A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is an animal-powered (usually horse) tram or streetcar.

Summary

The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public rail transport, which developed out of industrial haulage routes that had long been in existence, and from the

omnibus Omnibus may refer to: Film and television * ''Omnibus'' (film) * Omnibus (broadcast), a compilation of Radio or TV episodes * ''Omnibus'' (UK TV series), an arts-based documentary programme * ''Omnibus'' (U.S. TV series), an educational progr ...

routes that first ran on public streets in the 1820s{{{citation needed, date=February 2022, using the newly improved iron or steel rail or ' tramway'. They were local versions of the

stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are draw ...

lines and picked up and dropped off passengers on a regular route, without the need to be pre-hired. Horsecars on tramlines were an improvement over the omnibus, because the low

rolling resistance Rolling resistance, sometimes called rolling friction or rolling drag, is the force resisting the motion when a body (such as a ball, tire, or wheel) rolls on a surface. It is mainly caused by non-elastic effects; that is, not all the energy nee ...

of metal wheels on iron or

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

rails (usually grooved from 1852 on) allowed the animals to haul a greater load for a given effort than the omnibus, and gave a smoother ride. The horse-drawn streetcar combined the low cost, flexibility, and safety of animal power with the efficiency, smoothness, and all-weather capability of a rail track. Animal power at the time was seen as safer than steam power in that early locomotives frequently suffered from boiler explosions. Rails were seen as all-weather because streets of the time might be poorly paved, or not paved at all, allowing wagon wheels to sink in mud during rain or snow.

History

Canada

In 1861, Toronto Street Railway horsecars replaced horse-drawn omnibuses as a public transit mode in Toronto. Electric streetcars later replaced the horsecars between 1892 and 1894. The Toronto Street Railway created Toronto's unique broad gauge of {{RailGauge, toronto. The streets were unpaved, and a step rail was employed. The horsecars had flanged wheels and ran on the upper level of the step. Ordinary wagons and carriages ran on the broad lower step inside. This necessitated a wider gauge. This broad

Toronto gauge Toronto-gauge railways are tram and rapid transit lines built to Toronto gauge, a broad gauge of . This is wider than standard gauge of which is by far the most common track gauge in Canada. The gauge is unique to the Greater Toronto Area and i ...

is still used today by the Toronto streetcar system and three lines of the Toronto subway. {{cite book, title=Not a One Horse Town , author-link = Mike Filey , first = Mike , last = Filey , isbn = 0-9691501-1-3 , location = North York, Ontario , publisher = Firefly Books , year = 1986 , page=unpaged The Metropolitan Street Railway operated a horsecar line in then-suburban North Toronto from 1885 until the line was electrified in 1890; this horsecar line also used Toronto gauge. {{cite book , url = http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDM255028&R=255028 , title = Riding the Radials, Toronto's Suburban Electric Streetcar Lines , author = Robert M. Stamp , publisher = The Boston Mills Press , year = 1989 , access-date = 2016-04-16 , isbn = 1-55046-008-0 , quote = Chapter 1 - The Spinal Cord of Yonge Street

India

{{main, Trams in India The first horse-drawn trams in India ran a {{convert, 2.4, mi, km, adj=on distance between Sealdah and Armenian Ghat Street on 24 February 1873. The service was discontinued on 20 November of that year.
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927004918/http://www.calcuttatramways.com/history.aspx , date=2013-09-27 CTC website. Accessed 16 August 2013. The Calcutta Tramway Company was formed and registered in London on 22 December 1880. Metre-gauge horse-drawn tram tracks were laid from Sealdah to Armenian Ghat via Bowbazar Street, Dalhousie Square and Strand Road. The route was inaugurated by George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon, Viceroy Ripon on 1 November 1880. In 1882, steam locomotives were deployed experimentally to haul tram cars. By the end of the 19th century the company owned 166 tram cars, 1000 horses, seven steam locomotives and 19 miles of tram tracks. In 1900, electrification of the tramway and reconstruction of its tracks to {{RailGauge, ussg (

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

) began. In 1902, the first electric tramcar in India ran from Esplanade to Kidderpore on 27 March and on 14 June from Esplanade to Kalighat. The Bombay Tramway Company was set up in 1873. After a contract was signed between the Bombay Tramway Company, the municipality and the Stearns and Kitteredge company, the Bombay Presidency enacted the Bombay Tramways Act, 1874 licensing the company to run a horsecar tram service in the city. On 9 May 1874 the first horse-drawn carriage made its début in the city, plying the

Colaba Colaba (; or ISO: Kolābā) is a part of the city of Mumbai, India. It is one of the four peninsulas of Mumbai while the other three are Worli, Bandra and Malabar Hill. During Portuguese rule in the 16th century, the island was known as Kolbhat ...

– Pydhone via Crawford Market, and Bori Bunder to Pydhonie via

Kalbadevi Kalbadevi is an old neighbourhood in Mumbai (Bombay), India. It is named after Goddess Kalbadevi, the Hindu Goddess. Kalbadevi area is one of the busiest areas during peak hours. The area has mostly traders in watches, bicycles, steel utensils, e ...

routes. The initial fare was three annas (15 paise pre-decimalisation), and no tickets were issued. As the service became increasingly popular, the fare was reduced to two annas (10 pre-decimalisation paise). Later that year, tickets were issued to curb increasing ticket-less travel. Stearns and Kitteredge reportedly had a stable of 1,360 horses over the lifetime of the service.{{cite book , last1=Aklekar , first1=Rajendra B , title=Halt station India : the dramatic tale of the nation's first rail lines , year=2014 , publisher= Rupa & Co , isbn=9788129134974 , page=193 , access-date=23 April 2019 , url=http://rupapublications.co.in/books/halt-station-india/

United Kingdom

The first tram services in the world were started by the Swansea and Mumbles Railway in Wales, using specially designed carriages on an existing tramline built for horse-drawn freight dandies. Fare-paying passengers were carried on a line between

Oystermouth Oystermouth (a corruption of the Welsh name ''Ystum Llwynarth'' or ''Ystumllwynarth'') is a village (and former electoral ward) in the district of Mumbles, Swansea, Wales. It is part of the Mumbles community (civil parish). Description The wa ...

, Mumbles and Swansea Docks from 1807. The Gloucester and Cheltenham Tramroad (1809) carried passengers although its main purpose was freight. In spite of its early start, it took many years for horse-drawn streetcars to become widely acceptable across Britain; the American

George Francis Train George Francis Train (March 24, 1829 – January 18, 1904) was an American entrepreneur who organized the clipper ship line that sailed around Cape Horn to San Francisco; he also organized the Union Pacific Railroad and the Credit Mobilier in th ...

first introduced them to

Birkenhead Corporation Tramways Birkenhead Corporation Tramways operated a tramway service in Birkenhead between 1901 and 1937. History In 1860, Birkenhead started the first street tramway in Britain, shortly before London. The Birkenhead Corporation Tramway company was fo ...

' predecessor in Birkenhead in 1860 but was jailed for "breaking and injuring" the highway when he next tried to lay the first tram tracks on the roads of London. An 1870 Act of Parliament overcame these legal obstacles by defining responsibilities and for the next three decades many local tramway companies were founded, using horse-drawn carriages, until replaced by cable, steam or electric traction. Many companies adopted a design of a partly enclosed double-decker carriage hauled by two horses. The last horse-drawn tram was retired from London in 1915. Horses continued to be used for light shunting well into the 20th century. The last horse used for shunting on British Railways was retired on 21 February 1967 in

Newmarket, Suffolk Newmarket is a market town and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk, England. Located (14 miles) west of Bury St Edmunds and (14 miles) northeast of Cambridge. It is considered the birthplace and global centre of thoroughbred hor ...

United States

In the United States the very first streetcar appeared in New Orleans in 1832, operated by the Pontchartrain Railroad Company, followed by those in 1832 on the

New York and Harlem Railroad The New York and Harlem Railroad (now the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line) was one of the first railroads in the United States, and was the world's first street railway. Designed by John Stephenson, it was opened in stages between 1832 and ...

in New York City. Middleton, William D. (1967). ''The Time of the Trolley'', pp. 13 and 424. Milwaukee: Kalmbach Publishing. {{ISBN, 0-89024-013-2. The latter cars were designed by John Stephenson of

New Rochelle, New York New Rochelle (; older french: La Nouvelle-Rochelle) is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the southeastern portion of the state. In 2020, the city had a population of 79,726, making it the seventh-largest in the state of ...

, and constructed at his

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...

in New York City. The earliest streetcars used horses and sometimes mules, usually two as a team, to haul the cars. Rarely, other animals were tried, including humans in emergency circumstances. By the mid-1880s, there were 415 street railway companies in the USA operating over {{convert, 6,000, mi, km of track and carrying 188 million passengers per year using horsecars. By 1890 New Yorkers took 297 horsecar rides per capita per year. The average street car horse had a life expectancy of about two years.{{cite magazine , url=http://www.uctc.net/access/30/Access%2030%20-%2002%20-%20Horse%20Power.pdf , title=From Horse Power to Horsepower , publisher=University of California Transportation Center , author=Eric Morris , date=Spring 2007 , magazine=Access , issue=30 , pages=2–9 , location=Berkeley, CA , access-date=2014-02-17 , url-status=dead , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140124204000/http://www.uctc.net/access/30/Access%2030%20-%2002%20-%20Horse%20Power.pdf , archive-date=2014-01-24

Elsewhere

The first horse-drawn rail cars on the

Continental Europe Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous continent of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by ...

were operated from 1828 by the České Budějovice - Linz railway. Europe saw a proliferation of horsecar use for new tram services from the mid-1860s, with many towns building new networks. Tropical plantations (for products such as

henequen Henequen (''Agave fourcroydes'') is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, native to southern Mexico and Guatemala. It is reportedly naturalized in Italy, the Canary Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Hispaniola, the Cayman Islands and ...

and

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguis ...

s) made extensive use of animal-powered trams for both passengers and freight, often employing the Decauville narrow-gauge portable track system. In some cases these systems were very extensive and evolved into interurban tram networks (as in the Yucatan, which sported over {{convert, 3,000, km, mi, sp=us of such lines). Surviving examples may be found in both the Yucatan{{cite web, url=http://www.tramz.com/mx/yu/yu70.html, title=The Tramways of Yucatán - Part 4, author=Allen Morrison, access-date=2008-12-23 and Brazil.{{cite web, url=http://www.tsfr.org/~efbrazil/efs_decauville.html, title=E.F.S. - The Decauville Section, access-date=2008-12-23

Decline

Problems with horsecars included the fact that any given animal could only work so many hours on a given day, had to be housed, groomed, fed and cared for day in and day out, and produced prodigious amounts of manure, which the streetcar company was charged with storing and then disposing. Since a typical horse pulled a streetcar for about a dozen miles ({{convert, 12, mi, km, disp=output only) a day and worked for four or five hours, many systems needed ten or more horses in stable for each horsecar. Horsecars were largely replaced by electric-powered

streetcars A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...

following the invention by Frank J. Sprague of an overhead trolley system on streetcars for collecting electricity from overhead wires. His spring-loaded trolley pole used a wheel to travel along the wire. In late 1887 and early 1888, using his trolley system, Sprague installed the first successful large electric street railway system in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

. Long a transportation obstacle, the hills of Richmond included grades of over 10%, and were an excellent proving ground for acceptance of the new technology in other cities. Within a year, the economy of electric power had replaced more costly horsecars in many cities. By 1889, 110 electric railways incorporating Sprague's equipment had been begun or planned on several continents. Many large metropolitan lines lasted well into the early twentieth century. New York City had a regular horsecar service on the

Bleecker Street Line The Bleecker Street Line was a public transit line in Manhattan, New York City, United States, running mostly along Bleecker Street, Crosby Street, and Lafayette Street from the West 14th Street Ferry in Chelsea to the Fulton Ferry in the Financ ...

until its closure in 1917. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, had its Sarah Street line drawn by horses until 1923. The last regular mule-drawn cars in the US ran in Sulphur Rock, Arkansas, until 1926 and were commemorated by a U.S. postage stamp issued in 1983.{{cite web, url=http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=3727, title=Sulphur Rock Street Car; Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture, access-date=2008-12-23 Toronto's horse-drawn streetcar operations ended in 1891.{{cite book , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cw6yAF4EHCAC , title=From Horse Power to Horsepower: Toronto: 1890-1930 , publisher= Dundurn Press , author=Mike Filey , author-link=Mike Filey , date=1996 , page=74 , isbn=9781554881734 In other countries animal-powered tram services often continued well into the 20th century; the last mule tram service in Mexico City ended in 1932, and a mule tram in

Celaya, Mexico Celaya (; ) is a city and its surrounding municipality in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico, located in the southeast quadrant of the state. It is the third most populous city in the state, with a 2005 census population of 310,413. The municipality ...

, survived until 1954.{{cite web , url=http://www.tramz.com/mx/ce/ce.html, title=The Indomitable Tramways of Celaya, author=Allen Morrison, access-date=2008-12-22

Operational horsecars

A few original horsecar lines have survived or have been revived as tourist attractions, and in recent years several replica horsecar lines have been built. Below is a list of locations around the world with operational horsecars that are open to the public. {, class=wikitable !Location !Image !Coordinates !Address !Country !Track gauge !Year originally built !Notes , - , Ardenwood Historic Farm , , {{Coord, 37.561714, N, 122.042165, W, type:landmark, name=Ardenwood Historic Farm , Fremont, California , {{Flagicon, United States USA , {{TrackGauge, 3ft, lk=on , 1988 , Diesel locomotives also pull passengers on this line and steam locomotives are used during special events. , - ,

Döbeln Tramway The Döbeln Tramway or ''Döbelner Straßenbahn'' is a tramway in the German town of Döbeln. It is the only horse-drawn tram line to operate on its original urban route in Germany, and one of only a handful in the world. The Döbeln Tramway w ...

, {{Coord, 51.119467, N, 13.119690, E, type:landmark, name=Döbeln Tramway , Döbeln, Saxony , {{Flagicon, Germany Germany , {{TrackGauge, 1000mm, allk=on , 1892 , , - ,

Douglas Bay Horse Tramway The Douglas Bay Horse Tramway ( gv, Raad Yiarn Cabbyl Vaie Ghoolish) on the Isle of Man runs along the seafront promenade for approximately , from the southern terminus at the Victoria Pier, adjacent to the Isle of Man Sea Terminal, to Derby Ca ...

, {{Coord, 54.167378, N, 4.460777, W, type:landmark, name=Douglas Bay Horse Tramway ,

Douglas Douglas may refer to: People * Douglas (given name) * Douglas (surname) Animals *Douglas (parrot), macaw that starred as the parrot ''Rosalinda'' in Pippi Longstocking *Douglas the camel, a camel in the Confederate Army in the American Civil W ...

, Middle , {{Flagicon, Isle of Man Isle of Man , {{TrackGauge, 3ft , 1876 , , - , Ghora Tram , , {{Coord, 31.450257, N, 73.563902, E, type:landmark, name=Ghora Tram ,

Ghangha Pur Gangapur is a village near Buchiana mandi in Jaranwala Tehsil in Faisalabad District, Punjab, Pakistan. It is located at 31°27'12N 73°33'57E with an altitude of 193 metres (636 feet) and is part of Union council 39 of Jaranwala with a populatio ...

, Punjab , {{Flagicon, Pakistan Pakistan , {{TrackGauge, 2ft, lk=on , 1898 , , - , {{Interlanguage link multi, 北海道開拓の村, jp, lt=Historical Village of Hokkaido , , {{Coord, 43.044230, N, 141.499428, E, type:landmark, name=Historical Village of Hokkaido , Sapporo, Hokkaido , {{Flagicon, Japan Japan , {{TrackGauge, 2ft6in, lk=on , 1983 , , - , Horse-Drawn Streetcars (Disneyland Park (Paris)) , Disneyland Paryż 2013 (14)

, {{Coord, 48.871276, N, 2.779073, E, type:landmark, name=Horse-Drawn Streetcars (Disneyland Park (Paris)) , Marne-la-Vallée, Île-de-France , {{Flagicon, France France , {{TrackGauge, 3ft , 1992 , Located in Disneyland Paris. , - , {{Interlanguage link multi, 小岩井農場, jp, lt=Koiwai Farm , , {{Coord, 39.753788, N, 141.020163, E, type:landmark, name=Koiwai Farm ,

Shizukuishi is a town located in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 16,263 in 6354 households, and a population density of 27 persons per km². The total area of the town is . Geography Shizukuishi is located in the Ōu Mou ...

, Iwate , {{Flagicon, Japan Japan , {{TrackGauge, 3ft , 1904 , , - , Main Street Vehicles (Disneyland) , Disneyland-HorseDrawnStreetcar

, {{Coord, 33.810506, N, 117.919564, W, type:landmark, name=Main Street Vehicles (Disneyland) ,

Anaheim Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most p ...

, California , {{Flagicon, USA USA , {{TrackGauge, 3ft , 1955 , Located in the Disneyland Resort. , - , Main Street Vehicles (Magic Kingdom) , Horse trolley Main street Circle Magic Kingdom Walt Disney World

Horse trolley Main street Circle Magic Kingdom Walt Disney World

, {{Coord, 28.417105, N, 81.581644, W, type:landmark, name=Main Street Vehicles (Magic Kingdom) , Bay Lake, Florida , {{Flagicon, USA USA , {{TrackGauge, 3ft , 1971 , Located in Walt Disney World. , - , {{Interlanguage link multi, Pferdeeisenbahn Budweis–Linz–Gmunden#Pferdeeisenbahn-Wanderweg, de, lt=Pferdeeisenbahn (Kerschbaum) , Austrian horse railway1

, {{Coord, 48.584936, N, 14.470366, E, type:landmark, name=Pferdeeisenbahn (Kerschbaum) , Rainbach im Mühlkreis, Upper Austria , {{Flagicon, Austria Austria , {{TrackGauge, 1106mm, lk=on , 1828 , Reconstructed portion of the Budweis- Linz-

Gmunden Gmunden () is a town in Upper Austria, Austria in the district of Gmunden (district), Gmunden. It has 13,204 inhabitants (estimates 2016 ). It is much frequented as a health and summer resort, and has a variety of lake, brine, vegetable and pine-c ...

Horse Railway, the first railway line in

to carry passengers. , - , {{Interlanguage link multi, Spiekerooger Inselbahn, de , Spiekeroog-Museumspferdebahn 2

, {{Coord, 53.769413, N, 7.689123, E, type:landmark, name=Spiekerooger Inselbahn ,

Spiekeroog Spiekeroog is one of the East Frisian Islands, off the North Sea coast of Germany. It is situated between Langeoog to its west, and Wangerooge to its east. The island belongs to the district of Wittmund, in Lower Saxony in Germany. The only vi ...

, Lower Saxony , {{Flagicon, Germany Germany , {{TrackGauge, 1000mm, al=on , 1885 , , - , Victor Harbor Horse Drawn Tram , 20040610 Victor Harbor Tramway

, {{Coord, 35.556095, S, 138.624294, E, type:landmark, name=Victor Harbor Horse Drawn Tram , Victor Harbor, South Australia , {{Flagicon, Australia Australia , {{TrackGauge, 5ft3in, lk=on , 1864 , {{Cite web, title=Victor Harbor Horse Drawn Tram – official website, url=http://horsedrawntram.com.au/, publisher=Victor Harbor Horse Drawn Tram, access-date=August 26, 2016 {{Clear right

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

The oldest surviving horse drawn tramway operating in Douglas on the Isle of Man
{{Commons category, Horse-drawn trams
Colombia's horsecar history and restoration process
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180630164628/http://www.tranviadebogota.com/ , date=2018-06-30
Pennsylvania Trolley Museum
* ttp://www.transitgloriamundi.com/trolley_videos/trolley/narration.html ''Trolleys: The Cars That Built Our Cities'' by Transit Gloria Mundi{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210211022018/http://www.transitgloriamundi.com/trolley_videos/trolley/narration.html , date=2021-02-11 {{Public transport {{Authority control Horse transportation