Today in Sasha's history.
Author: Sasha
This article was originally written by Sasha and is not allowed to be reproduced by any media
Why was trolleybuses popular in China decades ago?April 29, 1882: German inventor Werner von Siemens made his first public presentation of the world's first trolleybus in Berlin.
This winter, Sasha went to Beijing to live in an old hutong, and when he went to the street, he saw the trolleybus dragging the whip again, and felt very kind.
When I was a child, there were many of these trolleybuses on the streets of Nanjing, but they were not seen after 2000.
Today, let's talk about the history of trolleybuses.
On April 29, 1882, Siemens invented the trolleybus. At the time, this thing was an epoch-making product.
At that time, automobiles were not widely used in Europe, and a large number of horse-drawn carriages were still used as a means of transportation in cities.
The carriage is a means of animal transportation, with small carrying capacity, slow speed, troublesome operation, low cost performance and high danger.
What you may not know is that horses are very timid animals, and even after repeated training, they can be frightened by a wild cat that suddenly crosses the road, running and even jumping, causing the carriage to overturn.
In the movie "True Lies," a terrorist leader can drive a motorcycle and jump from one building to another, but the governor won't do that on a horse! The horse is too timid to take the risk of jumping off a building.
Moreover, the horse-drawn carriage is too cost-effective. Even if horse breeding is placed today, it is not something that ordinary people can do. Horses are expensive and need to be fed with good feed.
According to the data of the agricultural situation in North China in the last century, the main forage for horse mules in North China is corn leaves, and the annual demand for a horse is about 3,650 catties, that is, 10 catties per day. Horses are not ruminant animals, so they should be fed several times a day, otherwise they will lose their meat.
Let me ask you, where did you get the 10 pounds of corn leaves that you feed several times a day? That's a lot of money.
The ancients saw this very thoroughly: "There are more than 48,000 hectares of grassland in Majian, and now at the rate of 50,000 horses, one horse covers an area of 50 acres." ”
In other words, a horse needs 50 acres of horse farm grass to feed it a year, which is not a joke, how can ordinary people afford it.
Contrary to what we think, horses are relatively delicate animals, and they are more susceptible to illness and death.
In ancient times, Raozhou "had 562 horses, and 5 out of 300 were killed, and 7 out of 20 were made of horses." See, 315 of the 562 horses that were raised died in the end, and 12 foals survived to adulthood.
It's definitely not that Chinese horses are more squeamish, it's the same with horses all over the world.
In the novel "The Count of Monte Cristo", Chateau-Renaud replied: "But there is one thing I remember very well, that I was not willing to let this talent be lost, and I was eager to try my newfound pistol on the Arabs." So I sailed to Oran, and from there to Constantinople, and when I got there, I happened to catch up and see the siege relieved. So I withdrew with them. For forty-eight hours, rain during the day and freezing at night, and I survived, but on the morning of the third day my horse froze to death. Poor thing! Accustomed to the bedding and the kang in the stable, the Arabian horse found that he could not stand the -10 degrees Celsius cold in Arabia. I retreated on foot because the horse was dead. ”
Therefore, the cost of raising horses is very high, "History of the Song Dynasty" records: Yuanfeng three years of spring, at the request of Wang Gongchen, Zhao Kaifeng Fujie, Beijing, Beijing, Hebei, Shaanxi, Hedong Luzhou County households each count the assets of the city horse, Fang Guo family property and 3,000 yuan, the countryside 5,000 yuan, if Fang Guo village pass and more than 3,000 yuan, each raise a horse, and the doubling of the horse is the same.
That is to say, the property of people in the city reaches 3,000 yuan, and the people in the countryside reach 5,000 yuan, so they can afford to raise horses.
What kind of concept is this? Li Xinchuan of the Southern Song Dynasty recorded in the "Records of the Years Since the Establishment of Yan" that the Empress Dowager Meng at the turn of the two Song Dynasty was "frugal in nature, and she has a day to provide for a thousand things." In other words, Empress Dowager Meng and her maids and eunuchs spend 1,000 yuan a day, consuming the living expenses of an ordinary person for more than 80 years.
Where did the common people of the Southern Song Dynasty live to be over 80 years old, which is equivalent to a thousand guan can feed two ordinary people for a lifetime. Then the countryside needs 5,000 yuan of family property to buy a horse, which is equivalent to the money to feed 10 ordinary people for a lifetime in order to maintain a horse. It seems that this horse is equivalent to today's top luxury car.
In short, horse-drawn carriages should be eliminated.
Here we have to mention the rickshaw.
Many friends can't understand why a large number of rickshaws appeared in Chinese cities at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China.
In our opinion, a rickshaw needs to be pulled by a driver, and the speed cannot be fast, it is only 5 to 8 kilometers per hour.
Who would ride such a slow car?
This is the city that everyone does not know very well, that era.
During the Ming and Qing dynasties, almost all Chinese cities had walls, which also determined that the city area could not be very large.
Taking Nanjing as an example, the Nanjing city wall can be called one of the best in the country, but the 35-kilometer city wall of Nanjing in the Ming Dynasty enclosed only 50 square kilometers, which is equivalent to 7 kilometers of length and width.
This is not to say that the city walls are densely populated areas, at most only two-thirds are still inhabited, and one-third of the areas are also barren mountains and wastelands.
In ancient times, when the citizens of Nanjing went to do things, it was impossible to run from one end of the city to the other. Running three or four kilometers in a densely populated place is considered a long distance.
In other words, the rickshaw driver pulls up the guests and runs for twenty or thirty minutes to basically get to the place.
This is still the dignified capital of the Ming Dynasty, Nanjing, and other cities are even smaller.
The dignified and prosperous city of Suzhou is only 14 square kilometers in size within the city walls of the Ming Dynasty. Although the city is basically full of people, after all, the area is too small, with an average length and width of less than 4 kilometers.
You know, Suzhou City is not small. In addition to Nanjing, there are only 5 cities in the country with an area of more than 10 square kilometers in the Ming Dynasty (35 square kilometers), Kaifeng (13 square kilometers), Hangzhou (13 square kilometers), Xi'an (12 square kilometers), and Chengdu (12 square kilometers).
There are some of today's names, which in ancient times were very small in area. For example, Luoyang is only 2 square kilometers, Changsha is 4 square kilometers, Jinan and Guangzhou are 5 square kilometers, and Wuchang is 6 square kilometers.
All of the above are considered large cities, so medium-sized cities are even smaller.
By today's standards, these medium-sized cities are one large residential complex. Walking from the east gate to the west gate, it is only a little more than 1 kilometer, and it feels too much to use a rickshaw.
Someone is going to ask, since it's not far away, why don't you go by yourself?
The vast majority of citizens, including the middle class in the Ming and Qing dynasties, walked on their own, but the wealthy still chose to ride in a car, a sedan chair or a horse.
This is mainly due to the fact that the walking speed is too slow after all.
Today, a taxi starts at a price of 3 kilometers, and ordinary people have to walk for almost 1 hour, and it takes a long time to walk back and forth.
Moreover, in those days, the streets were not very clean, there was a lot of garbage and dirt, and open defecation was not uncommon.
In "Dream of Red Mansions", the beautiful maids in Jiafu often untied their skirts and urinated in the garden.
Wealthy people who don't want to step on dirt while walking will naturally choose to take a car.
With the advent of tricycles, rickshaws were eliminated. In mainland China, around 2000, there were still a lot of tricycles on the streets.
Far from it.
In those days, there were very few cars in society, let alone buses!
On July 10, 1901, the world's first passenger-carrying trolleybus system was put into operation in Germany. It uses a device consisting of two overhead parallel contact lines and a pair of spring-supported receiving poles to form the basis of a modern trolleybus current receiving system.
At that time, this trolleybus was very advanced, it was simply a science fiction product.
The vehicle doesn't need an engine at all, it just needs electricity.
It is especially important that this is a trolleybus and not a tram, which does not require rails on the ground, is more cost-effective, and does not disrupt the city's transportation network.
Before 1914, the British Shanghai Tramway Company opened a tram line. From 1914 onwards, trams appeared in Shanghai. The first trolleybus line (No. 14) was opened on November 15, 1914, from Yan'an Road, Fujian Road to Zhengjiamuqiao, 1.1 kilometers away, and in 1915, the line was added to run along Pei Road (now Beijing East Road).
This is a new thing, and 200,000 Shanghainese have rushed to ride in the first two weeks of operation. In 1924, with the approval of the city council, the trolleybus system underwent a major expansion. The network was soon expanded from 3.5 km (2.2 mi) to 33.0 km (20.5 mi), which led to the purchase of an additional 100 new trolleybuses. In 1985, although trolleybus vehicles accounted for only about 20 per cent of buses (the rest were diesel), the use of trolleybus systems accounted for more than 40 per cent of the total number of passengers in the bus system, with a total of 19 trolleybus routes and 860 articulated trams in operation.
Although Nanjing is the capital of the Nationalist Government, its transportation development is much worse than Shanghai's.
It was not until 1924 that buses appeared in Nanjing.
Nanjing is a thousand-year-old city and does not have a modern urban plan.
At that time, the streets of Nanjing were so poor that the speed of the vehicles was not only very slow, only slightly faster than walking, but also very bumpy, and even young people were prone to vomiting.
It was not until 1928 that Nanjing's public transport began to develop greatly. Businessman Zhao Yushuo founded the Guanmiao Automobile Company, drove the Confucius Temple to the Xiaguan Riverside line, and did not adopt the practice of selling tickets at the station in terms of operation and management, and set up a conductor to sell tickets with the train for the first time. Soon after it opened, due to the government agencies borrowing cars at will, the military and police did not buy tickets for the car, and the losses were too huge, and the business was closed after only five months.
In January 1929, Zhao Yushuo re-established Zhenyu Automobile Company, recruiting more than 20 female conductors, creating a precedent for buses to recruit female workers. Due to the nuisance of the military and police, the business was closed in December.
With the establishment of the Nationalist Government as the capital of Nanjing, everything has improved, and Nanjing's indoor transportation has developed rapidly. Before the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War in 1937, there were more than 300 buses of Jiangnan Company alone, more than 1,000 employees, and the number of routes was increased to 8.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the capital was moved to Beijing, and the construction of transportation in Nanjing came to a halt for a time.
Throughout the 50s, Nanjing's buses were very bad, all of which were all kinds of dilapidated cars left over from the Republic of China.
Since 1958, Nanjing has replaced new domestic Jiefang brand buses. Even so, it was not until 1974 that Nanjing completely eliminated all foreign old cars of various brands and used all domestic cars.
In the 60s, the citizens of Nanjing felt that the traffic was inconvenient, there were too few buses and too few routes.
At this time, Nanjing's population had soared to more than 3 million, and the urban population exceeded 1 million. With so many people, it is definitely not possible to rely on this bus.
Every commuting time, Nanjing's buses are crowded, and 60 or even 80 people can be squeezed in for 40 people. Even strong men have to do their best to squeeze up and down, and the old and infirm can't ride at all.
In this situation, Nanjing decided to develop transportation. In addition to increasing the number of buses, we are also considering learning from the electrification of the Soviet big brother and starting to build new trolleybuses.
In 1960, Nanjing officially built trolleybuses, with an investment of 6.3835 million yuan. Aerial power grids began to be erected on the streets of Nanjing, and soon trolleybuses with two large pigtails appeared on the streets.
These trolleybuses must be connected to the grid by means of braids, which are used to generate electricity. The advantages and disadvantages of this design are outstanding.
The advantage is that trolleybuses do not need to burn gasoline and diesel, there is no pollution, and there is little noise. In those days, gasoline and diesel were rationed by the state, which was quite precious. At the end of 1965, China's crude oil production reached 11.31 million tons, achieving complete self-sufficiency in crude oil and petroleum products for domestic consumption.
Even if self-sufficiency in petroleum products was achieved by 1965, this was based on the low domestic use of gasoline.
Even the automobile soldiers of the People's Liberation Army have to find ways to save fuel. At that time, some comrades-in-arms in the army were dissatisfied with Lei Feng, that is, they thought that his driving skills were not good, and he wasted a lot of gasoline, which did not meet the requirements of the army at that time.
Similarly, oil depots everywhere are like secret bases, and not only are idlers not allowed to enter, but even if they do not have a pass, they cannot enter casually.
Among the three best-preserved Ming Dynasty city gates in Nanjing, there is one Shence Gate. The reason why Shence Gate is well preserved is mainly that it is located in the oil base of the Nanjing Military Region.
At that time, no one was allowed to approach this oil depot casually, otherwise it would really be killed, so no Red Guards rushed here to destroy the four olds.
The disadvantages of the trolleybus are equally obvious, firstly, it cannot leave the tracks in the air and can only travel along a fixed line. Naturally, for buses, this is not a big problem, they already have fixed routes.
The point is that if there is a large deviation from the road surface during driving, the two braids of the train will fall off and the car will lose power. The driver must get out of the car and put the braid back on before he can continue driving, causing the vehicle to be interrupted;
Second, it is limited by the track of the air power grid, and cannot travel at a very fast speed, but can only drive slowly;
Thirdly, due to the restrictions of the tracks, the tram cannot leave the street significantly. For example, if the tram finds that there is a vehicle in front of it and blocked the middle side of the road, you can put it on the steering wheel today and bypass it. However, trams are restricted by the tracks, which cannot be bypassed, but instead increase the congestion on the streets. Even if there is no car accident, as long as there is a congestion on the street, the traffic congestion will be aggravated by the trams that cannot be detoured, and it is also known as the killer of urban traffic.
Even so, there was no better choice for the citizens of those days.
In January 1960, the Nanjing Trolleybus Preparatory Committee was established.
On August 1, Nanjing's first-ever trolleybus cut the ribbon and ran from Xinjiekou to Shanxi Road. In 1961, tram No. 32 from Zhonghuamen Railway Station to Nanjing West Railway Station began to be officially operated. In the same year, tram No. 33 from Zhonghuamen Railway Station to Central Gate was opened. In 1968, after the completion of Nanjing Railway Station, No. 33 was extended to Nanjing Station.
In 1962, tram No. 31 from Jiankang Road to Xiaguan Wharf was also completed and opened.
Due to the urban construction in the north of the city and the development of industrial and mining enterprises outside the central gate, in order to meet the needs of traffic north of Xinjiekou, the 35 tram from Xinjiekou to the central gate has been added. Actually, No. 35 is a shuttle bus from No. 33. In order to solve the rush hour passenger transportation, during the morning and evening rush hours, the 33 shuttle bus from Zhonghua Gate to Central Gate is added.
Ordinary people at that time recalled: After the Nanjing tram was completed and put into operation in 1960, I was in the fourth grade of primary school, and I listened to my classmates talk about the experience of taking the tram, and I was eager to take the tram, but I never had the opportunity to take the tram because of lack of money. It wasn't until 1962 that I went with my family to visit relatives outside the central gate, and it was the first time I took Tram No. 33 from south to north, and the conductor sold tickets and charged 1 jiao 5 cents, with the lowest starting price of 5 cents. I squeezed to the front to look at the driver, and saw the wide cockpit, the "stepless speeding" without protruding engine positions and the "stepless speed regulation" without gear shifting was indeed very smooth, unlike a bus. I am particularly envious of the employees who "run the monthly pass", the unit buys a cardboard monthly pass for the employee every month, and after getting on the tram, he takes out the monthly pass and shouts "monthly pass", so there is no need to play the ticket again.
In 1975, a more advanced ND-661 articulated tram appeared on the streets of Nanjing. Because the front and rear carriages can accommodate about 140 people, it is called the "big passage" by passengers.
This articulated tram is not very suitable for the narrower streets of Nanjing.
In the eyes of bus drivers back then, there were several tiger entrances when driving an articulated tram, and most of them required you to make a sharp turn. If you are not careful, you may hit other vehicles or pedestrians, so you need to drive carefully. At the same time, because the vehicles are similar to today's trailer trucks, the travel speed is also very slow, and the passengers are often anxious.
The common people recalled: In my memory, the shape of trolleybuses, in addition to the common single car with two doors, there is also a considerable part of the large passage car, that is, the two carriages are connected into one, with three doors and two attendants. Unlike a car, the front of the tram does not have a "shutter" vent for the car engine, but a flat surface, and even if there is a "shutter", it is an ornament. There are two seats in two rows of seats in the trains, and most of the passengers on the train have seats. Trolleybuses are very quiet. I remember that at that time, the train fare was almost the same as the bus fare, and according to the distance of the road, it was divided into three charging grades: 5 cents, 1 jiao, and 1 jiao 5 cents, and the price almost never increased in the more than 20 years from the 60s to the 80s of the last century. The "Tram Marriage" of Female DriversIn my memory, female drivers and attendants on trolleybuses are the majority.
On August 1, 1960, the first tram No. 001 to drive onto the streets in Nanjing, there were beautiful female drivers and attendants involved in passenger transportation. Knowledgeable citizens have commented: This may be because driving a tram is easier than driving a car, so there are more lesbians, of course, this is just speculation by ordinary people. There are many female drivers and female attendants, which attracts some single young workers who love to take the tram, especially some young workers who "run monthly passes", and go to the tram to play on Sundays, anyway, they don't have to pay for tickets out of their own pockets. Over the years, there have been many cases where young workers fall in love with female train drivers and female flight attendants and end up marrying. Some "bizarre" marriages have been circulating among the people.
By the 90s, the era of the Nanjing trolleybus had passed. With the development of the city, this slow tram is no longer sufficient. At its peak, there were 4 bus lines with a total of more than 100 vehicles, but since 1995, Nanjing has implemented "electricity to oil", eliminating trams and replacing them with cars.
At that time, the performance of buses produced at home and abroad had already greatly surpassed that of trolleybuses. Moreover, these aerial tram tracks are also a big obstacle to the future expansion of the city.
In 1996, Nanjing dismantled all tram lines and cancelled tram operations, and since then buses and trams have faded out of history.
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