An intriguing collection of photographs illustrating tram depots in many regions of Germany. Tramway photographers were and are usually more interested in the trams themselves, rather than their operational facilities – including the depots. Many photographs of tram depots were often taken as something of an afterthought.
It has, therefore, been quite an achievement to compile this album of images to form a valuable record of an often-overlooked area of tramway operation. The photographs have been sourced from the collections of several tramway photographers and from various photographic archives.
The book is divided into topics such as “frontages and facades”, “entrances and exits” or “shunting and works vehicles” and guides the reader through the depots of the companies on the Rhine and Ruhr, on the Lower Rhine, in the Bergisches Land and in Westphalia.
Most of the photographs date from the 1950s and 1960s, but much earlier material from the early 20th century is also included, together with a small number of more recent images. Vor Einfahrt Halt! – Fotografische Beobachtungen in westdeutschen Straßenbahn-Depots contains many treasures that offer an insight into a long-forgotten and sometimes hardly imaginable era of technology. 144 pages. Hardback. German text.