Product Code Database
A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is a tram or streetcar pulled by a horse.
The horse-drawn streetcar combined the low cost, flexibility, and safety of animal power with the efficiency, smoothness, and all-weather capability of a rail track. Animal power at the time was seen as safer than steam power in that early locomotives frequently suffered from . Rails were seen as all-weather because streets of the time might be poorly paved, or not paved at all, allowing wagon wheels to sink in mud during rain or snow.
There were a number of horse car operators in Canadian cities in the mid to late 1800s, including in: Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, St. Thomas, Toronto, and .
The Bombay Tramway Company was set up in 1873. After a contract was signed between the Bombay Tramway Company, the municipality and the Stearns and Kitteredge company, the Bombay Presidency enacted the Bombay Tramways Act, 1874 licensing the company to run a horsecar tram service in the city. On 9 May 1874 the first horse-drawn carriage made its début in the city, plying the Colaba–Pydhone via Crawford Market, and Bori Bunder to Pydhonie via Kalbadevi routes. The initial fare was three Indian anna (15 Paisa pre-decimalisation), and no tickets were issued. As the service became increasingly popular, the fare was reduced to two annas (10 pre-decimalisation paise). Later that year, tickets were issued to curb increasing ticket-less travel. Stearns and Kitteredge reportedly had a stable of 1,360 horses over the lifetime of the service.
In spite of its early start, it took many years for horse-drawn streetcars to become widely acceptable across Britain; the American George Francis Train first introduced them to Birkenhead Corporation Tramways' predecessor in Birkenhead in 1860 but was jailed for "breaking and injuring" the highway when he next tried to lay the first tram tracks on the roads of London. An 1870 Act of Parliament overcame these legal obstacles by defining responsibilities and for the next three decades many local tramway companies were founded, using horse-drawn carriages, until replaced by cable, steam or electric traction. Many companies adopted a design of a partly enclosed double-decker carriage hauled by two horses. The last horse-drawn tram was retired from London in 1915. Horses continued to be used for light shunting well into the 20th century. The last horse used for shunting on British Railways was retired on 21 February 1967 in Newmarket, Suffolk.
Horsecars were largely replaced by electric-powered Tram following the introduction of electric powered streetcars in the 1880s. The first public electric tramway used for permanent service was the Gross-Lichterfelde tramway in Lichterfelde near Berlin in Germany, which opened in 1881. This was the world's first commercially successful electric tram. It drew current from the rails at first, with Overhead line being installed in 1883.Hearst Magazines (May 1929). "Popular Mechanics". Popular Mechanics. Hearst Magazines. p. 750. Frank J. Sprague's spring-loaded trolley pole used a wheel to travel along the wire. In late 1887 and early 1888, using his trolley system, Sprague installed the first successful large electric street railway system in Richmond, Virginia. Long a transportation obstacle, the hills of Richmond included grades of over 10%, and were an excellent proving ground for acceptance of the new technology in other cities. Within a year, the economy of electric power had replaced more costly horsecars in many cities. By 1889, 110 electric railways incorporating Sprague's equipment had been begun or planned on several continents.
Many large metropolitan lines lasted well into the early twentieth century. New York City had a regular horsecar service on the Bleecker Street Line until its closure in 1917. "New York Loses its Last Horse Car" New York Times; Friday, July 29, 1917. Page 12 (Cable Car Lines in New York and New Jersey) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, had its Sarah Street line drawn by horses until 1923. The last regular mule-drawn cars in the US ran in Sulphur Rock, Arkansas, until 1926 and were commemorated by a U.S. postage stamp issued in 1983. Toronto's horse-drawn streetcar operations ended in 1891. In other countries animal-powered tram services often continued well into the 20th century; the last mule tram service in Mexico City ended in 1932, and a mule tram in Celaya, Mexico, survived until 1954.
| Cuzamá Cenote Tours | Cuzamá Municipality, Yucatán | Mexico | After 1875 | Two competing horsecar services use the same stretch of track leading to the , with one service originating from a branch ending in the southern outskirts of Cuzamá, and the other from a branch ending a short distance further south in Chunkanán. | |||
| Döbeln Tramway | Döbeln, Saxony | Germany | 1892 | ||||
| Douglas Bay Horse Tramway | Douglas | Isle of Man | 1876 | ||||
| Ghora Tram | Ghangha Pur, Punjab | Pakistan | 1898 | ||||
| Hacienda San Nicolás Dzoyaxché | Mérida Municipality, Yucatán | Mexico | After 1875 | ||||
| Hacienda Sotuta de Peón | Tecoh Municipality, Yucatán | Mexico | After 1875 | ||||
| Historical Village of Hokkaido | Sapporo, Hokkaido | Japan | 1983 | ||||
| Horse-Drawn Streetcars (Disneyland Park (Paris)) | Marne-la-Vallée, Île-de-France | France | 1992 | Located in Disneyland Paris. | |||
| Rainbach im Mühlkreis, Upper Austria | Austria | 1828 | Reconstructed portion of the Budweis-Linz-Gmunden Horse Railway, the first railway line in Continental Europe to carry passengers. | ||||
| Shizukuishi, Iwate | Japan | 1904 | |||||
| Main Street Vehicles (Disneyland) | Anaheim, California | US | 1955 | Located in the Disneyland Resort. | |||
| Main Street Vehicles (Magic Kingdom) | Bay Lake, Florida | US | 1971 | Located in Walt Disney World. | |||
| Mrozy, Masovian Voivodeship | Poland | 1908 | |||||
| Rösslitram | Rapperswil, St. Gallen | Switzerland | 1962 | Located in Knie's Kinderzoo. | |||
| Spiekeroog, Lower Saxony | Germany | 1885 | |||||
| Victor Harbor Horse Drawn Tram | Victor Harbor, South Australia | Australia | 1864 |
|
|
