Tramway

Moving through the day, you don't drive or hail a cab but step into a tiny compartment that takes you on a nice little tour. A tour you've seen a thousand times except a little different every day as you stare out the window wondering where people are going and what they will be doing with their time. The chance to ponder this place you call home while on your way to work would never happen if you were stuck on the freeway, honking and screaming at the car in front of you. Enjoy this respite from the drudgery of traffic and bless the world for its municipal moving systems. The terms tram and tramway were originally (ca. 1500) Scottish words for the type of truck used in coal mines and the tracks on which they ran, probably derived from Middle Flemish tram "beam, handle of a barrow, bar, rung", a North Sea Germanic word of unknown origin meaning the beam or shaft of a barrow or sledge, also the barrow itself. Tram-car is attested from 1873. Most trams today use electrical power, usually fed by a pantograph; in some cases by a third rail or trolley pole. If necessary, they may have several power systems. Certain types of cable car are also known as trams. Another power source is diesel; a few trams use electricity in the streets and diesel in more rural environments. Also steam and petrol (gasoline) have been used. Horse and mule driven trams do still occur. This sound uses the following file from Freesound: http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=113695