I always like those little messy stories which are not what you expect and take you off in all sorts of directions.
This is Peter’s painting of a tram in Vienna which he told me came from New York.
Now there is nothing odd about transport networks buying foreign rolling stock.
All around the world tram and railway companies along with bus operators regularly buy both new and second hand.
What makes this one just a little different is the history behind it.
There have been trams in Vienna since 1865 and today it is the fifth largest tram network in the world with 175.9 kilometres, and 1,071 stations.*
And for those who revel in tram facts, in 2013, 293 million passengers travelled on Vienna’s 525 tramcars.
The service reached its peak during the interwar years but like so many European cities it was much knocked about during the Second World War.
In the case of Vienna most of its 4000 trams had been badly damaged with 400 of them beyond repair.
At which point the Amerikaner enters the story, because these were the trams Vienna acquired in 1948 under the Marshall Plan.**
There were 41 of them, shipped over from New York, and they became known as the Amerikaner. They were slightly wider than the Austrian ones, had air operated doors, automatic retractable ramps and seat backs which could be changed so that passengers always faced forwards. At which point Ron will point out that our old Corporation trams had the same facility.
What makes the Amerikaner just that bit more special is that New York abandoned its trams in the 1950s, leaving only its overhead Roosevelt Island Tramway.
That said there were plans to reintroduce trams to New York a year ago and I must check out whether that has happened.***
So not only was Peter’s tram journey a tad unusual he was riding history.
No wonder he was moved to paint the picture.
Location; Vienna, with an option on New York
Painting; the Amerikaner © Peter Topping, 2008
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk
Facebook: Paintings from Pictures https://www.facebook.com/paintingsfrompictures
*Trams in Vienna, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trams_in_Vienna
**The Marshall Plan, or the European Recovery Program, was a bold American initiative to assist Western Europe rebuild it economies with $13 billion.
*** New York tram stages an unlikely comeback, Robert Wright, Financial Times, New York, February 4, 2016, https://www.ft.com/content/133c1c58-cb5c-11e5-a8ef-ea66e967dd44
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| The Amerikaer in Vienna, 2006 |
Now there is nothing odd about transport networks buying foreign rolling stock.
All around the world tram and railway companies along with bus operators regularly buy both new and second hand.
What makes this one just a little different is the history behind it.
There have been trams in Vienna since 1865 and today it is the fifth largest tram network in the world with 175.9 kilometres, and 1,071 stations.*
And for those who revel in tram facts, in 2013, 293 million passengers travelled on Vienna’s 525 tramcars.
The service reached its peak during the interwar years but like so many European cities it was much knocked about during the Second World War.
In the case of Vienna most of its 4000 trams had been badly damaged with 400 of them beyond repair.
At which point the Amerikaner enters the story, because these were the trams Vienna acquired in 1948 under the Marshall Plan.**
There were 41 of them, shipped over from New York, and they became known as the Amerikaner. They were slightly wider than the Austrian ones, had air operated doors, automatic retractable ramps and seat backs which could be changed so that passengers always faced forwards. At which point Ron will point out that our old Corporation trams had the same facility.
What makes the Amerikaner just that bit more special is that New York abandoned its trams in the 1950s, leaving only its overhead Roosevelt Island Tramway.
|
| So unusual, I used it again |
So not only was Peter’s tram journey a tad unusual he was riding history.
No wonder he was moved to paint the picture.
Location; Vienna, with an option on New York
Painting; the Amerikaner © Peter Topping, 2008
Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk
Facebook: Paintings from Pictures https://www.facebook.com/paintingsfrompictures
*Trams in Vienna, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trams_in_Vienna
**The Marshall Plan, or the European Recovery Program, was a bold American initiative to assist Western Europe rebuild it economies with $13 billion.
*** New York tram stages an unlikely comeback, Robert Wright, Financial Times, New York, February 4, 2016, https://www.ft.com/content/133c1c58-cb5c-11e5-a8ef-ea66e967dd44
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