Street Car named desire

lt is a sin to call the street cars of Melbourne as mere 'trams'.
That is too drab a name. Their dignity of motion comes from a feminine grace unlike the muscular robustness of a metro train.   Easy to get in and easy to get out, always parking at a distance close to a landmark, they fill you with a contentment that no other form of commuting would.
The vistas of urban life open up before you through tall windows as they pass by in gentle pace. You hear the faint hiss from the crowd brimming into the awning of the roadside pub, women in impossible stilettoes and coloured hair , street muscians straining to capture attention, an Elvis Presly look-alike performing to a crowd inside an old pop-records shop, a young lad coming forth into the balcony and cruelly throwing down a cat,  what came of the cat afterwards.....

I would call them 'Street-cars-named-desire', but that is too unwieldy and therefore I will reluctantly settle from 'trams'.

The success of railways lead many to think in terms of moving vehicles on rails powered by steam power. The Railway engineers who were setting up trams could not afford the same untrammelled vision with which they set up Railways when only their  mechanical efficiency mattered. They could dig up earth, flatten hillocks and tunnel hard rocks and generally steam-rolled their way. But for setting up a tramway they had to take into account every ponderous horse-drawn wagon and buggy that could cross their path.

Sydney had them as early as 1880. The steam locomotives were too heavy for the daintly rails. The snorting engines that accumulated the dirt from the streets required too much maintenance. The traffic suited small vehicles and steam locomotives did not simply fit the bill.

Then came the cable trams. Unlike the cable winches that pulled a carriage up a slope through a rope, carriages were made to grip cables running underground along the streets. Relaxing the grip on the cables running below lead the carriages to stop. The cables were pulled across the streets using giant pulleys powered by steam engines. The first cable trams made their appearance in San Francisco in USA. Cable trams were first introduced in Melbourne in 1885.  Cable trams were difficult to engineer and even more difficult to maintain. They required huge upfront capital investment  with very little promise of a decent return. The cables were made of hemp and metal and the drivers of the trams were called appropriately as 'grippers' as their job was to apply and release the grip on the moving underground ropes with great skill. Frequently the ropes snagged and snapped, the only way to get the steam engines stop working the pulleys was to get somebody go to the engine room up the road.  


While many cities around the world gave up on trams as being too much a hindrance to growing urban traffic not to speak of the low rate of return, the city fathers of Melbourne have great faith in them and sub-ordinated urban planning to the demands of an expanding tram network.  Melbourne trams were electrified in 1935 and ever since there has been no looking back.

Trams are like tigers in a way.  No, it is not about feline grace.  Tiger is at the apex of the food chain and if Tiger is to be protected the whole eco system of the forest should remain intact. Conversely protecting the tiger ensures the preservation of the forest. Similarly, if Trams are to flourish, the urban jungle, well , should not be a jungle ,  but be governed by such rules and have such practices that are the best in urban planning and management. Unbridled migration, ever expanding aggradisement of cars on the roads , inadequate arrangements for rain water drainage and waste removal can put paid to a dependable tramway however sophiticated its engineering may be.  If there is a stone or a rag of cloth on the sunken rails, there is no option for the driver of the tram but to get down and remove the obstruction. Thus maintaining a successful tramway ensures that thee urban agglomeration is in fine fettle.

In all the cities I have lived and worked,  only trams of Melbourne  have provided with me the means and time to 'stand and stare at ladies skirts across the grass', only that the ladies here do not wear long skirts anymore!