What are horse-drawn trams: the history of original transport. Urban transport. Horse-drawn railway

Before the advent of electricity in the capital of the empire (the beginning of the 20th century), horse-drawn railways, the so-called horse-drawn railways, reigned on the streets of the city. It was a type of omnibus, which by the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century became the most popular means of mass transportation of people.

In the 1910s there were about thirty lines running through the central part of the city - Nevsky Prospekt, Sadovaya Street and from Admiralteyskaya Square to Nikolaevsky Bridge. Horse horses, of course, did not reach the outskirts. The benefit from this enterprise turned out to be enormous - when the first line appeared in the city, it carried almost a million passengers in just one year. Therefore, a limited liability partnership was organized, which had at its disposal six horse parks, numbering three and a half thousand horses, and serving 26 routes.
There were two types of horse-drawn railway carriages: one- and two-decker. Single-story ones were pulled by one horse. The double-decker carriages had an open upper platform, called an imperial, to which a metal spiral staircase led, and these carriages were pulled by two horses. It was cheaper to go by Imperial. The structure of the upper and lower platforms differed in the location of the benches - on the imperial there was one double-sided bench in the middle and passengers sat with their backs to each other, and at the bottom there were side benches, as they are now in modern trams.

The horse-drawn carriage was serviced by a driver and a conductor, only men, because the work was hard. The conductor sold tickets and gave signals for stops and departures, while the carriage driver drove the horses. Controlling a horse-drawn horse required skill and strength - while moving down the bridge, the slightest mistake was enough and the heavy machine could run over the horses, which would lead to an accident. It was necessary to carefully monitor the progress and, if necessary, immediately pull the handbrake. The counselor also had to scare off passers-by who were driving onto the rails and who were ungainly by hitting the copper bell. If there were steep climbs along the way, then additional horses with their own separate coachman were hitched there. When the carriage went down, the conductor also took part in braking. After the ascent and descent were over, the horses were unhooked and they remained to wait for the next horse-drawn horse that needed their help. At the final stop, the horses were transferred to the other end of the car, a bell with a brake was installed, and they set off on the return journey.
The horse-car rails were very imperfect; grooves for wheels had not yet been invented; the path was paved with cobblestones that ran flush with the rails. Sometimes, especially on turns, the horse-drawn horse rumbled right over the stones, which created a rather unpleasant sensation for the passengers.
In 1907, horse trams began to be replaced by a new technical innovation - trams.

The Konka monument is located on the corner of the 7th line and Sredny Prospekt of Vasilievsky Island, next to the lobby of the Vasileostrovskaya metro station.

Spacious carriages “for everyone” (in Latin - omnibus (“omnibus”)) were the original type of urban public transport. The first omnibus (“Carosses a cinq sous”) appeared in 1662 in Paris. The 8-seater carts traveled along designated lines at certain times.

In 1847, omnibuses (in Russian - public carriages or rulers) appeared in St. Petersburg. Russian lines were 11-14 seat passenger carriages drawn by 2-4 horses.

To communicate with the outskirts of the capital, stagecoaches were used, which were unaffordable for ordinary people. A 2-day salary of a worker at the Putilov plant was used to pay for travel there and back (60 kopecks).

Rulers also appeared in Moscow in the summer of 1847. 1. Their owners counted on good incomes and quickly established transportation for citizens along regular routes. But the future was in horse-drawn cars.

According to Dahl's explanatory dictionary, a horse-drawn horse is “...a horse-drawn railway, a rail track along which carriages are pulled by horses.” The horse-drawn horse appeared after the advent of railways - with horses they wanted to eliminate the seemingly terrible dangers of steam traffic, but retaining the convenience of transporting large loads on rails.

In 1854, in the vicinity of St. Petersburg, near the Smolenskaya Sloboda, engineer Polezhaev built a horse-drawn road made of longitudinal wooden beams covered with iron.

It is worth mentioning the projects of the Volga-Don roads and from Krivoy Rog to Yekaterinoslav, which were replaced by steam roads, and the project of D.V. Kanshin for the construction in 1867 of an entire network of long-distance horse roads beyond the Volga, from Samara to Orenburg and beyond. Instead, the Orenburg Steam Railway 2 was built.

Samara horse-drawn horse
According to the City Regulations adopted in 1892, city governments had the right to determine the rates for travel by carriages, horse-drawn railways and other local means of communication; and the right to construct and collect money for maintaining in good condition those under the jurisdiction of public administration: road facilities (streets, squares, pavements, embankments, sidewalks, boulevards).

Almost all horse-drawn railways in Russia were built by foreign joint-stock companies. Samara was no exception. On March 5, 1890, the Samara City Duma and the Belgian Joint Stock Company of Urban and Suburban Roads in Russia, represented by (or under the leadership of) Blumer (Blummer?) and Rubinsky, signed a contract for the construction and operation of a horse-drawn railway in Samara.

The Belgian joint-stock company (in Moscow it is also the 2nd joint-stock company) horse-drawn railway company was the main company in Russia for the construction of horse-drawn railways. In 1885, it took possession of the Moscow horse-drawn railway of engineer Gorchakov, and later took control of other horse-drawn railways in the capitals. There was also a Belgian horse-drawn horse in Nizhny Novgorod.

According to this agreement, “after making a deposit of 5,000 rubles,” the joint-stock company assumed the obligation, at its own expense, to build and operate a rail track for the transportation of passengers and goods, located according to a plan approved by the Duma.

Rails for horsecars in Russia were used flat and grooved on wooden tracks: “...for country track roads, the Russian inventor I.N. Livchak proposed an original design in which iron-clad wooden rails are laid on a wooden canvas of tightly bound beams with a plank laid on top of the ground.”

The route ran from the Old Cathedral (modern Khlebnaya Square) along Kazanskaya Street. (modern A. Tolstoy), past Aleksandrovsky Square on Voznesenskaya Street. (modern St. Razin), further along Voskresenskaya Street. (modern Pionerskaya), Dvoryanskaya st. (modern Kuibyshevskaya), Panskoy st. (modern Leningradskaya) to Sobornaya street. (modern Molodogvardeyskaya); then along Sobornaya street. to Moskatelnaya st. (modern L. Tolstoy) and from Moskatelnaya street. on the street Samara, Simbirskaya st. (modern Ulyanovskaya) and Sadovaya st. to the Malokansky Garden, - a total length of 5 versts 60 fathoms (about 6.5 km).

Within 5 years from the date of opening of traffic along this line from the Old Cathedral (modern Khlebnaya Square) to Malokansky Garden (modern Lenin Avenue - Pervomaiskaya Street), the joint-stock company was obliged to build a branch from the main line to the railway station. But, if within two years the branch turns out to be unprofitable, the joint-stock company had the right to close it. Passenger carriages under the contract could be nothing more than double-window carriages.

To collect fees from passengers, 3 tariff lines were established: 1st - from the Old Cathedral to Sobornaya Street. near Troitskaya Sq. (from modern Khlebnaya Square to the corner of Leningradskaya and Molodogvardeyskaya streets); 2nd - from this point to the Malokansky Garden (modern corner of Lenin Avenue and Pervomaiskaya Street); 3rd - from st. Samara to the railway station. For travel from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. in first class on each of these lines the fee was 5 kopecks, second class - 3 kopecks. The rest of the time, travel cost twice as much. Uniformed policemen enjoyed free travel on the front platform of the horse-drawn tram.

For the right to construct and use rail tracks, the joint-stock company was obliged to pay to the city’s income annually: in the 1st decade - 1,000 rubles; in the 2nd - 1,500 rubles each; in the 3rd - 2,000 rubles each; in the 4th - 2,500 rubles each; in the 5th - 3,000 rubles.

The term of the contract was determined to be 50 years from the date of signing. After this period, the entire network of rail tracks with the property belonging to it became the property of the city free of charge.

On July 10, 1895, traffic on the Samara horse-drawn railway was opened. “The people were hostile to any innovation. When the tram was launched, no one wanted to ride in it. They had to resort to a trick: for several days they carried soldiers from the local garrison along the rails. To attract the public, premiums of 10 - 20 rubles began to be assigned to some ticket numbers.” And gradually the carriages filled with people.

At the same time, double-decker carriages appeared, in which 18 passengers were accommodated in the cabin, and 16 on the “imperial” roof, fenced with handrails. The fare in the cabin was 5 kopecks, and on the “imperial” - 3 kopecks per station. “A horse-drawn carriage with an open imperial, that is, in places on the roof, where narrow spiral staircases led from the front and rear platforms and where only men were allowed, was pulled along the rails by a pair of very poor, skinny horses in blinkers, which were controlled, waving a whip, standing on the front on the platform there was a coachman pulling a bell hanging on the roof using a cord.”

Covered seats in the cabin were considered first class, and those on the “imperial” roof were considered second class. The movement had to begin no later than 8 o'clock in the morning (in summer - no later than 7 o'clock). For late opening of traffic due to the fault of a joint-stock company, the latter was subject to a fine of 5 rubles for each overdue hour, except in cases of snow drifts, blizzards and other valid reasons. The speed of the horse-drawn horse was determined to be no more than 12 km/h. The coachman (counsel) controlled two horses that pulled the tram along the rails. He sat in front of the carriage on a small platform. He usually had reins and a whip in his hands, and a bell nearby to warn pedestrians of danger. The horse-drawn horse made it possible to travel relatively quickly around Samara, especially over long distances, but it had a number of disadvantages: the inability to overcome heavy snow drifts, the need to give the horses periodic rest. The speed of movement did not exceed 6-7 km/h, it was indicated that “...for some time now, from 17 o’clock, the number of cars passing on the line has been reduced from 17 to 10. As a result, there is confusion in the movement. The reduction in the number of carriages at the same time served as a reason for the administration to reduce the already low salaries of conductors. Those conductors whose carriages do not run from 5 p.m. received a daily wage of 60 kopecks instead of 80 kopecks.”

But the most important drawback, according to the city authorities, was the independence of the horse-drawn horse-drawn horse from the municipal treasury. But the city had to abandon the idea of getting a horse-drawn railway in 50 years: already 3 years later, in 1898, the question of replacing the horse-drawn railway with a tram became urgent.

According to information for 1890, the length of horse roads was considered:
in Germany – 1286 km.
in Holland – 592 km.
in Belgium – 404 km.
in France – 508 km.
in England - 343 km.
in Italy – 223 km.
in Austria-Hungary – 222 km.
in Denmark – 61 km.
in Switzerland – 28 km.
in Russia – about 600 km.
in America - 8955.8 km.

Song of the old cab driver m/f Old record

Which industry is making progress the fastest? It's probably transport. Looking at our roads with eternal traffic jams, yards full of cars, it is difficult to imagine that just one hundred and fifty years ago humanity moved exclusively (well, almost exclusively) using poor horses. Only the cabin was changed, i.e. carriage, i.e. droshky or a variety of other seating configurations. And the number of seats gradually increased. Passenger traffic was growing.

So such a strange-at-first-glance invention as a horse-drawn horse appeared. Or more precisely: a tram in the tail of a horse; a tram with two or one horsepower, a tram with oat fuel - as soon as the horse-drawn tram was called.
The main innovation of horse trams is the laying of rail tracks on city streets.

The widespread use of horse-drawn street railways became possible after the French engineer Alphonse Loubat in 1852 invented a rail with a side groove that could be recessed into the pavement - exactly the same rails are still laid for a regular city tram. On the rails, a pair of horses calmly pulls a carriage for fifty people.

In Russia, a horse-drawn horse first appeared in St. Petersburg in 1854. It was at this time that engineer Vasily Polezhaev built a path from wooden beams covered with iron, not far from Smolenskaya Sloboda. A few years later, carriages on rails became a common occurrence in the capital.

Photo: St. Petersburg, monument to "Konka"

The horse-drawn carriage was an open or more often closed carriage, sometimes double-decker with an open top (imperial). The carriage was pulled along the rail tracks by a pair of horses driven by a coachman. In places where the tram lines crossed steep slopes, postilions (usually teenage boys) waited for the crews, who harnessed another 1-2 pairs of horses and helped them overcome the difficult place, then unharnessed additional horses on a flat area.

Paris tram at the end of the 19th century

Old photos of Tallinn (Revel)

Horse-drawn horse in Samara

Moscow horse-drawn horse

Horse-drawn carriages appeared after the advent of railways. Using horses, they wanted to eliminate the dangers of steam traffic that seemed significant at that time.
and, at the same time, take advantage of the convenience of transporting bulk cargo by rail. Thus, on the first Tsarskoye Selo railway opened in Russia, passengers were initially transported in horse-drawn carriages.

But the horse-drawn carriage did not survive in this form for long, since it soon became clear that for transportation over long distances, horse-drawn traction was slower, and the composition of the train was very limited. Therefore, the steam locomotive replaced horses on the railways quickly and everywhere.

horse-drawn horse in Riga

Horse-drawn horse- the phrase is probably known to everyone from classical literature.

Moscow horse-drawn horse

Kazan, Konka No. 125 Peterburgskaya street

The important word "Imperial" is a double bench on the roof of a tram, horse-drawn car or bus, on which passengers sat with their backs to each other and their faces to two opposite sides of the street. Along the sides of the roof there were light railings, to which tin signs with advertisements were often attached.

We climbed up to the imperial building via a narrow spiral staircase. At one time, women were not allowed on the imperial, as it was believed that when climbing onto the roof of the carriage, their petticoats would be visible - which was indecent.

Moscow horse-drawn horse-imperial

horse-drawn horse in Odessa

Accident

Horse-drawn trams in Russia lasted until the 90s of the 19th century, when they were ousted from the streets (again, with difficulty) by electric trams.

The horse-drawn tram is no longer a real tram

Old trams in the Mosgortrans Museum

Until 1872, Moscow did not have a regular and reliable form of public urban passenger transport. The population of the city was forced to use the services of private entrepreneurs, who in 1847 organized the movement of rulers - open multi-seat horse-drawn carriages. More prosperous Muscovites used the services of cab drivers or their own crews and carriages. In 1850, the Society of Moscow Multi-Seater Crews was created, and in 1868 - the Society of Public Crew Keepers, which united private entrepreneurs in the line fishing industry. With the construction of a network of horse-drawn tram lines, line fishing decreased significantly.

In connection with the Polytechnic Exhibition held in Moscow in the summer of 1872, the opening of which was timed to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the birth of Peter the Great, the War Ministry laid the first temporary horse-drawn tram line along the central streets of the city - from the Iversky Gate to the present Belorussky Station. The movement of carriages was opened on June 25 (July 7), 1872. The construction of the line (using the labor of military railway workers) and temporary operation were carried out by entrepreneurs D.N. Guryev and M.D. Novikov, who supplied all the necessary material for laying tracks and cars from England. Its operation continued until the construction of the main network of horse-drawn railways began (April 1874).

The first project for laying lines of a horse-drawn tram (or horse-drawn tram) was developed for Moscow in 1864, then a number of other proposals followed, but only in April 1872 the city duma finally approved the project for the construction of a network of horse-drawn railway lines (as horse-drawn roads were then called). tram in Moscow and St. Petersburg). The concession for the implementation of this project was given to the company of Count A.S. for 40 years. Uvarov (together with V.K. Della-Vos and N.F. von Kruse). On September 13, 1873 (old style), a contract was concluded between this company and the Moscow city government, and the construction of the first lines of this network was carried out in the summer-autumn of 1874. Traffic along the first rebuilt Petrovskaya line of the horse-drawn tram (from the Iverskaya Chapel through Strastnaya Square , Tverskaya Zastava to Petrovsky Park) opened on September 1 (13), 1874. To operate the newly constructed network of tram lines, on October 28 (November 9), 1875, Count Uvarov and Co. created the First Society of Railway-Horse Roads in Moscow with a share capital of 1 million rubles. By the end of 1876, this company had built a network of lines of 27 versts, had 82 carriages and three depot-stables. In 1880-1881 the network of its lines was expanded and reached 33 versts, and in 1891 - 45 versts (10 lines and 5 depots).

In 1880, engineer A.N. Gorchakov developed a project for the construction of a second network of horse-drawn railways, which were supposed to run along secondary radial city streets, as well as along the Garden and Boulevard rings and to some dacha suburbs. The contract between Gorchakov and the city government for the construction of this network was signed on November 15 (28), 1883 with a concession period of 45 years (until 1928). The city had the right to buy out the network 20 years after the conclusion of the contract. In March 1885 A.N. Gorchakov transferred his rights and obligations under the contract to a newly created joint-stock company with Belgian capital, established in Brussels on January 5 (17), 1885 under the name “General Company of Trams of Moscow and Russia.” In Moscow, for simplicity, it began to be called the Belgian or Second Horse-Railway Society.

The Belgian Society built horse-drawn tram lines of the second network in 1885–1887. The first, Ekaterininskaya horse-drawn tram line of this society was opened on July 3 (16), 1885 on the section from Trubnaya Square to S. Ekaterininsky Park (in the area of the former Commune Square). In 1886, it laid the first (from Butyrskaya Zastava to Petrovsko-Razumovsky), and in 1887 - the second (from Kaluzhskaya Zastava to Vorobyovy Gory) steam tram line. In 1888–1891 the second network was expanded and by 1891 reached 43 miles of single track, with 13 lines and three terminal depots.

The existence in one city of independent tram networks of two different societies was extremely inconvenient for Muscovites, and even for the societies themselves. Therefore, in 1890-1891. they agreed with the city government to combine the networks into one and to operate it jointly. At the same time, the First Society became responsible for the operation of the entire network, and the Second (Belgian) Society received 1/3 of the total profits earned for the year. Such joint operation began on November 1 (13), 1891. All previously existing horse-drawn tram routes were revised and from that day 25 new lines began to operate. Passengers could now travel in all directions using one transfer ticket, which reduced the cost of travel for most Muscovites and significantly increased the number of passengers using the horse-drawn railway. The joint network of horse-drawn railways had a length of 88 versts (94 km), 9 horse-drawn depots, more than 2,000 horses and 400 wagons.

The material was prepared according to the text of the book: S.A. Tarkhov “City Passenger Transport of Moscow”, Moscow, 1997.
At a reprint the reference to the source is required!

(1835). However, horsecars became truly successful only after Alphonse Loubat invented rails with a groove for the wheel flange, which were recessed into the road surface, in 1852. Soon, the new type of railways spread widely in major cities in North America and Europe.

In Russia in 1820, the tradesman Ivan Elmanov designed a horse-rail road, which was called the “road on poles”. Horse-drawn rails in Russia were used flat and grooved on wooden beds. For country track roads, the Russian inventor Joseph Livchak proposed an original design in which iron-clad wooden rails were laid on a wooden canvas of tightly bound beams with a boardwalk laid on top of the ground.

In 1854, in the vicinity of St. Petersburg, near the Smolenskaya Sloboda, engineer Polezhaev built a horse-drawn road made of longitudinal wooden beams covered with iron. In 1860, engineer Georgy Ivanovich Domontovich built a horse-drawn railway for transporting goods in St. Petersburg. There were also projects for the Volga-Don road and the route from Krivoy Rog to Yekaterinoslav, which were replaced by steam roads, and the project of D. V. Kanshin, who made a proposal in 1867 to build an entire network of long-distance horse-drawn railways beyond the Volga, starting from Samara to Orenburg and further (instead, the Orenburg Steam Railway was built).

According to information for 1890, the length of horse-drawn railways was:

USA - 8955.8 km.
Germany - 1286 km.
Russia - about 600 km.
Holland - 592 km.
France - 508 km.
Belgium - 404 km.
England - 343 km.
Italy - 223 km.
Austria-Hungary - 222 km.
Denmark - 61 km.
Switzerland - 28 km.

In the Russian Empire, horse trams were built in most large cities and provincial centers - St. Petersburg (commodity in 1860, passenger in 1863), Moscow (1872), Kazan (1875), Riga (1882), Saratov (1887), Samara, Voronezh , Minsk, etc. In most cases, the horse car was built with the participation of foreign capital. One of these companies was the Belgian "Joint-stock company of urban and suburban horse-drawn railways in Russia". In Brussels in 1885 it was established "General Company of Trams of Moscow and Russia", popularly called simply the "Belgian Society", along with "The first society of railway-horse roads in Moscow" which made a significant contribution to the development of the transport and passenger infrastructure of the largest city of the Russian Empire in the pre-October period. By the end of the 1890s. the total length of the network of both societies was about 70 versts. Subsequently, often, the companies that owned the horse-drawn tram became ardent opponents of the introduction of the electric tram, the competition with which the horse-drawn tram could not withstand. This situation, for example, was in St. Petersburg, Kharkov and Samara, so the tram tracks were laid parallel to the horse-drawn tracks. In other cities, the authorities bought out horse-drawn roads with the aim of turning horse-drawn trams into trams (Moscow, Königsberg, etc.). This course of events was the most favorable for the horse-drawn workers: they did not lose their jobs, but acquired another employer and were retrained.

The use of horse trams in Moscow continued until 1912, in Petrograd - until September 1917, in Minsk - until 1928.

From horse-drawn to tram October 27th, 2014

According to a centuries-old tradition, all innovations in Russia appear... in the capital (and not in Moscow, as some thought). The horse-drawn horse was no exception. In 1863, the first passenger carriages drawn by two horses appeared on the streets of St. Petersburg. The horse tram arrived in Moscow nine years later.

This is what the first horse-drawn horses looked like in St. Petersburg, photo from a drawing from the 60s of the 19th century. At first they climbed to the upper platform in exactly this way. Sometimes the descending passenger would stand with his foot on the head of the ascending passenger.

Of course, the horse-drawn horse was not the first type of public transport in Russia. Back in 1847, permanent omnibus routes appeared in St. Petersburg. However, difficult-to-control, bulky carriages with iron-bound wheels rolled along the shaking pavements and bounced on the slightest irregularities. Witty townspeople quickly renamed the omnibuses “hugbuses” (passengers were constantly thrown into each other’s arms), and the forty-seat carriages plying around the city were given the nickname “forty martyrs.”

A carriage traveling on rails was naturally much more comfortable for passengers than a stagecoach. Therefore, having first appeared in New York in 1831, the horse-drawn horse quickly spread throughout the world. And, as I already said, it appeared in our country.

Like any innovation, the horse-drawn car also had its opponents. Under pressure from the omnibus lobby, the St. Petersburg City Duma decided that it was absolutely impossible to allow horse-drawn trains on Nevsky Prospekt. Quote from the resolution: Laying rails along the streets will cause accidents with cab drivers; crossing the rails, the carriages will overturn, passengers will receive bruises and concussions, sometimes life-threatening... the horses will be afraid of the trams, and, in addition, passengers may fall under the carriages.

However, the appearance of horse trams was supported at the very top, and on September 1, 1863, the first carriages began running from the Nikolaevskaya Railway station to the Palace Bridge and back. By 1875, the city had three lines with a total length of eight miles.

Here and below, unless otherwise indicated, photographs by unknown authors

The roads were built with money from joint stock companies and were privately owned. Travel cost 3 kopecks for an outdoor seat and 5 kopecks for an indoor seat. For a metropolitan resident of that time (officials, officers, university professors), these were quite reasonable prices. Ordinary people, naturally, walked or rode like a hare on the back platform until the conductor rounded them up.

Cars with seating at the top (a double bench in the middle of the roof) were called “imperial”. Women were not allowed to ride up there. Since it was believed that when climbing stairs (see the first photo), petticoats might be visible, which is indecent. The ban remained in effect for some time even after the appearance of spiral staircases. But later it was cancelled.

Quite quickly it became clear that the income received from transporting passengers was not sufficient to maintain the road and horses (ah, this ever-unprofitable public transport). In addition, the rich and influential residents of the capital were extremely dissatisfied with the horse-drawn carriage. Judge for yourself: respectable people in private cars and carriages with a personal driver, and here are some beggars on public transport. The city leadership initially decided not to develop the horse-drawn railway any further.

However, the population of the capital grew rapidly (for example, in just four years from 1865 to 1869 it increased from 539 to 669 thousand people) due to those who came in large numbers. The need for the development of urban public transport became obvious even to management who used exclusively personal carriages.

In 1874, a decision was made to build another 80 miles of railways in St. Petersburg. The horse-drawn carriage not only entangled the entire city, but also went beyond its borders.

Special rules were developed for the use of horse-drawn railways. They also included the following paragraph:
To prevent accidents, gentlemen, passengers are invited to enter and exit the carriage only at places where the carriage stops or is moving quietly, and they must jump off in the direction of movement of the carriages... On lines with double tracks and at sidings, gentlemen, passengers are invited to get off on the right side of the carriage, in the direction of travel, in order to avoid getting hit by the horses of the oncoming carriage.

As soon as the rules appeared, St. Petersburg residents began to see special daring in jumping out of cars while moving - first horse-drawn cars, and later trams. This habit continued until the doors of trams began to close automatically and until the external handrails disappeared.

Horse-drawn horse on the Anichkov Bridge over the Fontanka

Nevsky Prospekt in front of the Kazan Cathedral. Late 19th century

Nevsky Prospekt at the beginning of the twentieth century

Many people love horses. How can one not be moved by the sight of such an intelligent four-legged creature? But imagine how St. Petersburg smelled, soaked in horse manure for two hundred years. Tens of thousands of horses and each one constantly shits exactly in the middle of the street, avenue or square. Would you like piles of manure around St. Isaac's Cathedral?

An alternative to horse traction was constantly being sought. Pneumatic and steam engines, internal combustion engines, cable drive and electric motors, and even compressed air were tested. Cable trams (operated in dozens of American cities) and steam trams gained relative popularity. The latter were also used in St. Petersburg from 1886 to 1914.

What about electricity? In 1880, for the first time in Russia, a corresponding experiment was successfully carried out. Many people were enthusiastic about the possibility of running horse-drawn horses using electricity. However, further development of the new type of transport stalled. Firstly, many technical issues were not resolved, and secondly, the owners of horse-drawn railways did not consider it necessary to invest money in a “dubious enterprise.”

In order not to infringe on the rights of the joint stock companies that operated the horse-drawn cars, the first tram was launched on ice across the Neva!

The ice tram operated from 1894 to 1911

The final station, please vacate the carriage

Only in 1899, after the city bought several lines of horse-drawn railways, St. Petersburg finally received an “electric horse-drawn horse”, which was already available in many European cities. However, the horse tram not only continued to exist, but also developed. After all, to expand its network it was only necessary to lay rails. And for the tram it was necessary not only to lay wires, but also to build power plants. Once the omnibus lobby prevented the appearance of the horse-drawn railway, now the horse-drawn railway hindered the development of the tram.

Installation of electrical wires, photographer Karl Bulla

Nevertheless, progress could not be stopped. In September 1907, trams began running along the streets of St. Petersburg. But the horses didn’t go away right away. In 1912, the total length of the tram tracks was 112 versts, the horse tram - 68, and the steam tram - 10. The horse tram finally disappeared only in 1917 due to unavoidable difficulties in obtaining fodder for horses. Remember, it’s war, it’s revolution, but that’s another story.

In a long struggle, the electric tram won a complete victory over the horse-drawn tram.

St. Petersburg tram in 1933, photo from Wikipedia

However, St. Petersburg residents retained a good memory of the horse-drawn horse. In 2004, a monument with a model of a carriage from 1872-1878 was unveiled near the Vasileostrovskaya metro station. All its parts were restored according to the drawings of the Putilov plant found in the Central Historical Archive. In 2005, two more horses were added to the carriage. And in 2009, a coachman was added to the horses, who now leads them by the bridle. Let's wish the monument further updates: we can also add figures of the conductor and passengers.

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