On December 15th MPK Lodz and the tram club KMST celebrated the 115th birthday of public transport with a parade of trams.
9 trams representing the varied fleet of historic vehicles that MPK, KMST and also privat individual Tomasz Adamkiewicz own ran from Polnocna loop to KINO CHARLIE in Piotrkowska street. Various photo stops on the way and a huge crowd made this a memorable event. Your webmaster specially wanted to ride the two Lilpop cars that MPK owns. These both do not have a track brake and thus no passengers are allowed to ride them anymore (well, I managed to get myself invited onto one of them…). KMST owned 803N tram TP no.2 made its first public run that day. In the afternoon Sanok no. 17 and 803N no.2 took many people from Piotrowska to the new Brus museum (ex TP depot). This museum is still not officially open and there are big plans to convert it into a modern transport museum (with mainly airplanes and trams). Grilled sausages were served and a bonfire kept the public warm. KMST plans to make the 803N tram available for charters and your webmaster will probably take up the offer later in 2014.
Here are some views taken during the event:
We start with PÓŁNOCNA loop, the old interurban terminal just north of downtown (these days it is only used when there is track work going on somewhere and trams need another terminal – the building is a listed monument but is not at all restored). Regular trams used the terminus on this day as well because Telefoniczna depot was not accessible for a few hours due to the reconstruction of a road bridge near the depot.
The first photo stop was at ŻABIENIEC loop:
Plac Wolności:
