Tramcar

“ They will stand outside a tramcar, rushing through the icy air at fifteen miles an hour, and refuse to go inside, even to oblige a lady. Yet in railway carriages, in which you could grill a bloater by the simple process of laying it underneath the seat, they will insist on the window being closed, light cigars to keep their noses warm, and sit with the collars of their fur coats buttoned up around their necks. ”

“ As a general proposition, nothing could be further from the truth. Tramway authorities have adopted the new system in certain cases where the possible traffic is comparatively small, not as a substitute for tramways, but as an alternative to self-propelled omnibuses. The carrying capacity of a trolley omnibus is about twenty, while that of a tramcar is frequently as high as seventy. The speed of a tramcar runs up to twenty miles an hour, while twelve miles an hour is as much as is comfortable (to say the least) with a vehicle running with solid tyres on an ordinary road. ”

“ The railway arch roofs in a din which reduces the roar of trains continually passing overhead to a vibrating, muffled rumble. From either end of the arch comes a close procession of trams, motor-buses, brewers’ drays, coal-lorries, carts filled with unspeakable material for glue factory and tannery, motor-cars, coster-barrows, and people. It is a stopping-place for tramcars and motor-buses; therefore little knots of agitated persons continually collect on both pathways, and dive between the vehicles and descending passengers in order to board the particular bus or tram they desire. ”

“ Tramways in towns, authorized by provisional order, are to be constructed in the middle of the road, and are not to be so laid that for 30 feet and upwards a less space than 9 feet 6 inches shall be left between the outside of the footpath and the rail, if, one-third of the owners or occupiers of premises abutting upon that part of the road object. Vehicles are thus enabled to stop at the road side without hindrance from the tramcars. To leave 9 feet 6 inches on each side of a single line of tramway of 4 feet 8 inches gauge a street must be upwards of 24 feet wide. ”

“ Nothing can be finer than the view up this noble roadway, and praise is due to authorities who have ordained that the banal electric tramcars shall take with them into side streets the blighting vulgarity of their whizzing bustle. ”

“ They seat thirty inside and thirty-nine outside passengers, have spring cushions covered with plush moquette, and ceilings panelled in bird’s-eye maple. There are electric push-buttons for signalling the motor-man; electric light is provided, and ventilators extend the whole length of the car, ensuring an abundant supply of fresh air.
No cars, however, in Great Britain have reached the pitch of perfection attained in America by the palace and parlour tramcars ”

“ At various points along the eight lines tramcars with motionless trolleys stood in their tracks, bound for or from Rathmines, Rathfarnham, Blackrock, Kingstown and Dalkey, Sandymount Green, Ringsend and Sandymount Tower, Donnybrook, Palmerston Park and Upper Rathmines, all still, becalmed in short circuit. Hackney cars, cabs, delivery waggons, mailvans, private broughams, aerated mineral water floats with rattling crates of bottles, rattled, rolled, horsedrawn, rapidly. ”

“ Tramcars have become luxurious compared with the makeshifts that did duty in George Francis Train’s day, and each new line endeavours to make its rolling-stock superior to the others. Some cars are double-decked, i.e. ”

“ No one, unless disposed to self-martyrdom, will think of entering a vehicle except under direst necessity; but there are delightful little street cars, running on an iron tramway, which take you the entire round of the city, past all the hotels, the stores and principal thoroughfares, and bring you back to the starting-place for five cents. Walking is here a most delightful exercise; the side-walks everywhere are laid with light springy planks on which it is a pleasure to tread. We stroll on in a kind of go-as-you-please, walking-made-easy fashion, as though we never wanted to stop. ”

“ As a rule, these tramways are laid down on streets or roads previously constructed for the ordinary road traffic, where all the preliminary work of earth filling, bridges, drainage, etc., has already been accomplished, and there only remains the selection and laying down of the rails or permanent way over which the tram-cars will have to run. The description and weight of permanent way to be adopted will depend largely upon the weight of the cars to be used and the system of motive-power decided upon for the haulage—whether horses, steam, cable, or electricity. ”

“ Motor-omnibuses, besides working on the regular routes, can be run on the tramway time-table system on tramway sections where there is little traffic; while for developing scantily-populated districts and accustoming people to travel, automobile public conveyances are perfect agencies, the very fact that they can choose their own route accentuating this great advantage ”

“ In urban districts the road authorities almost always require the tramway surface, i.e. between the rails and for 18 in. on either side, to be paved. In country districts many tramways have been laid with only a sett edging along each rail, the remainder of the surface being completed with either ordinary or tarred macadam. This construction, however, is only suitable on roads with very light traffic. After a tramway is laid, especially in a macadamized road, the heavy vehicular traffic use the track, and the wear is very much greater than on other parts of the carriage-way. ”

“ By a modern tramway is understood a railway, with the rails so laid on the surface of an ordinary road that they will not interfere with the traffic of ordinary vehicles, and on which omnibuses may travel at ordinary speed with the advantage that, by the improved surface, one horse is enabled to do more than the work of four on levels, and of two on ordinary inclines. ”

“ We preferred, after the Barmecide lunch at our hotel, taking the tram-car that noisily and more noisily clambers up and down, and descending into the town by it. The ascent is so steep that at a certain point the electric current no longer suffices, and the car bites into the line of cogs with its sort of powerful under-jaw and so arrives. Yet it is a kindly little vehicle, with a conductor so affectionately careful in transporting the stranger that I felt after a single day we should soon become brothers, or at least step-brothers. ”

“ A DAY IN CAPETOWN
I went across the Parade, which every morning is full of cheap-jack auctioneers selling all things under the sun to Kaffirs, Malays, coolies, towards Rondebosch and Wynberg. At the Castle the electric tram passed me, and I jumped on board and went, at the least, as fast as an English slow train. The wind was blowing and the dust flew, but ahead of us ran a huge electricity-driven water-cart, a very water tram, which laid the red clouds for us. Yet in London we travel painfully in omnibuses and horse-trams, and the rare water-cart is still drawn by horses. ”

“ In this system the cars run on ordinary wheels and take power from overhead trolley wires, But so far no such arrangement has been put into practice in Great Britain, and outlying districts are generally dealt with by petrol or steam motor vehicles, running as feeders to the tramway sand railways. The future commercial development of tramways lies more in the economics in working than in growth of track mileage. Owing, to the enormous volume of traffic a very slight alteration in one, of the items of expense or revenue produces a large result in the aggregate. ”

“ A tramway which starts from the centre of the city will take the traveler to the base of the hill, through roads lined by palms of great age and beauty, finally leaving him near the point from whence the steam road begins the upward journey. ”

“ When a road is given over to a tramway company without any increase in its metalled surface, it becomes at once distinctly less valuable for ordinary traffic. By allowing tram-lines to be laid without any corresponding widening of the roads, as has been done hitherto on our suburban roads, we are positively going back, actually making our roads less open to traffic than they were. No doubt it will be said that to demand this increase of the metalled road surface is to lay on the tramways a burden greater than they can bear. ”

“ I figure it as one would see it at night, a band a hundred yards perhaps in width, the footpath on either side shaded with high trees and lit softly with orange glowlights; while down the centre the tramway of the road will go, with sometimes a nocturnal tram-car gliding, lit and gay but almost noiselessly, past. Lantern-lit cyclists will flit along the track like fireflies, and ever and again some humming motor-car will hurry by, to or from the Rhoneland or the Rhineland or Switzerland or Italy. Away on either side the lights of the little country homes up the mountain slopes will glow. ”

“ On studying a tramway map, one is struck by the fact that, starting from the central area of London, all the tram-lines meander towards the Council’s boundaries, where they will eventually no doubt join and interchange through traffic with the vast light railway or rural tramway systems of various companies in the direction of north and south, north-east, south-east, north-west, and south-west ”

“ Of course on rails they travel smoothly, but they and the rails greatly increase the difficulty for cabs and carriages. The traffic in a New York street in no way resembles that in [Pg 21] a London one. Where there is one tram-car in London there are fifty in New York, and fifty cabs here to one there. The same as to carriages. Nearly the whole of the passenger traffic is done in the tram-cars and elevated railroads, and no wonder it is so, for to traverse the streets on wheels in any other way is very painful. ”

“ Passing places.A single line of tramway must have passing places for the cars, consisting of pieces of double line of length sufficient to hold two cars at least, with connecting curves and the necessary points and crossings. Where steam or other mechanical power is to be used the passing loops should be at least 200 feet in length. There is inevitable delay and interference with the street traffic at passing places, and where cars are to be run at frequent intervals it is better to lay down a double line if the street is wide enough. ”

“ Experiments made by the direction of the French Government on the tramway between Sèvres and Versailles, showed that a horse on a level tramway draws three-and-a-half times the weight, at the same speed and with the same expenditure of power, that he can do on an ordinary road. ”

“ If the bye-laws of this particular tramway allowed the tram to stop and pick up pedestrians anywhere all along the line, we were quite safe; we should just sit down on the roadside and rest. We shouldn’t walk another step.
The men were shovelling away at fallen leaves, so I accosted them in my friendliest Dutch and said: “Stop de tram overal?” As this was greeted with the customary “blief?” I tried to be more explicit. “Stop de tram op een wenk of een uitroepteeken? Of stopt hij alleen op de halten?” ”

“ Steam traction.The application of steam as a motive power on street tramways is attended with special difficulties, arising from the conditions under which the engines have to work. A tramway engine must be able to draw its load up steep gradients, demanding perhaps seven or eight times the power required on a level, and it must have the necessary adhesion without being too heavy for the permanent way. It must be capable of traversing sharp curves, of going backwards or forwards with safety, and of stopping and starting quickly. ”

“ It is highly probable that in the course of a few years the general adoption of steam-propelled vehicles will displace horses, at least upon tramways. The slowness with which inventions of undeniable utility and of proved advantage come into general use may be illustrated by the fact of some great English towns and centres of engineering industry not having made a single tramway until, in all the populous cities of the United States, and in almost every European capital, tramways had been in successful operation for many years. ”

“ To be sure, a tram often leaps the rails—but what matter! It sits in a ditch till other trams come to haul it out. It is quite common for a car, packed with one solid mass of living people, to come to a dead halt in the midst of unbroken blackness, the heart of nowhere on a dark night, and for the driver and the girl conductor to call, “All get off—car’s on fire!” ”

“ Except when the fussy little piece of machinery drawing three or four curious, open-sided trams, is actually passing, the tramway escapes notice, for the ground is level and the miniature rails are laid on the ground without any excavating or embanking. The scenery as you go along the tramway, the road, or the canal, is charming, the pastures on either side being exceedingly rich, and the red and white cattle seem to revel in the long grass and buttercups. ”

“ And meanwhile the vehicle, an imitation of life, keeps going, always receiving and letting go, uniform, indefatigable, majestic, oblivious to what is happening inside it, without being moved very much by the barely stifled passions of dumb show. The tram is running, always running over the two interminable iron tracks, wide and slippery as centuries. I was thinking about this while the tram was going up the calle de Alcalá until the noise of my bundle of books falling on the floor pulled me back from the gulf of so many mixed up ruminations. ”

“ He turns from explaining to you where you are, and where you'll have to go to get anywhere else, to attend to a slow old lady who wants to be put in a tram, that doesn't come within half a mile of where she is, in order to reach a place where trams don't run. He has to keep one eye on the traffic and the other on her while she finds her purse and looks out a piece of paper with an illegible address scrawled on it ”