Edinburgh has a smart fleet of quiet, comfortable, modern trams but these are just the latest incarnation of trams going back to the 1870s. They first appeared in 1871 and were horse-drawn. The horses were replaced in 1888 by an underground cable system which ran continuously in a conduit beneath the street. The tram driver controlled a device which would grip and release the cable, making it go or stop. Finally, overhead electric wires were installed in the 1920s, only for the whole network to be scrapped in the 50s. This photograph shows a cable-powered tram, so probably dates form the 1890s.

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