Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: T1

This is maybe my first good color shot of this tram, #5002, which is the best-preserved Tatra T1 in Prague. It was also the second T1 produced, after DPP #5001. It's also the one that runs well enough to be used for charters, special occasions, and sometimes historical tram service #91, although that's a rare occurance. Normally, it only works service #91 on November 17th, the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. The Tatra T1 is a Communist-era design, being the first tram design used in Prague with two modern four-wheel bogies, as opposed to having four wheels suspended directly from the frame. Introduced in 1952 and produced until 1958, these trams were based on the famous American PCC cars of the 1930's, although the subsequent T2 class (produced 1955-1958) looks visually more like a PCC.

Here's more of a closeup shot of #5002. The commotion over to the left is in an arcade of sorts which contains the memorial to November 17th and the Velvet Revolution. The Velvet Revolution was a gradual process, of course, and it didn't begin or end on November 17th, 1989, but in Prague November 17th was when students held a demonstration on roughly this spot, which the police broke up with violence. At the time a death was reported, which rumour subsequently escalated, in the public perception, into a "massacre," which resulted in weeks of demonstrations, which may have involved as many as 500,000 people. The irony is that the rumor of the dead student was disseminated by the StB, the Communist secret police. A five-hour general strike on November 27th may have involved more, however, as the population of Czechoslovakia at that time was in excess of 15 million. On the 28th, the Communist government, rather than carrying out a real massacre on the model of Tianamen Square, instead decided to announce their resignation, which took effect on December 10th. The interim government shared power between Communists and non-Communists until an election could be called in June of 1990. An interesting side note was that this interim government included Alexander Dubcek, the former Communist president who provoked the 1968 Soviet invasion with his liberal policies. The 1990 election resulted in Vaclav Havel, a playwright and founding member of Carta 77 (the most prominent organization to oppose the Communist regime), being elected the new president.

#608 was mentioned earlier, it being a trailer in the 297/638/608 set. #5001, however, is much more interesting. Starting in 1951, DPP began replacing their old (mostly) CKD four-wheel trams with Tatra eight-wheel trams, the most numerous being the T3. The T3, however, wasn't introduced until 1960, so really I'm being misleading. The first of the breed was the T1, pictured here. I'm not aware of whether 5001 was the first, but it's the oldest surviving T1 in DPP's fleet. #5002 is sometimes used on service 91, and I have at least one photo of it on Flickr.