A Hajdú-Bihar Megyei Levéltár évkönyve 27. 2000 (Debrecen, 2000)
Tanulmányok - Simonyi Alfonz: A debreceni "lóvasúttól" a villamosig
216 Simonyi Alfonz: A debreceni „lóvasúttól” a villamosig The Road from the Horse Tramway to Trams in Debrecen Alfonz Simonyi It was almost 120 years ago, on October 2, 1884, that the first train of three pretty cars drawn by a steam engine set off on their journey on the tracks of Debrecen’s public railroads. The tracks were laid from the starting house to the baths in the Nagyerdő (Big Forest) area. And it was almost 90 years ago, in March 1911, that on each line of the tracks electric trams started to be used to take care of passenger traffic. This significant event had been preceded by the time when, in bigger cities in the larger part of Europe, public railroads were built for horse-cars. It was only in the second half of the 19th century that that these railroads switched to carriages drawn by steam engines. Originally, the public railroad system of Debrecen was also designed to be built for steam engines. Among several applicants, a certain contractor called Lehmann from Berlin was selected by the senate of the town to receive the assignment and he started constructing railroad tracks fit for carriages drawn by steam engines in the spring of 1884. Finally, the construction was completed by the Vienna subsidiary of a Prussian building contractor called Lindheim and Co., whose head was Károly Neufeld. Thus, on the tracks in Piac and Péterfia Streets, steam engines were installed while, according to the original construction permit, the line in Hatvan Street was designed for horse-cars. However, this line was only used as of the fall of 1888, from Piac Street to the contemporary railroad junction of Hajdúnánás, which is called Segner Square today. This latter line was already built by a local entrepreneur called Mihály Balla. Chronologically, the next sideline was the one in Cze- gléd (at present Kossuth) Street, which ran to the theater first, and then was expanded to the railroad tracks between Debrecen and Nyíregyháza. The line was officially opened for public traffic in September 1896 for a mixed system of cars, both horse-drawn and steam engine- drawn. In the years following the turn of the century, there was a significant extension of the local railroad network taking place. First of all, the sideline to the agricultural school in Pallag was built, which
