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The Gross Lichterfelde Tramway was the world's first commercially successful electric tram and first public electric tramway used for permanent service. It was built by the Siemens & Halske company in Lichterfelde, a suburb of Berlin, and went in service on 16 May 1881. [1]
Werner von Siemens had presented the first electric passenger train at the Berlin industrial exhibition two years before. In order to develop the concept, he received the official approval to run an electric tramway line on already existing tracks, which had been used for building the Prussian military academy (Hauptkadettenanstalt) at Lichterfelde West.
The 2.4-kilometre-long (1.5 mi) line started at Berlin-Lichterfelde Ost station on the Anhalt Railway line. Each car was originally equipped with a 180-volt DC 4 kW (5.4 hp) traction motor, the current being supplied via the running rails, in a manner similar to that used by most present-day model railways. Therefore, the 1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in) metre gauge tracks were generally separated from roads, and trespassing was prohibited.
At level crossings, the rails were dead or switched on only briefly before the approach of the tramcar. Nevertheless, people and horses frequently received electric shocks. It is also believed that, in order to enjoy the sight of glowing metal, young people caused short circuits by putting wire mesh on the tracks, which shut down the operation.[ citation needed ]
In 1891, the tramway was equipped with an overhead wire, and the line was extended to Berlin-Lichterfelde West station. There were several further extensions, but operation was discontinued in 1931.
Rail transport is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of land transport, next to road transport. It is used for about 8% of passenger and freight transport globally, thanks to its energy efficiency and potentially high speed.
A tram is a type of urban rail transit consisting of rail vehicles, either individual railcars or self-propelled trains coupled into multiple units that run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are called tramways or simply trams/streetcars. Many recently built tramways use the contemporary term light rail.
Light rail transit (LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit using tram rolling stock while also having some rapid transit features.
An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, electric multiple units, trolleybuses or trams. The generic term used by the International Union of Railways for the technology is overhead line. It is known variously as overhead catenary, overhead contact line (OCL), overhead contact system (OCS), overhead equipment (OHE), overhead line equipment, overhead lines (OHL), overhead wiring (OHW), traction wire, and trolley wire.
A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway track. It is used typically in a mass transit or rapid transit system, which has alignments in its own corridors, fully or almost fully segregated from the outside environment. Third-rail systems are usually supplied from direct current electricity.
Ground-level power supply, also known as surface current collection or, in French, alimentation par le sol, is a concept and group of technologies whereby electric vehicles collect electric power at ground level from individually-powered segments instead of the more common overhead lines. Ground-level power supply was developed for aesthetic reasons, to avoid the presence of overhead lines in city centres.
There have been two separate generations of trams in London, from 1860 to 1952 and from 2000 to the present. There were no trams at all in London between 1952 and 2000.
A pantograph is an apparatus mounted on the roof of an electric train, tram or electric bus to collect power through contact with an overhead line. The term stems from the resemblance of some styles to the mechanical pantographs used for copying handwriting and drawings.
The Berlin tramway is the main tram system in Berlin, Germany. It is one of the oldest tram networks in the world having its origins in 1865 and is operated by Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), which was founded in 1929. It is notable for being the third-largest tram system in the world, after Melbourne and St. Petersburg. Berlin's tram system is made up of 22 lines that operate across a standard gauge network, with almost 800 stops and measuring almost 190 kilometres (120 mi) in route length and 430 kilometres (270 mi) in line length. Nine of the lines, called Metrotram, operate 24 hours a day and are identified with the letter "M" before their number; the other thirteen lines are regular city tram lines and are identified by just a line number.
The Great Orme Tramway is a cable-hauled 3 ft 6 in gauge tramway in Llandudno in north Wales. Open seasonally from late March to late October, it takes over 200,000 passengers each year from Llandudno Victoria Station to just below the summit of the Great Orme headland. From 1932 onwards it was known as the Great Orme Railway, reverting to its original name in 1977.
Siemens & Halske AG was a German electrical engineering company that later became part of Siemens.
The history of trams, streetcars, or trolleys began in the early nineteenth century. It can be divided up into several discrete periods defined by the principal means of motive power used.
The Guernsey Railway opened as the Guernsey Steam Tramway on 6 June 1879 with two steam tram engines, more being added later. It was later converted to an electric tramway, which began working on 20 February 1892. The system closed on 9 June 1934. This leaves Alderney as the only Channel Island with a working railway.
The Rothesay tramway was a narrow gauge electric tramway on the Isle of Bute, Scotland. It opened in 1882 as a 4 ft gauge horse tramway, was converted to a 3 ft 6 in gauge electric tramway in 1902, and closed in 1936. It was the only public tramway to be built on a Scottish island.
The Frankfurt am Main tramway network is a network of tramways forming a major part of the public transport system in Frankfurt am Main, a city in the federal state of Hesse, Germany.
A battery electric multiple unit (BEMU), battery electric railcar or accumulator railcar is an electrically driven multiple unit or railcar whose energy is derived from rechargeable batteries driving the traction motors.
Berlin-Lichterfelde Ost station is on the Anhalt Suburban Line in Lichterfelde in the Berlin borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf. It is served by S-Bahn line S25, S-Bahn line S26, and Regional-Express lines 3, 4 and 5.
Berlin-Lichterfelde Süd station is a Berlin S-Bahn station on the Anhalt Suburban Line in Lichterfelde in the Berlin borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf. The station was the southern terminus for S-Bahn trains on the Anhalt Suburban Line between 1943 and 1951, between 1961 and 1984 and between 1998 and 2005. From 1951 until the building of the Berlin Wall, services continued past the city limits to nearby Teltow. The station was closed between 1984 and 1998. Since 2005, the trains have run to Teltow Stadt.
The Anhalt suburban line is a suburban railway in Berlin and Brandenburg. It originally ran from Potsdamer Ringbahnhof in Berlin over the Berlin–Halle railway. With the opening of the Berlin Nord-Süd Tunnel in 1939, this service was abandoned. Subsequently, the electric services ran to the south parallel with the long-distance tracks of the Anhalt Railway. Its terminus was at Berlin-Lichterfelde Ost until the 1940s. In 1943, it was extended to Lichterfelde Süd for electric trains and to Ludwigsfelde for steam trains. The construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 stopped services at the outskirts of Berlin. In 2005, a new Berlin-Lichterfelde Süd–Teltow Stadt S-Bahn line was opened.
Torquay Tramways operated electric street trams in Torquay, Devon, England, from 1907. They were initially powered by the unusual Dolter stud-contact electrification, but in 1911 was converted to more conventional overhead-line supply. The line was extended into neighbouring Paignton in 1911 but the whole network was closed in 1934.
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