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Picture of the Month, October 2000  Permission was granted in 1874 to build and run the first horse tramway in Oslo, and Kristiania Sporveisselsab (KSS9 was founded. The gauge was set to 1435 mm, which is standard gauge, and this gauge was chosen by all the tramway companies in the Oslo area. The first 22 horse tramcars were built by John Stephenson & Co. in New York and arrived with the sailing-ship "Jenie" on August 31st, 1875. After some test running, the horse tramway was opened on October 6th, 1875. The tramshed and workshop was built in Sporveisgata at Homansbyen. The structure of the horse tramway in Oslo were four lines, all leaving from Stortorvet, towards Homansbyen, Oslo (today Gamlebyen), Vestbanen and Grünerløkka. After Kristiania Elektriske Sporvei (KES) opened the first electric tramway in Oslo in 1894, KSS realised that the horse tramway was passé. All the lines were electrified. KSS started eletric operation on September 29th, 1899, and the electrification was completed on January 15th, 1900. 38 horse tramcars were rebuilt and used on as trailers. The rest of the horse tramcars were discarded, and many were sold as cabins or sheds. More of the trailers were discarded during the First World War., but 16 tramcars were around 1916-17 sold to Trondheim and Bergen. The Trondheim trailers were rebuilt to metre gauge and got the nickname "birdcage". The newest horse tramcars were delivered as late as in 1897. They were reused as trailer without being rebuilt, and were also in service longer than the other ones, and were discarded in 1935-39. On the picture above is horse tramcar no. 11 at Stortorvet. The overhead wires on the top at right in the picture tell us almost when the picture were taken, during the electrification of KSS, probably not long before the horse tramway was closed down, probably Summer 1899. Horse tramcar no. 11 was built by John Stephenson & Co. in New York in 1875. The tramcar were 4.1 metres long and was taken out of service as a horse tramcar in 1899. If it was selected as a trailer, it continue in service, probably within the number serie 65-74, and eight of these became "birdcages" in Trondheim when they were taken out of service within the period 1914-18. Photo: LTF Archive. |
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