The world's first tram. The first trams in Russia

The main theoretical issues of the development of electric transport were developed by Russian scientists Jacobi, Chikalev, Lochinov and Yablochkov back in 1838. However, the first to conduct a series of experiments on the practical application of electric propulsion was Fyodor Apollonovich Pirotsky. Thanks to his efforts in 1880 in St. Petersburg For the first time in the world, a motor tram car was moved along the rails of a horse-drawn railway by electric power.

However, the widespread use of tram transport occurred in Russia only 10 years later.

In April 1890, the engineer and businessman A. Struve submitted a petition to the Kyiv government, which justified the need to use electric traction for horse-drawn horses that were popular at that time. The request was granted, despite the protests of the Postal and Telegraph Department, which argued that “the flow of electricity along the contact wire and rails will interfere with the operation of the telegraph and telephone.” At his plant in Kolomna, where bridge metal structures, carriages and steam locomotives were produced, Struve organized the design and production of electric trams. And in Kyiv, on the steepest section of Alexandrovskaya Street, 1.5 km long, between Tsarskaya and Nizhnyaya squares, construction of a tram line began. On May 9, 1892, a test ride of an electric carriage took place on Aleksandrovskaya Gora to Nizhnyaya Square, and already in At the beginning of June, the first regular tram service in the Russian Empire was opened on this line.

In 1896 the tram appeared In Nizhniy Novgorod, and in 1898 - in Vitebsk, Kursk And Ekaterinoslav(now Dnepropetrovsk). IN Moscow tram service was opened only in 1899, and in St. Petersburg even in 1907.

Excerpts from the “complaint book” in which residents of Vitebsk recorded their grievances about the imperfect operation of city trams:

"On January 2, 1905, having boarded the carriage, I asked Mr. Conductor when the carriage would arrive. He answered too indelicately: “When he comes, then he will go.”" Artist K.P. Orlov.

January 19, 1905. It’s been more than a week since I stated that the door in car No. 105 is not fake. The door has not been installed to this day. It causes tooth pain. Court Councilor Glutnevich.

May 26, 1906. I ask you to demand from controller No. 15 by what right he charges me 5 kopecks when I am wearing a gymnasium cap, but without a coat of arms, but with piping. Director's response: “ A cap, even with piping, but without a coat of arms, does not give the right to use a preferential tariff.”

October 12, 1907. P I would like to demand from conductor No. 51 by what right he charges me 5 kopecks for a ticket when I am in uniform, but without an apron. Gymnasium student at the Marian Gymnasium Yakhnina.

September 24, 1913. Car No. 115. In response to my request to stop the tram on Zadunovskaya Street, the driver smiled impudently and did not stop. N. Shlusberg.

In New York in 1832 and in New Orleans in 1834. However, horsecars became truly successful only after Alphonse Loubat invented rails with a groove for the wheel flange, which were recessed into the roadbed, in 1852. Previously, rails were used that protruded 15 cm above street level, which greatly interfered with other street traffic. (Alphonse Loube's invention is in fact still in use today.) A horse-drawn carriage was usually harnessed to one or two horses; mules and zebras were less commonly used.

Before that time, omnibuses were already used as urban transport. But in comparison with an omnibus, the wheel of a horse-drawn carriage experienced less rolling resistance, which allowed the horse to drive a heavier omnibus car. However, other shortcomings were not eliminated. The horse's working day was limited by the animal's physical capabilities (four to five hours). On average, there were ten horses per car of a horse-drawn tram, which also required care and food.

Amsterdam: a bus instead of a horse

In New York, the horse car was closed in 1914, and around the same time horse cars in many other cities ceased to exist. Usually they were replaced by electric trams, although oddities also happened... So in 1922 in Amsterdam, on one of the last routes, horse-drawn trams were replaced by buses. A horse-drawn carriage was attached to the bus from behind. To avoid confusion, a “tram” sign was installed on the bus. The route existed in this form for four years, after which the rails were removed and regular “non-tram” buses began running along the route.

In foreign Europe

Electric railway of the Siemens & Halske company at the Berlin Exhibition of 1879

The prototype of electric trams (as well as electric locomotives) was a machine created by the German engineer Ernst Werner von Siemens. It was first used in 1879 at the German Industrial Exhibition in Berlin. The locomotive was used to take visitors around the exhibition grounds. The speed of the train driven by the locomotive was 6.5 km/h. The locomotive was powered from the third rail by a direct current of 150 volts and had a power of 3 hp. The weight of the locomotive was a quarter of a ton. Four cars were attached to the locomotive, each of which had six seats. Over four months, 86,000 exhibition visitors used the services of the new vehicle. The train was later demonstrated in 1880 in Düsseldorf and Brussels, and in Paris in 1881 (inoperative). In the same year in action in Copenhagen and finally in 1882 in London (in the Crystal Palace) and in St. Petersburg. The gauge on which this semi-toy train ran was 508 millimeters.

Paris tram at the end of the 19th century

After success with the exhibition attraction, Siemens began construction of a 2.5 km electric tram line in the Berlin suburb of Lichterfeld. The motor car received a current of 100 volts through both rails. The tram's motor power was 5 kilowatts. The maximum speed was 20 km/h. In 1881, the first tram, built by Siemens & Halske, ran on the railway between Berlin and Lichterfeld, thereby opening tram traffic.

In the same year, Siemens built a tram line of the same type in Paris.

In 1885, the tram appeared in Great Britain in the English resort town of Blackpool. It is noteworthy that the original sections have been preserved in their original form, and the tram transport itself is carefully preserved in this city.

IN THE USA

The appearance of the first trams in the USA occurred independently of Europe. Inventor Leo Daft began experimenting with electric traction in 1883, building several small electric locomotives (see history of electric locomotives). His work attracted the attention of the director of the Baltimore Horse Railroad, who decided to convert the three-mile line to electric traction. Daft began electrifying the line and creating electric trams. On August 10, 1885, an electric tram opened on this line - the first on the American continent. However, the system turned out to be ineffective: the use of the third rail led to short circuits during rain, and the voltage (120 volts) killed many unlucky small animals (cats, dogs), and it was also unsafe for people. Soon they abandoned the use of electricity on this line and returned to horses.

However, the inventor did not abandon the idea of ​​​​an electric tram, and in 1886 he managed to create a workable system - instead of the third rail, a two-wire contact network began to be used. (This two-wire Daft catenary can be considered the prototype of the later trolleybus catenary systems.) Daft trams were used in Pittsburgh, New York and Cincinnati.

Another pioneer of streetcars in America was Charles Van Depoele. After learning of the success of the Siemens electric locomotive in Germany, he arranged for a demonstration of his own experimental electric car in 1883 at the Chicago Industrial Exposition. His experiments aroused interest, and by 1886, five cities in the United States (including Scranton and Minneapolis) and one city in Canada, Windsor, were operating trams of his system. For power supply, he used a single-wire contact network. A direct current of 1400 volts was used.

However, the real development of trams in the USA began after engineer Frank J. Sprague created a reliable current collector - the trolley rod. The trolley current collector was not only reliable, but also safer compared to the third rail. In 1888, a streetcar network created by Sprague opened in Richmond, Virginia. Very soon, the same systems appeared in many other US cities.

In Europe, too, powering a tram through the third rail was quickly abandoned, as was power supply from two conventional rails (this system had all the disadvantages of a system with a third rail, plus it complicated the design of the tram, since it required insulation of the wheel pairs, otherwise the wheels and the axle connecting them caused a short circuit between the rails). However, instead of a trolley rod, Siemens developed a yoke (looks like an arc). Unlike the Sprague system, which required arrows on the contact wire, the Siemens system does not require them, which made it simpler and more reliable. (The Sprague system, which is the progenitor of trolleybus contact networks, also has a disadvantage inherent to them - derailments of trolleybus rods from the contact network wires are still a common occurrence to this day. Whereas the derailment of a yoke or pantograph from a contact network wire is extremely unlikely, which allows a tram with a yoke or pantograph move much faster than a “rod” tram.)

Golden age of trams

The period of the most rapid expansion of the tram lasted from the beginning of the 20th century until the period between the world wars. In many cities, new tram systems were created, and existing ones were constantly expanded: the tram actually became the main form of urban transport. Horse-drawn transport had practically disappeared from the streets of European and American cities by 1910, buses were still in their early stages of development, and cars had not yet had time to turn from luxury into a means of transportation.

By the end of the 20s, it became clear that the period of tram dominance was coming to an end. Concerned about falling revenues, the presidents of US streetcar companies held a conference in 1929 at which it was decided to develop a series of standardized, significantly improved cars called PCC. These cars, which first saw the light of day in 1934, set a new bar in the technical equipment, comfort and appearance of trams, influencing the entire history of tram development for many years to come. Actually, it was then that the tram appeared for many years - especially in the USSR - which became a tram classic.

Temporary disappearance from many cities

At the beginning of the 20th century, trams were an integral part of any sufficiently large American (and European) city

In many countries, the growing popularity of cars led to the rapid disappearance of trams from city streets (around the end of the fifties). Trams had to compete not only with privately owned cars, but also with minibuses, buses and trolleybuses. First of all, this process affected the countries of North America and Western Europe, but it was also observed in South America and Asian countries. (In East Asia - especially Japan - the tram was most often replaced by the monorail or surface urban electric trains)

Governments primarily invested in road transport, as the automobile was generally seen as a symbol of progress. For example, French President Georges Pompidou said in 1971: “the city must accept the automobile.”

Technical progress has increased the reliability of buses and trolleybuses, which have become serious competitors of the tram - also due to the fact that they do not require expensive infrastructure. Often, buses and trolleybuses also provided a more comfortable ride and smoother ride than the older tram cars. In some places the tram was replaced by a trolleybus.

There was no modernization of tram networks, and therefore their condition constantly deteriorated, and accordingly the public’s opinion about trams as a form of transport worsened.

Trams have almost completely disappeared in North America, France (in France, only Lille, Saint-Etienne and Marseille retain a tram), Great Britain (of fifteen cities, only Blackpool retains its tram), India, Turkey, Spain, South Africa and Australia (with the exception Melbourne and Adelaide). At the same time, the tram was preserved and modernized in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, the USSR (later in Russia) and other countries, from where the tram, as a mode of transport, later went on a “counter-offensive” and began a new expansion. In some countries, the situation regarding the tram was different in different cities. Thus, in Finland the tram in Turku was closed, but was preserved and even developed in Helsinki. Sweden retained trams from Norrköping and Gothenburg, but the transition from left- to right-hand traffic completely closed the tram network in central Stockholm.

A slightly different evolution was observed in the countries of the socialist camp. Motorization was proclaimed as one of the important goals of socialist development, but in reality its pace was very low. Therefore, public transport, including the tram, played a vital role in the life of society. However, starting from the thirties in the USSR, and later in other socialist countries, the trolleybus began to be considered as an alternative to the tram. The pace of tram development slowed down, and in some places tram lines were replaced by trolleybus lines. Many tram services suffered damage during the Second World War - some of them were not restored and the losses were compensated by buses and trolleybuses.

Revival of the tram

Futuristic tram of Strasbourg

Munich, old tram (1979)

The negative consequences of mass motorization - especially in large cities - were problems such as smog, traffic congestion, noise, shortage of parking spaces, etc. This led to a gradual revision of transport policy.

At the same time, neither buses (including trolleybuses) nor subways were able to solve the problems that arose (at least completely). The buses were unable to serve a high enough passenger volume due to insufficient capacity, and when used in cities, the buses were stuck in traffic jams with other cars, which did not contribute to their efficiency. The allocation of separate lanes for bus and trolleybus traffic did not solve the problem either - the insufficient capacity of the buses affected it. Construction of a metro requires large capital investments, and operation is also very expensive. As a result, the metro is economically justified only in conditions of very high passenger traffic within a city or urban agglomeration. Thus, the scope of application of the metro is limited only to large cities and large urban agglomerations, where there are very large passenger flows. In many cities, the construction of a subway (especially an underground one) is impossible (or unacceptably expensive) for geological reasons or due to the presence of archaeological sites.

Against this background, the advantages of the tram became more noticeable. The revival of the tram began in the late seventies. Some of the first new tram systems opened in Canada - in Edmonton (in) and Calgary (in). On the European continent, the revival of trams began in the Netherlands, where the Utrecht light rail opened in 1983, then the initiative passed to France, where new tram systems opened in Nantes (see Nantes tram) and Grenoble. It is interesting that it was France, half a century earlier, back in the thirties, that began to get rid of the tram as an “outdated mode of transport”, for example, the first Parisian tram ceased to exist in 1937 (now the Parisian tram has been revived).

In addition, there is a concept light rail, LRT(English) Light Rail Transit, LRT). Light rail transport refers to predominantly off-street passenger railway systems built to lightweight standards and using more economical engineering solutions compared to railways and the “classic” metro. LRT is distinguished from the tram by a higher degree of isolation, and from the metro by the use of lighter rolling stock and lower construction costs due to the minimization of expensive underground work. The boundaries both between LRT and tram, and between LRT and classic metro or railway, are blurred due to the wide variety of types of rail transport systems.

In many cities in Germany (for example, Hanover, Frankfurt) and France, the metro system (in Germany U-Bahn) is common, with a small number of underground stations in the city center, and a significant number of outdoor stations directly on the city streets, where trains differ little from trams . However, these cities also have an independent pure tram network. The difference between a tram and a metro is that trams have fewer cars connected and are more maneuverable on the streets, the metro consists of larger cars, and the metro lines facing the street are somewhat better protected from pedestrians and other traffic.

In North America

A slightly different trend is observed in North America. Here, too, new systems are being created, which can be divided into two categories: light rail And historical tram English heritage streetcar.

In Asia, the tram appeared at the very end of the 19th century. The first city in East Asia to acquire this means of transport was Kyoto in 1895. In 1899, trams appeared in Seoul, and a few years later in Hong Kong and Tokyo.

The tram reached its maximum development in Asia in the late 1930s. In the fifties, with the growth of automobile traffic, as well as under the influence of the then urban planning fashion, trams disappeared from the streets of most large and medium-sized cities in the region.

However, tram systems continue to operate in many Asian cities. Quite old double-decker trams operate and are very popular in Hong Kong, which are both a means of transport and a tourist attraction. China has begun production of its own low-floor cars. In Japan, the Philippines and other Asian countries, new tram systems based on modern technical bases have been introduced.

History of trams in Russia

The emergence and development of electric trams in the Russian Empire

The first Moscow tram, 1899

The first tram in the Russian Empire was launched on May 2, 1892 in Kyiv, it was built by engineer A.E. Struve. Then it appeared in Nizhny Novgorod, Elisavetgrad, Vitebsk, Kursk, Odessa, Kazan, Tver, Ekaterinodar, Ekaterinoslav... In the Asian part of Russia, the first tram line was opened on October 9 in Vladivostok. In the capital cities - St. Petersburg, Moscow - he had to endure a struggle with competitors - horse-drawn horses (in Kiev there was practically no such struggle due to the difficult terrain - the horses could not cope with the steep climbs).

The oldest tram in modern Russia is located in Kaliningrad. At the time of the opening of the electric tram in 1895 (the horse-drawn tram had existed since 1881), this city was called Königsberg and belonged to Germany.

Owners of horse-drawn horses, private and joint-stock companies, which at one time received the rights to construct “horse-drawn railways,” did not want to return these rights for a long time. The law of the Russian Empire was on their side, and the issued licenses stated that the city government could not use any other type of transport on the streets for fifty years without the consent of the “horse” owners.

In Moscow, the tram started operating only on March 26, 1899, and in St. Petersburg - only on September 16, 1907, despite the fact that the first tram line there was laid back in 1894 directly on the ice of the Neva.

Trams travel on the ice of the Neva

Before the revolution, a unique suburban line appeared in St. Petersburg to Strelna, Peterhof and Oranienbaum, ORANEL, which in 1929 was included in the city network.

The tram in pre-revolutionary Russia (unlike the USA) was not a common phenomenon and its appearance was associated with the economic status of cities, the presence of effective demand among its residents and the activity of local authorities. Until 1917, in addition to the systems in Moscow and St. Petersburg, traffic was opened in about a dozen more cities, half of which were commercial and industrial cities on the Volga (Tver, Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Samara, Saratov, Tsaritsyn).

Course on standardization and unification

These cars corresponded to the world technical level of those years. For the first time in Russian and Soviet tram construction, they had an all-metal welded body, a new type of bogie with rubberized wheels, an indirect rheostat-contactor control system, which made it possible to operate the car according to a system of many units (although in practice this possibility was never used), they were equipped with a pantograph and regenerative electric brake. The M-38 cars had a length of 15 m and a weight of 20 tons; the four engines had a total power of 220 kW. The carriage had three automatic screen doors (the middle door was double). The carriage capacity was 190 people, the carriage had excellent dynamic qualities and a maximum speed of 55 km/h. From 1941 to 1941, 60 cars were produced.

Unfortunately, not a single copy of the M-38, LM/LP-36 or KTC has survived to this day.

Tram during the War

For the needs of the remaining few narrow-gauge tram services, cars from the GDR, “Lova” and “Gotha” were imported (wide-gauge cars of these brands were also imported in small quantities).

Tram in the Russian Federation

Despite the above-described renaissance of trams in Europe and North America, in Russia the tram is often viewed as an outdated mode of transport, and a significant part of the systems is collapsing or stagnating. Some tram farms (Shakhtinskoye, Arkhangelsk, Karpinskoye, Grozny, Ivanovo, Voronezh, Ryazan) ceased to exist. However, for example, in Volgograd, the so-called metrotram or “premetro” (tram lines laid underground) plays an important role, and in Magnitogorsk the traditional tram is steadily developing. In addition to Magnitogorsk, new tram lines have opened over the past 15 years in Ulyanovsk, Kolomna, Kazan, Naberezhnye Chelny, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Pyatigorsk and some other cities. The leader in purchasing rolling stock is

We all know the tram well as one of the types of urban transport. The history of its existence goes back almost two centuries. Having appeared in 1828, trams gradually became widespread throughout the world and are still an integral part of the transport network of many cities. Over the many years of its existence, this type of transport has constantly changed and improved. Different types of trams appeared, including horse-drawn, electric, pneumatic and gas-powered. The features of each of them will be discussed in more detail below.

Equestrian

It is with the advent of horse-drawn urban transport (or horse-drawn cars) that the history of the tram begins. She is quite interesting and entertaining. We will tell you about it in the article.

The first tram was a closed or open carriage drawn by one or two horses, and sometimes mules or zebras, and running on rails. The horse-drawn horse was driven by a coachman, and there was always a conductor present, who (in addition to selling tickets to passengers) often helped the coachman in driving on difficult sections of the road. The first tram appeared in 1828 in Baltimore, America, and a few years later in other cities. But this type of transport gained real popularity only after rails with gutters that did not protrude above the road were invented in 1852, and thus horsecars stopped interfering with the movement of other vehicles.

Already at the end of the 19th century, horse-drawn trams became popular in Russia, and in our country two types of such transport were used: single-decker and double-decker trams, the so-called imperials.

But the heyday of the horse-drawn horse was short-lived. Significant inconveniences in its use, for example, low speed, rapid fatigue of horses and the need to regularly change them, led to the fact that already at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, horse-drawn trams were replaced with electric ones in almost all major cities. Moreover, this happened both in America and Europe, and in Russia.

Electric tram

The ideas that later formed the basis for the creation of electric transport were voiced by Russian scientists back in the 40s of the 19th century. However, it took another half a century for these ideas to be put into practice; only in 1892 the first electric tram was launched in Kyiv. Later they also appeared in Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow, St. Petersburg and other large cities. The first electric trams appeared in Europe a few years earlier. But in general, we can talk about the almost simultaneous development and implementation of this type of transport in the Russian Empire and European countries. This type of tram was distinguished by a higher level of comfort and significantly higher speed compared to horse-drawn trams.

Other types of this type of transport in history

Several other types of this urban transport are not widespread in the world. Thus, for several decades there was a pneumatic tram in Paris. The movement of the carriage was carried out by a pneumatic engine, and the compressed air was in special cylinders, the total supply of which was enough for a trip in both directions. At the final station the cylinders were refilled with compressed air.

In Russia (and later in the USSR), gas-powered trams existed in a number of cities. Little information has survived to this day about what they looked like. It is only known that they were trolleys without a roof, which were driven by light motor locomotives. They were not widely used, this is mainly due to the fact that the level of noise they created was many times higher than permissible standards.

Tram in the 20th century

Speaking about the fate of the tram in the 20th century, it should be noted that during this period there were both ups and downs in its development. The time from the beginning of the 20th century until the period between the First and Second World Wars is considered the so-called golden age of trams. During this period, it gradually became almost the main mode of urban transport. Horse-drawn horses had almost completely ceased to be used by this time, and buses and cars had not yet become widespread. However, already in the mid-late fifties, cars gradually began to replace trams on city streets. Also, by this time, trolleybuses and buses began to compete seriously with this type of transport, the trips in which were much more comfortable, because the tram tracks were practically not repaired, so the movement was no longer smooth and soft. All this led to the decline of this type of urban transport.

Takeoff of trams

As the history of the tram says, its new “take off” dates back to the end of the seventies. By this time, large-scale motorization had led to such negative consequences as traffic jams, smog, and lack of parking spaces. All these factors have led to the need to revise transport policies almost all over the world; the advantages of the tram as an environmentally friendly mode of transport have once again become obvious. In addition, technical improvements in tram networks have helped reduce the number of cars and buses in cities, which has contributed to a decrease in the number of parking spaces and the emergence of more parks and squares.

Tram in the modern world

Nowadays, city trams not only continue to perform their direct function - transporting passengers along a set route, but can also be used for excursion purposes, to attract tourists or as advertising for a particular establishment. Thus, double-decker trams and convertible trams ply along the streets, and in some cities they also serve as cafes or hotels.

There are also trams used for technical and service purposes: for example, for repairing rail surfaces or removing snow, for transporting goods.

Speed ​​view

In a number of cities, they have become widespread. In general, any type of urban transport whose speed is or exceeds 24 km/h is considered high-speed. In practice, of course, the speed of modern trams can be several times higher. Thus, in France, a high-speed tram running between the city center and the airport can reach speeds of over 100 km on some sections of the route. If we talk about our country, then, for example, in Volgograd an entire tram system has been created, which includes 22 stations and partially runs underground to ensure the highest possible speed.

The oldest functioning tram in the world is the Santa Teresa in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Back in 1896, it was converted from horse-drawn to electric, and since then it has been driving on city streets without any changes or improvements. Used to entertain tourists and conduct city tours.

In Lisbon you can ride the so-called musical tram. Traveling on it, tourists seem to be transported back in time. Just like a hundred years ago, this tram is made of plywood, and local performers provide live music throughout the journey. If the passenger wants to get out, he must pull a special cable located on top.

The highest mountain in the world passes through the French Alps. Tram rails were laid here at the beginning of the 20th century, then this road was used mainly for purely practical purposes, that is, for transporting peasants from one village to another. Currently, this is a very popular route among tourists, since a trip on such a tram allows you to see the Alpine beauty with your own eyes, and the highest point of the route is located at an altitude of almost two and a half kilometers above sea level.

Tram Museums

As discussed above, over the years of its existence the tram has undergone many changes, one type was replaced by another. The history of the tram is extremely interesting, so both in Russia and in the world there are a number of museums of this type and electric transport in general. One of them is located in Nizhny Novgorod. This is no coincidence, because the Nizhny Novgorod tram is considered the first in Russia. The museum displays a significant number of trams and trolleybuses, and since the museum is aimed at families with children, all the exhibits here can be touched with your hands and studied very carefully.

Another museum of the history of trams and trolleybuses is located in Yekaterinburg; its opening was timed to coincide with the 275th anniversary of the city. It covers in detail the history of the creation of urban electric transport.

As for tram history museums abroad, the most interesting organization dedicated to this type of transport is located in Amsterdam. The museum displays about 60 carriages brought from several European countries and belonging to different eras of the existence of this type of transport. In order to fully experience the atmosphere, you definitely need to take a ride in an old carriage, the route of which passes by all the main attractions of the city. At the same time, the youngest tourists are also allowed to actively “help” the movement of the tram: for example, call stops and ring the bell. Another service that the museum provides is the rental of historical carriages for weddings, graduation parties and just photo sessions, which is very popular among locals and visitors.

Few people know, but the first electric tram, in the sense in which we know it now, was launched in Russia. But as often happened with many discoveries, no one needed it and there was no money to continue the project, and a year later the first small branch was built in Germany, but first things first.

From horse-drawn to electric traction

The first trams in the world were horse-drawn and they appeared in Baltimore in 1828, and later spread to many American cities. However, the first rails were similar to railroad tracks and protruded upward above the road, which greatly interfered with street traffic. In 1852, Alphonse Loubat proposed a system in which the rails were sunk into the road, and the horse-drawn tram became widespread everywhere, including in Russia. The first horse-drawn tram in Russia appeared in 1963 in St. Petersburg. In Moscow only 9 years later, in 1872.

It is not known exactly who was the first to put forward the idea of ​​installing an electric engine on a horse-drawn carriage, but the first experimental carriage was driven in Russia, and it was created by Fyodor Apollonovich Pirotsky on August 22, 1880. He installed an electric motor on a double-decker carriage like the one in the photo above. Power was provided by a miniature power station, and the current was transmitted directly along the rails. But this experiment remained only on the pages of newspapers, and it never came to fruition, since no one in Russia needed it. However, this experiment was preceded by a very important event. Pirotsky began his first experiments in 1876, and a year later he achieved his first successes by running electric current along the rails. The results were published in the Engineering Journal. Carl Siemens became very interested in the article and turned to the Russian scientist for advice, and he did not refuse him.

In 1879 in Berlin, Werner Siemens, at an industrial exhibition, presented to the general public a mobile tram with 4 open cars, more like a bench on wheels. And the tram itself was the size of a modern ATV and completely open. However, it created a real sensation and transported 86 thousand guests during the exhibition. Immediately after graduation, Siemens began designing the first electric tram line, and already in 1881 it was opened and began transporting the first passengers. That’s how easily Russia missed the opportunity to become a leader in the industry, and after some 10-20 years we were forced to buy everything in Europe.

First tram lines

Kyiv was one of the pioneers in the construction of modern urban transport. In 1891, a line was built along the route Podol - Khreschatyk. At first, it was planned to use horse traction on it, but the elevation differences were too high and even 6 horses could not always pull the car up the hill. It was necessary to rebuild the road and use steam-powered trams. It was designed and built by Russian engineer Amand Struve, who previously built railways and iron bridges, and also owned foundries. For the first two years, steam-powered trams ran along the route. The first electric tram ran in Kyiv on June 13, 1894, and this can safely be called the launch of the first modern type tram in the Russian Empire. By the way, in Lviv the electric tram started operating earlier, on May 31 of the same year. But then it was called Limburg and Austria-Hungary owned it.

In the capitals they understood the necessity and timeliness of tram lines, but the owners of horse-drawn routes owned all the lease rights to almost all the central streets of St. Petersburg and Moscow, and were not particularly eager to invest in a tram. But still, the first tram in St. Petersburg was launched in 1894 directly on the ice of the Neva River. The route connected both banks of the river, and also moved along the coast through the central part of the city. The first full-fledged tram route in the city appeared in the northern capital only in 1907.

However, the birthday of the Russian tram is considered to be May 8 (20), 1896, when the first tram line began operating in Nizhny Novgorod. And this line, of course, was built by Siemens-Halske. Kiev is now Ukraine, in St. Petersburg the lines were dismantled for the summer when the ice thawed and it functioned only in winter, but the Nizhny Novgorod tramway became the first, constantly operating, and immediately on electric traction. Although in 1895 the tram appeared in Kaliningrad, but then it was the German Königsberg.

It was in 1896 that the city hosted the All-Russian Industrial and Art Exhibition, to which a large influx of guests was expected. A total of 172 pavilions were built, and the event was attended by more than a million people. Such events used to be comparable to modern sports championships, infrastructure was built for the guests, and landscaping was carried out no worse than now in the cities hosting the Olympic Games. But at that time in Nizhny there was not even a horse car at all, and therefore the city authorities decided to immediately build a modern tram network. A total of 4 lines were built: one with normal gauge and three narrow gauge. And they were right, because the tram became the most popular mode of transport, transporting 7.5 million people annually, while the population of Nizhny Novgorod at that time was only 90 thousand people.

The first tram in Moscow was launched on April 6, 1899, and this was achieved with great difficulty and at every stage all the problems of our vast Motherland, so familiar to us to this day, appeared. For a long time, the rights to roads in Moscow were owned by the First Society of Horse-Drawn Railways, but they were not very keen on modernization. The profit was coming, why change anything? However, by the end of the century, the population of Moscow was growing very quickly, the old road system was no longer able to cope with the flow, and society understood this perfectly well, and also perfectly understood that one day the city could buy out all the roads and create a tram network itself. In 1895, they themselves proposed to the city authorities to convert the Dolgorukovskaya line, as well as some suburban lines, into a modern tram. The approval took a long time and there was even a story that the city’s chief police chief did not give permission for construction because the tram was traveling faster than his carriage, and he could not allow this. Construction began three years later in 1898. The first line ran from Butyrskaya Zastava to Petrovsky Park, and at the same time a line began to be built from Strastnaya Square to Suschevsky Val and passed along Malaya Dmtrovka, st. Chekhov, Dolgorukovskaya and Novoslobodskaya, and all electrical equipment, including the trams themselves, were again ordered from Siemens-Galke.

The grand opening of the first line took place on March 24 (April 6), 1899. The first cars ran every 14 minutes, and a ticket cost 6 kopecks. In the first year, revenue on the first two lines doubled, which became the impetus for expanding the road network in Moscow.

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The first Russian tram car

Despite the fact that the first experimental tram car ran in Russia in 1880, we did not have our own plant producing trams for a long time. At the end of the 19th century, the tram triumphantly went across the country to displace horse-drawn cars, and more and more new lines were introduced in Russia. In 1901, a tram line was laid in Tiflis (Tbilisi), and tram cars for it were built by the Ust-Katav Carriage Building Plant. It would seem that one could be happy for Russian mechanical engineering, but even here there was a fly in the ointment, because the plant belonged to the Belgians. The tram produced in Ust-Katovsk was an open type, but for the south this was enough. The car was produced until 1909.

The first steam tram in Russia

However, our story would not be complete if we did not mention steam trams. In the 19th century, the whole world ran on steam, and electricity was still something new, and steam-powered trams were widespread. Despite the steam and soot they emitted, they were much more comfortable than horse-drawn trams, and they carried quite a lot of people, especially in comparison with the first electric trams. There were such trams in Russia and they appeared much earlier. The first such transport was launched in 1886 in St. Petersburg and Moscow. However, “Steam Engines,” as they were called then, only traveled through the outskirts and suburbs, as they were quite fire-hazardous vehicles, despite all their advantages.

The design of this composition was somewhat different. A steam tram almost always had a leading carriage and trailed carriages, and almost always the imperial (second floor) was closed, and if it was open, then tickets there were cheaper, since passengers had to breathe soot from the chimney. At first, such trams were much more profitable, but with the development of electromechanics they were replaced by cleaner and safer transport, even on suburban routes.

As a result, the following can be done:

The first horse-drawn tram in Russia - St. Petersburg 1863

The first steam tram in Russia - St. Petersburg and Moscow 1886.

The first electric tram line built in the Russian Empire - Kyiv on June 13, 1894, is currently located in Ukraine.

The first electric tram line built in Russia and located in Russia - Nizhny Novgorod 1896

The oldest electric tram line in Russia - Kaliningrad 1895

The first tram car produced in Russia - UKVZ 1901.

For more than a century, the tram has been a favorite mode of transport in many cities, although it is increasingly being replaced by its underground brother, the metro. The first streetcars appeared in New York City in 1832, when an inventive local carriage maker came up with a way to transport the growing population.

New mass mode of transport

The industrial revolution led to the fact that in the cities of Western Europe and the USA at the end of the 18th century. factories grew like mushrooms after rain. Horse-drawn carriages were unable to handle the transport of so many people, not to mention the fact that these means of transportation were too slow for the new era. New York resident John Stephenson found a solution to the problem. He laid the first intracity rails in Manhattan - and on November 26, 1832, the New York and Harlem Train began its work. The cozy carriages were equipped with carpeted runners and soft seats, and people suddenly felt that there was no shaking here, like in a droshky. In addition, the tram moved faster, even at a time when it was still pulled by horses. Paris followed the example of New York in 1855, London in 1861, Copenhagen 1863.

The Great Breakthrough - Electricity

Soon, trams appeared, powered by steam or compressed air. After the invention of the dynamo, which made it possible to supply an entire city with electricity using a cable, the tram became a truly modern form of transport. At the Berlin Crafts Exhibition in 1879, engineer and entrepreneur Werner von Siemens proposed a sensational new product. True, his tram was very small and resembled a mine trolley, and yet it was the first railway without steam and horses. In 1881, the first electric tram moved along the streets of Berlin. True, the cables running straight along the ground posed a significant danger. The Americans Frank Sprague and Charles van Depol coped with this problem. In 1887, they succeeded in creating a reliable overhead wire system in Richmond, Virginia. From that moment on, the tram began its victorious march through cities around the world.

• 1832: The first type of streetcar opened in New York City.
• 1873: Aerial tramways arrive in San Francisco. The rope was driven by a stationary steam engine.
• 1877: The city steam locomotive line opened in Kassel. However, the fumes and noise disturbed the townspeople so much that the line soon had to be closed.