N tram – car interior

About the sound

Sounds accompanying the ride of a passenger in the electric car of type N tram. The recording was realized during the ride from Podgórze tram depot to the Museum of Municipal Engineering in Cracow in regular traffic.

No 26 tramcar was manufactured in Konstal steel structures factory in Chorzów (Poland) in 1949. Type N cars were the first trams purchased for the city of Cracow after WW2.
The structure of type N tramcars was based on the design of German Kriegsstraßenbahnwagen (KSW) – “wartime” tram with simplified structure, adapted to wartime conditions in terms of its manufacture and use. The cars were supplied from Konstal steel structures factory in Chorzów, Tramcars Factory in Sanok as well as Northern Shipyard in Gdańsk. Their main advantage was constituted by big passenger capacity. The tram of this type could accommodate up to 80 passengers at a time, including 16 seats. It was also possible to form three-car vehicles consisting of a power car and two trailers. They were, however, treated as an interim solution and were supposed to be replaced with modern high-speed trams. Due to delays in works and in subsequent supplies of vehicles of this type together with economic crisis lasting in Poland since the second half of the 1970s, type N and type ND cars together with their updated versions 4N and 4ND were in operation in Cracow as late as until the year 1988.
The recorded tramcar No 26 underwent renovation in the 1990s and is at present included in the collection of historical tram rolling stock of Cracow Municipal Transport Company (MPK). The tram is exhibited in the Museum of Municipal Engineering in Cracow.

Sound recordist: Michał Fojcik
Photographer: Iwo Wachowicz