Our postcard from an unknown publisher was produced in around 1910, our copy being used in 1917. It shows Tramways du Toulon tram 41 and a trailer in Rue Hoche, La Seyne-sur-Mer. This district is to the south-west of the city and had a harbour used for ship building and also some nice beaches.
Toulon is a city and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base, in the Var department which is in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of France. A concession for a standard gauge horse tramway was granted to Belgian Arthur Rénier on 23rd November 1885 and the first line opened in July the following year. A second route followed in 1890 and in 1895 the tramway passed to the Société des Tramways du Var et du Gard (STVG), who also ran the tramways in Nimes. They electrified the existing tramway in 1897. New routes were added and by 1927 there were 67 km of track with 9 routes, mainly radiating from Place Noël Blache, and were operated by 66 trams and 100 trailers. Apart from the town itself, the trams served seaside areas at La Seyne-sur-Mer as in our card, Les Sablettes which was the terminus of this same route and also on a route from the railway station to Le Mourillon with beaches at Mourillon and Sainte-Hélène, a district now known as the Lido
Car 41 in our postcard view was one of the original 30 trams of 1897, which were numbered 1-59. Note Toulon motor trams took odd numbers, trailer cars, mostly open cross-bench cars, had even numbers. The trams could pull one or two trailers. These first cars were supplied by the German company, Schuckert, who also supplied much of the equipment of the tramway installation. They each had two 40hp motors, originally an induction design from Schuckert but replaced in 1901 by conventional motors from General Electric or Thomson-Houston. The livery was yellow.
Toulon received considerable aerial bombardment during WWII, targeted at the harbour installations being used by the Germans, but also destroying much of the tramway. Post-war most was reinstated but since the rolling stock was worn out it was decided from 1950 to replace the trams, mostly by trolleybuses. The last tram ran on 15th April 1955. In their turn the trolleybuses were replaced by motor buses in 1973.
Tramway Information Homepage