A tram is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban 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.
An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, 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.
The use of a third rail in rail transport modelling is a technique that was once applied, in order to facilitate easier wiring.
The Snaefell Mountain Railway is an electric mountain railway on the Isle of Man in Europe. It joins the village of Laxey with the summit of Snaefell, at 2,036 feet (621 m) above sea level the highest point on the island. It connects with the Manx Electric Railway (MER) in Laxey. The line is 5 miles (8 km) long, is built to 3 ft 6 in gauge and uses a Fell Incline Railway System centre rail for braking on the steep gradients. It is electrified using overhead wires at 550 volts direct current, with bow collectors.
A trolley pole is a tapered cylindrical pole of wood or metal, used to transfer electricity from a "live" (electrified) overhead wire to the control and the electric traction motors of a tram or trolley bus. It is a type of current collector. The use of overhead wire in a system of current collection is reputed to be the 1880 invention of Frank J. Sprague, but the first working trolley pole was developed and demonstrated by Charles Van Depoele, in autumn 1885.
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 has been used primarily for aesthetic reasons. Since the late 2010s it has become more economical than overhead lines.
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.
Conduit current collection is an obsolete system of electric current collection used by some electric tramways, where the power supply was carried in a 'conduit' under the roadway. Modern systems fall under the term ground-level power supply.
A bow collector is one of the three main devices used on tramcars to transfer electric current from the wires above to the tram below. While once very common in continental Europe, it was replaced by the pantograph or the trolley pole, itself often later replaced by the pantograph.
Tramway track is used on tramways or light rail operations. Grooved rails are often used to provide a protective flangeway in the trackwork in city streets. Like standard rail tracks, tram tracks consist of two parallel steel rails.
The Mexborough & Swinton Tramways Company was a tramway system in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, founded in 1902 and which began services in 1907 linking Rotherham with the Old Toll Bar, Mexborough. Its routes served Manvers Main Colliery, Wath upon Dearne and the towns of Rotherham, Rawmarsh, Swinton and Mexborough.
The Portsdown and Horndean Light Railway was a tram service that ran initially from Cosham to Horndean in Hampshire, England.
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.
A current collector is a device used in trolleybuses, trams, electric locomotives and EMUs to carry electric power (current) from overhead lines, electric third rails, or ground-level power supplies to the electrical equipment of the vehicles. Those for overhead wires are roof-mounted devices, those for rails are mounted on the bogies.
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.
The United Electric Car Company was a tramcar manufacturer from 1905 to 1917 in Preston, Lancashire, England.
Wigan Corporation Tramways operated a tramway service in Wigan, England, between 1901 and 1931. The first tramway service in the town was run by the Wigan Tramways Company, whose horse trams began carrying passengers in 1880. They began replacing horses with steam tram locomotives from 1882, but the company failed in 1890 when a Receiver was appointed to manage it. The Wigan & District Tramways Company took over the system in 1893 and ran it until 1902. Meanwhile, Wigan Corporation were planning their own tramway system, obtaining an authorising Act of Parliament in 1893, and a second one in 1898. This enabled them to build electric tramways, and in 1902, they took over the lines of the Wigan & District Tramways Company.
At the peak of Britain’s first-generation tramways, it was possible to travel by tram all the way from Pier Head at Liverpool to the Pennines in Rochdale by tram.
Hastings and District Electric Tramways operated a tramway service in Hastings between 1905 and 1929.
The Bessbrook and Newry Tramway operated a 3 ft narrow gauge, hydro-electrically powered tramway transporting passengers and freight between Bessbrook and Newry in Northern Ireland between 1885 and 1948.
