Sunday, April 8, 2012

St Petersburg electric trams on winter ice, 1890s


In St Petersburg, Russia, every winter from 1895 to 1910, electric tramways were laid on the icebound river, connecting the Senate Square, Vasilievsky island, Palace Embankment and other parts of the city. The power was supplied through the rails and a top cable supported by wooden piles frozen into the ice. The service was highly successful and ran without major accidents except for a few failures in the top electrical wires. The trams ran at the speed of 20 km/h and could carry 20 passengers per carriage. The carriages were converted from the used horsecars. About 900,000 passengers were transported over a regular season.

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