Potsdam, only a few kilometers away from Berlin, celebrated the 125th anniversary of the launch of the first horse service with a tram parade. We (that's me and a fellow tram enthusiast) knew we must see this!

The programme included a "Strassenbahnkorso" - trams sauntering around in the city. We first thought we'd arrived too late, but as we saw the "hordes" of tram photographers everywhere, we knew we were on time.

The oldest participant was this horse tram car. Unfortunately I didn't see it drawn by horses, but I managed to catch it as it was towed by a "two-way" vehicle at Platz der Einheit.

We started to look for a better spot to take photos from, when we noticed that the scheduled course is being followed...

... by this open-platform tram set from Berlin. The powered car was built in 1903 for the municipal tram company of Köpenick (now part of Berlin).

It towed this trailer car, built in 1908.

The next unit was this KSW ("Kriegesstrassenbahnwagen" - "war-time standard tram", designed and built during WW2) set. The powered car (in front - of course) was the prototype of the series! The set came from the nearby village of Woltersdorf.

Probably the most classic tram of East-Germany was the "Gothawagen" - cars built by VEB Waggonbau of Gotha. The car in front belongs to the T2-64 batch. The set also included two matching trailers.

The same set passing through Nauener Tor.

As you might have guessed, this is the articulated version of the Gotha cars - type G4-65 built in 1967.

"Two rooms and a bath" - not the best sort of tramway car constructions, but this one was still very nice!

I like the ivory color of these trams - this is pretty much the way I remember them from our family visit to the GDR in the eighties.

Also classic is the beige-red livery of this car. It's another prototype: number 001 was the first vehicle of the CKD Tatra KT4D series in 1972.

Its look is a bit different from the series, but this makes it even more interesting!

The interior of the nicely restored tram.

Again at Nauener Tor.

I'm not a Tatra fan, but I like the KT4 ever since it's being used in Szeged...

And it's still the same car, pictured in front of the Stadthaus.

The old Tatra was followed by another proto: number 400, the first of the DUEWAG/Siemens Combino series.

If you take a closer look at it, you can see that it's also different from the series: the rear module has only got one pair of wheels instead of a set of two.

The interior of the car...

... and the driver's cab.

And this "tram pageantry" featured yet another interesting guest: a Variobahn from Duisburg,

The company Stadler-Pankow that holds the rights to this vehicle, tests it in Potsdam, in the hope of receiving an order for them.

The three-car Gotha set at Platz der Einheit.

The KSW also retured to here. Note the quite big overhang of the car!

Beige-red, ivory - living in perfect harmony...

Another photo looking almost like as if it was taken thirty years ago.

Next page: more pictures...