Tram nel mondo

Ciao a tutti

Scrivero questo post in inglese perche ci sono molti detagli che voglio dire, e non posso esprimere bene tutto in Italiano, scusate mi prego...

The vehicle shown io the picture of Blinky was the latest type of vehicles delivered to the old tramway company of Athens (called H.E.M. - Electric Company of Transports). The old tramway network of Athens, all of metric gauge, had before the delivery of these boggie fitted trams, only 2 axle units, either of Belgian origin (Thomson-Houston) or British (Dick Kerr). The vehicles in question, were constructed by OM-Breda with electrical equipment by CGE and started service in the Athenian network in the spring of 1940. They were extremely modern and had a big resemblance with Milan's type 5000 trams. The total number of them was 60, they were fitted with smooth electropneumatic accelaration system and the possibility to run in multiple units (up to 2 units). All of them were bidirectional (the network did not have reversing loops)they had two trolley poles and in the beggining they had 2 doors on each side (middle and front). Inside they had leather seats, the back of which could be turned so that it matches with the direction of the vehicle. They were painted in yellow although all the other 2 axle trams had a dark green livery, so they were commoly called "the yellow trams".

The foto of Blinky shows the vehicle in the tramway depot of Kallithea (demolished after the end of tram service sometime in the mid '60s), where all vehicles of this type were kept. This depot was heavily bombed in 1943 and 27 vehicles of this type where partialy or entirely damaged. They were repaired after the war and all the vehicles were fitted with a third door at the extreme part of each side. After the end of tram service in Athens in 1961 all the tram vehicles (including the yellow) were scrapped and no example of them was saved... such a pitty.

Very few fotos of these trams can be found, so if any member of the forum has any other, please contact with me as I try to collect as many as possible.

Here are two of my archive:
the first was taken by a German tram enthousiast Alfred Luft in the end of 1960, the very last days of service, when only yellow trams were circulating in part of the last line no 11.

The second one in colour (extremely rare to find colour pics of the trams) was taken by Hugh Ballment in 1959 in the end of line 11:



Sorry if the size of the pictures is bigger than allowed but the quality of them if I resize them will be very poor. If moderators find it is trouble please adjust them accordingly...