Friday, August 05, 2022

Watching trams go by


I'm looking at these trams in this vlog and thinking they're not as 'trammy' as they should be, they're far more like sealed tube trains today, with cramped seating.

For a start, trams rattle along, they don't whoosh with hush power.  If they do, they're no longer trams IMHO, they're slick modern plastic cocoons.  A tram or tramcar is a vehicle one hops on or off at will, a bit quaint and old-worldly, endearing.  Such were the tramvai in Russia.

Having said that, there's still something nice about all of them and they usually occupy the most scenic routes in any given town which still sports them.  A pain in the backside for motorists?  Oh, undoubtedly, a right pain they are ... but not for the huddled masses.  To the poor and 'draftily' transported in winter, they're a connection with the past of a city.

There's another factor.  Late evening, coming home, if you go down the escalator into the bowels of the underground, there is most certainly danger to life and limb.  A tram though ... were you in a bar or cafe, you walk out and hop on ... then step off at your home stop.  More reassuring, esp. for females, though they like the primitive nature of trams less as a rule.

2 comments:

  1. Trams? They look like Light Railway to me.

    These are real trams: situated where people are living. Example at Bordeaux.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFe9Ewlsdhk

    ReplyDelete
  2. The best tram footage I've ever seen was from Belfast around 1900 or so. To see the load that a single horse could pull when its "cart" runs steel-on-steel left me much impressed.

    ReplyDelete

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