Saturday 29 October 2011

Horse drawn trams in Belfast

The Sepia Saturday prompt this week is an omnibus, a passenger carrying road vehicle.  The first ones, dating from 1820, were horse drawn.

Horse drawn trams were later adopted because the wheels rolled more easily along the rails, so horses could pull heavier loads (= more passengers) and could get to their destinations slightly more quickly.  the ones in these cards used to run on the streets of Belfast in Northern Ireland.

Royal Avenue, Belfast

Castle Place, Belfast

The Belfast Street Tramways Company first operated horse drawn trams in 1870 until they were bought out by Belfast Corportation in 1905.  During that year they were electrified so the pictures must date from before then.

The cards themselves probably date from about 1902, I would say.  They do have divided backs but there is space on the front left for messages and it looks as though the "Write Here for Inland Postage only" has been added later.



Enhanced by Zemanta

11 comments:

  1. There are people all over the street. I'm glad we have corner crossings now, though I do sometimes cross in the middle when I can get away with it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Streets I recognise from my one and only vist to Belfast. Wouldn't it be fun to have the horsedrawn trams back again? Alas life's to fast for that.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Those double-deck trams seem like they would be a heavy load for a horse or even two. I love imagining the clip-clop sound of horses pulling the cars.

    ReplyDelete
  4. We have come a long way very quickly

    ReplyDelete
  5. The photos seem to have been taken from an interesting vantage point, and don’t they make the street look huge and busy?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nice cards...I love these old fashioned ones.

    ReplyDelete
  7. These are wonderful cards that show just how chaotic the streets were back then. We never walk in the streets - except for suburban neighborhoods with no sidewalks!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Very similar to the horse-drawn trams they used in Derby at this time. Nice postcards - thanks for sharing the images.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Lovely old cards : and, like Bob, I recognise some of the streets from recent visits to Belfast.

    ReplyDelete
  10. They Should Bring Them Back For The Tourists!

    ReplyDelete
  11. splendid cards and I did admire the scenery as well. I wonder how this district now fares nowaday...
    :/~
    HUGZ

    ReplyDelete

Welcome to my postcard collection! I love hearing what you think of the cards - but spam WILL be deleted.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...