning experimental electric trams were exhibited at the 1884 World Cotton Centennial World's Fair in New Orleans, Louisiana; however they were deemed as not yet adequately perfected to replace the Lamm fireless engines then propelling the St. Charles Avenue Streetcar in that city.
Electric-powered trams (trolley cars, so called for the trolley pole used to gather power from an unshielded overhead wire), were first successfully tested in service in Richmond, Virginia, in 1888, in the Richmond Union Passenger Railway built by Frank J. Sprague. There were earlier commercial installations of electric streetcars, including one in Berlin, as early as 1881 by Werner von Siemens and the company that still bears his name, and also one in Saint Petersburg, Russia, invented and tested by Fyodor Pirotsky in 1880. Another was by John Joseph Wright, brother of the famous mining entrepreneur Whitaker Wright, in Toronto in 1883. The earlier installations, however, proved difficult and/or unreliable. Siemens' line, for example, provided power through a live rail and a return rail, like a model train setup, limiting the voltage that could be used, and providing unwanted excitement to people and animals crossing the tracks. Siemens later designed his own method of current collection, this time from an overhead wire, called the bow collector. Once this had been developed his cars became equal to, if not better than, any of Sprague's cars. The first electric interurban line connecting St. Catharines and Thorold, Ontario was operated in 1887, and was considered quite successful at the time. While this line proved quite versatile as one of the earliest fully functional electric streetcar installations, it still required horse-drawn support while climbing the Niagara Escarpment and for two months of the winter when hydroelectricity was not available. This line continued service in its original form well into the 1950s.
Since Sprague's installation was the first to prove successful in all conditions, he is credited with being the inventor of the trolley car. He 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 birth to the modern subway train.
Two rare but significant alternatives were conduit current collection, which was widely used in London, Washington, D.C. and New York, and the Surface Contact Collection method, used in Wolverhampton (The Lorain System) and Hastings (The Dolter Stud System), UK.
Attempts to use on-board batteries as a source of electrical power were made in the 1880s and 1890s, with unsuccessful trials conducted in (among other places) Bendigo and Adelaide in Australia.
A very famous Welsh example of a tram system was usually known as the Mumbles Train, or more formally as the Swansea and Mumbles Railway. Originally built as the Oystermouth Railway in 1804, on March 25, 1807 it became the first passenger-carrying railway in the world. Converted to an overhead cable-supplied system it operated electric cars from March 2, 1929 until its closure on January 5, 1960. These were the largest tram cars built for use in Britain and could each seat 106 passengers.
Another early tram system operated from 1886 until 1930 in Appleton, Wisconsin, and is notable for being powered by the world's first hydroelectric power station, which began operating on September 30, 1882 as the Appleton Edison Electric Company.
Electric trams (trolley cars)
For more details on this topic, see Low floor. Low floor
Articulated trams are tram cars that consist of several sections held together by flexible joints and a round platform. Like articulated buses, they have an increased passenger capacity. These trams can be up to forty metres in length, while a regular tram has to be much shorter. With this type, 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.
Articulated
Articulated trams are tram cars that consist of several sections held together by flexible joints and a round platform. Like articulated buses, they have an increased passenger capacity. These trams can be up to forty metres in length, while a regular tram has to be much shorter. With this type, 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.
Articulated
Main article: Tram-train Tram-train
Goods have been carried on rail vehicles through the streets, particularly near docks and steelworks, since the 19th century (most evident in Weymouth), and some Belgian vicinale routes were used to haul timber. 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. Dresden has a regular CarGoTram service, run by the world's longest tram trainsets (59.4 m), carrying car parts across the city centre to its Volkswagen factory. Vienna and Zürich use trams as mobile recycling depots. Kislovodsk had a freight-only tram system comprising one line which was used exclusively to deliver bottled Narzan mineral water to the railway station.
As of 7th March 2007, Amsterdam is piloting a cargo tram operation, which could reduce particulate pollution by 20% by halving the number of lorries – currently 5,000 - unloading in the inner city during the permitted 'window' from 07:00 till 10:30.
The pilot, operated by City Cargo Amsterdam, involves two cargo trams, operating from a distribution centre at Lutkemeerpolder, on the A10 ring motorway near the Osdorp terminus of tram no. 1. Each cargo tram can transport the load of 4 lorries (roughly 100 tonnes) to a 'hub' at Frederiksplein, where electric trucks deliver to the final destination.
If the trial is successful an investment of 100 million euro would see 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 metres long with 12 axles and a payload of 30 tonnes.
(Source: Samenwest 5 Dec 06, NOS3 television news 7 Mar 07)
Cargo trams
Models of trams are popular in HO scale and sometimes in 1:50 scale. They typically are powered and will accept plastic figures inside. Common manufacturers are Roco and Lima (models) with many custom models being made as well. The German firm Hödl and the Austrian Halling specialize in trams in 1:87 scale.
A number of 1:76.2 scale tram models, especially kits, are made in the UK. Many of these run on 16.5mm gauge track, which is incorrect for the representation of standard (4ft 8½ins) gauge, as it represents 4ft 1½ins in 4mm (1:76.2) scale. This scale/gauge hybrid is called OO scale.
There are some Russian tram models available in 1:48 scale
German models of trams (Düwag and Siemens) and a bus in HO scale
UK model of a Sheffield Roberts Car 510
Uk model of 3 UK tramcars
Model trams
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 in fact 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.
Gdansk trams figure extensively in the early stages of Günter Grass's Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum). Then in its last chapter, the novel's hero Oskar Matzerath, along with his friend Gottfried von Vittlar, steal a tram late at night from outside the Unterrath depot on the northern edge of Düsseldorf.
It is a surreal journey. Gottfried von Vittlar drives the tram through the night, south to Flingern and Haniel and then east to the suburb of Gerresheim. Meanwhile, inside, Oskar tries to rescue the half-blind Victor Weluhn (a character 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. Oskar 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 Vittlar's mother's garden and prepare to machine-gun him. But Oskar drums, Victor sings, and together they conjure up the Polish cavalry, who spirit both victim and executioners away. Oskar asks 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 no. 703 terminating at Gerresheim Stadtbahn station ("by the glassworks" as Grass notes, referring to the famous glass factory in Gerresheim).
[Reference: The chapter Die letzte Straßenbahn oder Anbetung eines Weckglases (The last tram or Adoration of a Preserving Jar). See page 584 of the 1959 Büchergilde Gutenberg German edition and page 571 of the 1961 Secker & Warburg edition, translated into English by Ralph Manheim]
Trams in literature
The word trolley is used to describe a trolley-like device running on elevated rails or suspended from a steel beam. This type of industrial trolley typically supports an electric hoist or dipping machine. They also are commonly mounted on a crane or gantry crane in shipyards or factories, or even a railcar repair shop. These trolleys run almost exclusively on railroad rail. If not, they are mounted on a steel bar track that functions exactly like railroad rail. Typical gauges are 6' or 6.5'. Another industrial trolley is a coil cart. These are ground-mounted trolleys that transfer steel coils from one place to another within a factory. These coil cart trolleys are always track mounted, whether it be rail, bar, or v-track.
Trolleys for Industrial Use
Notes
The Rev W. Awdry made a small Y6 tram called Toby the Tram Engine which starred in a series of books called The Railway Series along with his faithful coach, Henrietta.
A Streetcar Named Desire (play)
A Streetcar Named Desire (film)
The film The Italian Job features Benny Hill lewdly assisting a woman into a Turin tram
The central plot of the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit involves the Judge Doom, the villain, dismantling the streetcars of Los Angeles.
"The Trolley Song" in Meet Me in St. Louis (film) received an Academy Award.
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.
In Akira Kurosawa's film Dodesukaden a mentally ill boy pretends to be a tram conductor.
The predominace 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 Angles Dodgers). See also
Birney
Citadis
Citytram
City Class
Combino
Double decker tram
Eurotram
Horsecar
Peter Witt streetcar
PCC
Sirio
Tatra T3
Ultra Low Floor
ZET 2200
Tramway Français Standard
Articulated trams, see Trams in Germany
Goods have been carried on rail vehicles through the streets, particularly near docks and steelworks, since the 19th century (most evident in Weymouth), and some Belgian vicinale routes were used to haul timber. 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. Dresden has a regular CarGoTram service, run by the world's longest tram trainsets (59.4 m), carrying car parts across the city centre to its Volkswagen factory. Vienna and Zürich use trams as mobile recycling depots. Kislovodsk had a freight-only tram system comprising one line which was used exclusively to deliver bottled Narzan mineral water to the railway station.
As of 7th March 2007, Amsterdam is piloting a cargo tram operation, which could reduce particulate pollution by 20% by halving the number of lorries – currently 5,000 - unloading in the inner city during the permitted 'window' from 07:00 till 10:30.
The pilot, operated by City Cargo Amsterdam, involves two cargo trams, operating from a distribution centre at Lutkemeerpolder, on the A10 ring motorway near the Osdorp terminus of tram no. 1. Each cargo tram can transport the load of 4 lorries (roughly 100 tonnes) to a 'hub' at Frederiksplein, where electric trucks deliver to the final destination.
If the trial is successful an investment of 100 million euro would see 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 metres long with 12 axles and a payload of 30 tonnes.
(Source: Samenwest 5 Dec 06, NOS3 television news 7 Mar 07)
Cargo tramsModels of trams are popular in HO scale and sometimes in 1:50 scale. They typically are powered and will accept plastic figures inside. Common manufacturers are Roco and Lima (models) with many custom models being made as well. The German firm Hödl and the Austrian Halling specialize in trams in 1:87 scale.
A number of 1:76.2 scale tram models, especially kits, are made in the UK. Many of these run on 16.5mm gauge track, which is incorrect for the representation of standard (4ft 8½ins) gauge, as it represents 4ft 1½ins in 4mm (1:76.2) scale. This scale/gauge hybrid is called OO scale.
There are some Russian tram models available in 1:48 scale
German models of trams (Düwag and Siemens) and a bus in HO scale
UK model of a Sheffield Roberts Car 510
Uk model of 3 UK tramcars
Model trams
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 in fact 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.
Gdansk trams figure extensively in the early stages of Günter Grass's Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum). Then in its last chapter, the novel's hero Oskar Matzerath, along with his friend Gottfried von Vittlar, steal a tram late at night from outside the Unterrath depot on the northern edge of Düsseldorf.
It is a surreal journey. Gottfried von Vittlar drives the tram through the night, south to Flingern and Haniel and then east to the suburb of Gerresheim. Meanwhile, inside, Oskar tries to rescue the half-blind Victor Weluhn (a character 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. Oskar 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 Vittlar's mother's garden and prepare to machine-gun him. But Oskar drums, Victor sings, and together they conjure up the Polish cavalry, who spirit both victim and executioners away. Oskar asks 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 no. 703 terminating at Gerresheim Stadtbahn station ("by the glassworks" as Grass notes, referring to the famous glass factory in Gerresheim).
[Reference: The chapter Die letzte Straßenbahn oder Anbetung eines Weckglases (The last tram or Adoration of a Preserving Jar). See page 584 of the 1959 Büchergilde Gutenberg German edition and page 571 of the 1961 Secker & Warburg edition, translated into English by Ralph Manheim]
Trams in literature
The word trolley is used to describe a trolley-like device running on elevated rails or suspended from a steel beam. This type of industrial trolley typically supports an electric hoist or dipping machine. They also are commonly mounted on a crane or gantry crane in shipyards or factories, or even a railcar repair shop. These trolleys run almost exclusively on railroad rail. If not, they are mounted on a steel bar track that functions exactly like railroad rail. Typical gauges are 6' or 6.5'. Another industrial trolley is a coil cart. These are ground-mounted trolleys that transfer steel coils from one place to another within a factory. These coil cart trolleys are always track mounted, whether it be rail, bar, or v-track.
Trolleys for Industrial Use
Notes
The Rev W. Awdry made a small Y6 tram called Toby the Tram Engine which starred in a series of books called The Railway Series along with his faithful coach, Henrietta.
A Streetcar Named Desire (play)
A Streetcar Named Desire (film)
The film The Italian Job features Benny Hill lewdly assisting a woman into a Turin tram
The central plot of the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit involves the Judge Doom, the villain, dismantling the streetcars of Los Angeles.
"The Trolley Song" in Meet Me in St. Louis (film) received an Academy Award.
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.
In Akira Kurosawa's film Dodesukaden a mentally ill boy pretends to be a tram conductor.
The predominace 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 Angles Dodgers). See also
Birney
Citadis
Citytram
City Class
Combino
Double decker tram
Eurotram
Horsecar
Peter Witt streetcar
PCC
Sirio
Tatra T3
Ultra Low Floor
ZET 2200
Tramway Français Standard
Articulated trams, see Trams in Germany
No comments:
Post a Comment