On 15 October 1901, a new age is dawning: Electrically-operated trolleys are moving along the Ringstrecke and between the Cathedral and Flora in Cologne for the first time. Whereas passengers had until this point been travelling (literally) by horsepower, they're now moving at what some certainly consider to be breakneck speeds through the city's narrow streets and alleyways. Visitors to the Straßenbahn-Museum Köln can still see an early version of the electric trolley - the "Elektrische". However, it's not a Cologne original, as the car made by Zypen & Charlier in Deutz in 1902 was originally used in Bonn before being adapted to suit the aesthetics of Cologne's trains at the time.
Rüdiger Müller