early trams of Lwow/Lemberg

two versions of the same scene with different tintings - not helpful for historians!

This city's tram system began in the 1880s at which time Lwow/Lemberg was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire with a mix of nationalities, although the largest group were the Poles. Lwow was the Polish name and Lemberg the German.

In 1919 it became part of the recreated Polish state for 20 years until 1939 when Stalin invaded and made the eastern half of Poland part of either Belarus or Ukraine and thus the Soviet Union. Apart from the 3 years of German occupation over 1941-1944 the city has been in Ukraine ever since and called Lviv. All these views are pre-1919.

The different tram liveries are probably the result of the different colorists' whims. The tram system is metre gauge.

See the earlier post on the Lwow/Lemberg station and the book Seeds in the Storm.