Victor Harbor Horse Drawn Tram

The horse tram Victor Harbor (English: Victor Harbor Horse Drawn Tram or Victor Harbor Horse Tram ) is a broad-gauge horse tram in Victor Harbor in Australia ( South Australia ). She was originally from 1894 to 1956 in operation and was reopened in 1986 with exact replicas of the original seat cover car on the largely preserved ancient route. The Victor Harbor Horse Drawn Tram is one of the few remaining horse trams in the world and is still in daily use.

History

The Victor Harbor Horse Drawn Tram was opened in 1894 as a horse tram with a track width of 1600 mm ( Irish track) to connect the city center of Victor Harbor in South Australia over a pier with the Granite Iceland called island in the southeast. Here still are some upstream pier, so a reliable and comfortable public transport was needed. The tram was furnished in what was then British- Victorian style with large two-axle double-deck cover car seat and operated, drawn by one (or rarely two) horses.

After more than half a century operation, with good utilization, the tram in 1956 was discontinued after the ship had lost traffic to Granite Iceland importance and passenger numbers had declined. As such, the Victor Harbor Horse Drawn Tram belonged with 62 years of operation, the most durable horse trams at all, but worked in the 1950s despite its always very good condition now as a traffic engineering relic from the last century. While the horses sold and the vehicles had been scrapped, the old track alignment including the Vignolgleise however remained largely intact.

In the late 1970s, was first spoken again about a possible reopening of its kind very rare tram as an attraction for tourists. Also, there were increasing voices that wanted to see the formerly nationally known horse tram as a local landmark and regular public transport from Victor Harbor again. After years of negotiations, the city agreed to Victor Harbor ultimately, when private investors in the project to reactivate the tram involved, so the reopening almost exactly 30 years after the closure could take place with a big party.

Since September 1986, the train runs with exact replicas of the original vehicles almost like in the old days from the Visitor Information Centre in the center of Victor Harbor on the 630 m long wooden pier (called " Causeway " ) to the nearby Granite Iceland, with approximately half of the route is attributable to the pier. The Victor Harbor Horse Drawn Tram is one of the few remaining horse trams in the world and continues to be every day of the year and into operation. As vehicles four deck - Seater Horse trams are available, each drawn from one of the eight powerful Clydesdale draft horses.

Special

A special feature of the web is that only vignol be used almost on the entire route, as already anno 1894 still handy as the groove rails first produced in 1880 for a long time were not a common practice in its present form. In addition, it was and is one of the very few ever invested in broad-gauge horse trams.