Peter Waller epub Waller, P: German Trams in Colour 1955-1975

It was in Germany that some of the earliest pioneering efforts to operate electric tramways occurred, with the Lichterfelde line in Berlin dating back to 1881. From these small beginnings the tramcar as elsewhere in Europe came to be the dominant form of urban transport in many German towns and cities during the early decades of the 20th century. The devastation wrought by World War II saw many systems seriously damaged or destroyed but, unlike in Britain and France, many of the surviving German systems were rebuilt and restored with new vehicles replacing the old. Drawing upon the extensive collections held by the Online Transport Archive, the vast bulk of which have never been previously published, this is a colourful exploration of the many tramway systems, both in the West and East, that operated in the period. Incorporating some 220 images, the book recalls the great variety of German tramcar that operated during this period and how tramcar development varied in the East and in the West. Alongside the trams, the streetscapes portrayed record two nations following very different paths in transition following the traumas of defeat in 1945.