I’m lucky enough to live in a city with one of the largest, and oldest tram networks in the world. For over 130 years, virtually every type of tram or streetcar that has ever been invented has, at one point or another, rattled, rumbled and clattered along the streets of Melbourne, the capital city of the state of Victoria, in Australia.

So, living in such a place as this, it seemed only logical that I should write a posting about the history of trams, or streetcars as they’re known Stateside. I’ll be using both terms interchangeably (along with others) throughout the posting. Anyway, let’s begin…

Horse-Drawn Trams

Apart from horse-drawn taxi-cabs (or ‘hackney-coaches’ as they were sometimes called), the tram or streetcar is the oldest form of urban public transport in the world, and certainly the oldest form of mass transit in the world. But why did they come to be in the first place? Why on earth would you have something that rides on rails? Surely it’s just cheaper to have something that rides along the road-surface instead, just like everything else, right?

Well, running wheels on tracks or rails had one big advantage over running wheels over the road – tracks, made of wrought iron or steel, were smooth and flat. This meant that there was less friction. Less friction meant a smoother, easier ride – particularly important, when you consider that early trams were pulled by horses! The bumpy, rough, friction-inducing nightmare of dragging a carriage through the streets was much harder than simply gliding along smooth rails of steel and iron. Making the trams easier to pull meant that the horses which pulled them could go faster, further and more frequently, and could pull heavier loads with more comfort, important if they were going up or down hills all day!

These first, horse-drawn trams operated as early as the 1800s, but it wasn’t until the 1850s that permanent horse-tram lines and networks started being established in England, Europe, and the United States. Although moderately effective, horse trams came with a variety of issues that made them undesirable.

First, they couldn’t go appreciably faster than a horse and carriage. Secondly, they were limited largely to flat, or gentle sloping areas. Thirdly, horses could be injured on the job. They also required rest, food and water, medical attention and specialist equipment to do their jobs. And horses had to be replaced regularly if they got tired or ill.

While horse-trams could pull heavier loads with greater ease while the trams remained on the tracks, the simple fact was that eventually, there would be a load that would be too heavy for the horse to pull – especially uphill. This was dangerous if the horse suddenly lost its grip and the tram went sliding back down the hill instead of up it! By the 1870s and 1880s, more effective methods of urban mass-transit were being explored that were safer, faster, smoother and cleaner.

Cable-Hauled Streetcars

The next major advancement in tram technology was the development of the cable-hauled streetcar. The system was surprisingly advanced for the day, but also relatively simple to operate, even though it required a fair bit of infrastructure in order for it to work.

Using huge steam-engines, large driving-wheels pulled enormous steel cables through a trench or ‘slot’ between the two guiding-rails along a streetcar’s route. The trams themselves had no motive force. To move, a steel clamp fed down into the slot gripped around the cable as it slid past.

Once firmly clamped onto the cable, the grip allowed the streetcar to be pulled along the tracks at the speed of the cable, which was dictated by the speed of the driving-wheels and pulleys in the powerhouse at the end of the streetcar line. Wheels and pulleys set into the tracks also helped guide the streetcar up and down hills, and around corners.

Experiments in cable-hauled transport date back to the 1820s, but many early attempts failed miserably, and were eventually replaced by steam-powered locomotives. It wasn’t until the early 1870s that the technology was truly viable.

The first really successful cable-streetcar was established in the suitably hilly city of San Francisco, a city where then-conventional horse-trams couldn’t possibly hope to operate. After witnessing a horrible horse-tram accident while living in the city by the bay, it is said that English-born inventor Andrew Hallidie decided to use his expertise in manufacturing ‘wire rope’ (what today we’d call ‘steel cables’) to see whether he could design a really effective, and safer cable-hauled streetcar system.

That system, the first, last, and today, only original cable-streetcar network still functioning in the world in modern times, was opened in San Francisco in 1873. Between 1873 and 1900, several miles of track were laid out across San Francisco.

The city’s neat, grid-layout of streets made the laying of streetcar lines easy and by the turn of the century, it had one of the most extensive cable-streetcar networks in the world. Strategically-placed powerhouses operated the massive wheels required to pull the cables between the tracks and one powerhouse could, if properly sited, power the cables for two or three different lines all at once.

Operating a Cable-Streetcar

Cable-hauled streetcars were the most technologically advanced form of public transport yet devised. The system operated by having a steel cable running through a trench (‘slot’) in the road between the two running tracks of the streetcar line. The cable moved at a constant rate of speed and at a certain tension. The streetcars themselves had no engines or motors. They moved by sliding a clamp (‘the grip’) through the slot in the road. The grip-jaws locked around the cable by mechanical force, and this grip held onto the cable and the car was pulled along the street as the cable moved through the slot.

Cable-streetcars typically had two or three brakes – a standard track-brake (blocks of wood which clamped down on the track to create friction and stop the car) and wheel-brakes, operated by the crew using wheels and cranks.

A cable-streetcar typically had two crew-members: The driver or ‘gripman’, and the conductor.

The gripman operated the heavy grip-levers used to ‘pick up’ (grasp) or ‘throw’ (drop) the cable. As this was done entirely by brute force and mechanical movement, you needed considerable strength to pull the levers back and forth to operate the heavy steel jaws that clamped onto the cable running beneath the car. The gripman also kept his eyes on the road ahead, and above him in the gripman’s dummy-car, was a rope and handle for ringing the main bell at the front of the streetcar to announce stopping, staring, and to clear the road ahead.

Knowing when to ‘throw’ and ‘pick up’ the cable was vital – usually, this was done when the streetcar was entering or exiting the car-barn at the start or end of a shift, or else when it was crossing intersections with tracks from other streetcar lines running perpendicular. If you didn’t drop the cable at the right time, then the grip-jaws would snag against the cable of the streetcar tracks running the other way across the intersection. It was a job that required a fair bit of concentration, and a lot of brute strength!

While the gripman operated the actual movement and control of the streetcar, his second-in-command, the conductor, did everything else. Conductors were in charge of helping passengers on and off the cable-tram, of issuing tickets and collecting fares, operating the emergency brake (usually located at the back of the tram) in the event of an emergency, and of communicating instructions to the gripman.

To communicate orders to the gripman, the conductor used the smaller communications bell mounted to the underside the dummy-car’s roof. A cable ran around the inside of the streetcar, through guide-rings bolted to the ceiling. Pulling the cord and ringing the bell once, was the signal to stop. Ringing the bell twice was the signal to proceed. Ringing it three or more times was the signal that the streetcar needed to make an emergency stop. This bell was either operated by the conductor, wishing to communicate with the gripman, or by the passengers themselves, wanting to board or alight the streetcar at various stops along the way.

The Spread of the Cable-Hauled Streetcar

Although costly to install, cable-hauled streetcars were popular around the world because of their relative ease of operation, and ability to operate under conditions that older, horse-drawn streetcars could not. They could move faster, smoother, were more controllable, they could climb hills and descend slopes with greater speed and safety, and they did not require the streetcar companies to maintain a whole heap of horses.

Because of all these benefits, cable-hauled streetcar systems spread all over the globe. At one time they could be found in San Francisco (where they originated), but also New York, Melbourne, Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Philadelphia, St. Louis, London, Birmingham, Wellington…as you can see, their use was quite extensive!

Extensive, popular, but also, relatively short-lived. Just as cable-hauled trams were becoming the norm (around the turn of the last century), new methods of streetcar propulsion started becoming popular. In Europe, experiments in gasoline-fired trams, steam trams, and electric trams were underway. As early as the 1890s, some cities were already creating (or converting) streetcar-lines that operated on electrical power.

Despite this, cable-hauled streetcars remained in use for a considerable length of time. The expense of changing over to electricity, the high price of early automobiles, warfare, the Great Depression, and other stalling factors kept them going. However, by the early 1900s, most were on the way out, and after the Second World War, only a handful of cities still had them (Melbourne’s cable-tram network was finally shut down in 1940, for example).

Electric Streetcars

By the 1890s, cable-hauled streetcars were already becoming obsolete, being replaced by much faster, smoother-operating electrically powered models. Although they weren’t any quieter than cable-cars, electrically-powered models could do away with things like centrally-positioned cable-slots, guide-wheels, powerhouses and heavy engines to drive the machinery needed to operate a vast cable-hauled streetcar network. Electric trams could have lights, hydraulic brakes and doors, and they didn’t need so much physical strength to operate them.

With the aid of a trolley-pole (which today has been replaced by the more reliable pantograph), electrical power was delivered from overhead wires to the streetcar. The electrical power operated the little motor and ran through the circuitry inside the body of the streetcar to move it forwards or backwards, and to power the lights. Moving the streetcar was then simply a matter of increasing or decreasing the amount of power sent to the wheels beneath the chassis, which controlled the speed.

Since electrical streetcars did not have to rely on a cable to pull them through the streets, they could be made much larger and could carry far more passengers. Various configurations of electric trams were developed in the late 1800s and early 1900s, to try and fit as many passengers on in as many ways as possible. Open and closed compartments, and seats and doors in different configurations were all trialed and tested to find designs that would work.

The Decline of the Streetcar

Trams or streetcars remained popular in countless dozens of cities all over the world for the better part of fifty or sixty years. From Canada to Britain, America to Europe, China to Australia and New Zealand, all kinds of trams, trolleys and streetcars of all varieties, were being used from the period spanning roughly 1850 – 1960. And then suddenly – most of them just…disappeared! Cities that once boasted extensive networks saw them vanish in the space of a few years, or even months!

Why?

In the postwar “Long Boom” of the 50s and 60s, trams were seen as old-fashioned. They were heavy, loud, they took up road-space, they were rattly and could only travel along fixed routes. They were seen as a relic of the Victorian era, when people didn’t have cars, and therefore needed trams to get around.

But now people had cars! So why on earth would they still need trams? And if they need trams, why not replace them with buses? So much more flexible!

It was thinking like this which caused many cities to rip up the vast majority of, or in some cases, even all, their tram-tracks and replace them with dedicated bus-lanes. Melbourne in Australia, my home town, was one of the very, very few cities which retained its network when all over the world, from Los Angeles to Shanghai, Cincinnati to New York, cities were disposing of the tracks, the sheds, the rolling-stock…everything! In the whole world, Melbourne, Hong Kong, San Francisco, and a handful of other cities, were the only major population-centers to cling onto them. And of all those, only Melbourne really bothered to expand on their networks and keep it going as a viable means of public transport.

Buses Replace Trams

Starting in the 1940s, buses started replacing trams in big cities, and this trend only increased in the 1950s and 60s as more and more cities started removing streetcar lines from their streets. In most developed countries, most people could now afford cars, and the freedom to go where-ever they wanted, because of them. This meant that there was less need for public transport, and therefore a decrease in interest in trams. But replacing them with buses meant that there was only another set of wheels on the road which was loud, heavy, polluting and which couldn’t move any faster than the traffic itself.

On top of that, buses needed to stop regularly for everything else that a car needed to – oil-changes, refueling, replacing tires, fixing punctures, engine-repairs…these all cost money, but it also means that buses didn’t last as long as trams did.

A Streetcar-named Desire!

In the early 21st century, trams, trolleys and streetcars – whatever you wish to call them – have been seeing a huge resurgence in popularity around the world. In cities where such networks already exist, news tracks are being laid. In cities where streetcars didn’t exist, routes are being opened. In cities where streetcars once rolled, old stock is being pulled out of retirement and being put back into service.

Since 2000, at least a dozen cities in the United States have started experimenting with streetcar networks, including Portland in Oregon (which has one of the largest modern streetcar networks in the USA), Cincinnati in Ohio, and London in England.

Along with Melbourne and Hong Kong, other cities which never shut down their streetcar lines include New Orleans in Louisiana, Toronto in Canada, Vienna in Austria, and San Francisco in California, which still maintains a total of five routes (three cable-routes, and two heritage streetcar routes running vintage streetcars imported from around the world).

One of Melbourne’s vintage, W-class trams, which were popular in the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s. When I was a kid, you could still find these vintage relics clattering around town. Today they’re a pretty rare sight, although you can still sometimes find them.

Why Are Streetcars Coming Back?

Honestly? Because they’re cool. And because people are finally realising the error of their ways.

While it’s true that buses are more flexible in the sense that they don’t need rails to move on, buses had a number of disadvantages which meant that they simply could not outperform trams.

Buses were limited in size, they burn fuel and emit fumes, they require regular maintenance and tire-changes and repairs, and they need to deal with all the other issues that public transport has to handle. Trams by comparison could be made very long, with lots of space inside them for passengers. They could last on the road far longer than buses, they didn’t emit fumes, and they use electricity to move around with, which can be produced from clean sources that don’t emit harmful gases.

Trams don’t have much in the way of maintenance. Apart from regular cleaning and the occasional motor-check, there’s no fuel to replace, and steel wheels and tires last a lot longer than rubber ones, and by their nature, tram-routes are typically limited to wider streets and boulevards, meaning that they’re less likely to delay traffic, even if they do break down. On top of that, tram or streetcar networks give a city in the 21st century – just as they did in the 19th century – a look of progress and modernity.

It’s for all these reasons and more, that trams are making a comeback. While some cities struggle with the idea of miniature train-lines running through their streets, the number of large cities around the world which are successfully embracing, and even expanding on their tram-networks are proof that over 100 years ago, our Victorian ancestors knew what they were on about!