Birthday of the Tram

The birthday of the tram in our city is celebrated in autumn. Every time it's a bit of a lottery - the autumn weather is very varied and poorly predictable. A fine autumn rain can charge the whole weekend. A sunny day can be cold and windy - the autumn wind can easily get under light autumn jackets. A grey rainy morning can change to warm sunny weather - or vice versa. But this time we were lucky with the weather, the day was quite warm, sunny, and not too windy. The public dressed for the walk on this day very differently: someone came in a down jacket, someone in a light windbreaker, someone in shorts and a shirt.

The city's main event on Tram Birthday is a ceremonial parade of trams through the city centre. Trams start their parade on Vasilievsky Island, at the Museum of Transport. They drive along Vasilievsky Island and Petrogradsky Island, cross the Neva River on the Troitsky Bridge, turn near the Summer Garden, pass the circus, cross the main avenue of our city - Nevsky Prospekt, reach Bell Street and turn round to go in the opposite direction. It is clear from the mere listing of these names that the route passes through very picturesque places. That's why the tram parade never gets boring, because every year you can meet it in a new place.

Some enthusiasts come early in the morning to the Museum of Urban Transport to take seats inside the trams. But I prefer to look at old trams against the backdrop of city streets, so I meet trams on their route. This time I chose a spot near the furthest point of the route - I reasoned that in this case I would be able to see trams going in both directions, back and forth. The trams turned from Vladimirsky Prospekt to Bell Street and then made a U-turn on Marata Street near the Arctic and Antarctic Museum. The museum is a yellow building with white columns, with spectators standing on the porch.

The section of the tram line along Bell Street is not usually used now, it is a duplicate branch line, trams run along it only when the main tram tracks are repaired. But the turning section on Marata Street serves as a passage for several city tram routes, and modern trams were also spotted on this section between the old tram cars. The driver of the old tram had to get out of the cab and manually move the tram arrow to get back on the duplicate track. The other tram arrows were automatic.

The trams were running slowly on the duplicate branch, and I had enough time to walk along the street for a while and photograph the trams from different angles. That's why not only trams themselves, but also street panoramas, historical buildings and city sights got into the frame. The profitable house of St. Nicholas Uniform Church (this building is to the left of the Museum of Arctic and Antarctic) stands out especially. In the round window on the roof you can see the dial of the ancient clock. The mascarons on the facade nonchalantly observe the city life.