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Birmingham Trams

T

tardebigge

BCT Fan
Some of you may have been aware of a phototopic site maintained by Kevin Saunders titled "Birmingham - The Electric 50's".
Sadly Kevin passed away some years ago. However I am pleased to say that his widow has forwarded to me all his archived material and photos. There is a substantial amount of pictures taken by Kevin, covering almost every bus,both pre-war and those I am particularly interested in, namely 1481 through 3227. Additionally there is a large amount of tram pictures (and for those interested trolley buses).
I shall be resurrecting his web site, and will advise when it is up and running.
 
A picture of workmen laying tram tracks along the Stratford Rd near Farm Rd. in 1905.
 
All I know about this one is that its about the turn of the century. It is a steam tram but you can see the wires have been installed ready for the electic trams. Perhaps one of the others can be more specific with a date.
 
Frothy, as you know I changed my avatar several times. It would seem likely that this one is keeping the BRAWomin away from me so I am staying as I am.
 
I really fancu that picture of the steam tram on temporary track, Stitch.
I recdently came across two articles written in 1965 by C Gilbert, then aged 70, who was born in Ravenhurst Street and, as he says, 'grew up with the steam trams'. He was an observant boy, with a technical bent, and I found his recollections really like a breath from the past.
I think it's a bit too long to quote in full, but I may do some extracts some time.
Peter
 
Peter, you may have read before that I am not a bus or tram type, although I did work on the red at the same time as Mike and Lloyd. These pictures are from a few very old books and scraps that I have saved over the years.
 
Its late winter 1906, stitcher. The Corporation electric cars commenced service on 1st January 1907, as the City of Birmingham Tramway Company's leases ended at midnight on 31st December 1906.
The Corporation had 4 hours to remove temporary track used during the construction, and couple up supply to the overhead lines - not just Stratford Road, but routes to Kings Heath, Nechells (formerly horse traction), Alum Rock, Newtown Row, Cannon Hill Park, Edward Road Balsall Heath, Yardley and Bolton Road as well. Didn't they do well!!
A few steam engines went to Hockley depot for shunting cable trams about, the rest of the equipment was taken to Thos. W. Ward's scrapyard at Wednesbury. (I wonder if they went under their own power, as the electric cars did to Witton and Kyotts Lake nearly half a century later?)
Here's another steam tram running under electric wires on Stratford Road.
 
With the present cold snap road chaos it is interesting that in winters like 1947 the trams kept on running. Front and rear life guards would be removed and replaced with snowplough blades. When snow warnings were received empty trams would, if considered necessary, run backwards and forwards all night long to keep the track clear for the normal service. (This was in addition to the BCT gritting squads working through the night along the bus routes as well). We never heard of the 'wrong kind' of snow in those days.
 
Mike, when I was a child I remember the 'GRIT LORRY' was a 4 wheel rigid. It came up our road whenever we had snow or ice, two men on the back spreading the grit with pan shovels, I was led to understand that the men were from Acocks Green Bus Garage and we never lived on a bus route. Nowadays with automatic spreaders they cant cope.
 
Stitcher said:
Mike, when I was a child I remember the 'GRIT LORRY' was a 4 wheel rigid. It came up our road whenever we had snow or ice, two men on the back spreading the grit with pan shovels, I was led to understand that the men were from Acocks Green Bus Garage and we never lived on a bus route. Nowadays with automatic spreaders they cant cope.
Click to expand...

That made me smile Trevor, did any of the gritting blokes live in your road or nearby? I knew some roads off bus routes in Billesley in the 1960's that got gritted in the night because the blokes went home for an unofficial tea break and warm up during their labours.
Mike

Meanwhile below, Moseley Road open balcony car 416 was passing through a slushy Bull Ring in 1947..
 
Hi Mike: I liked that bit about the trams sometimes running back and forth all night long when it snowed to keep the track open. Makes sense to me. These days we have a hugely expensive system in Vancouver called Skytrain
and what did the Transport people do when the snow came before Xmas...yes, they ran the Skytrains backwards and forwards along all routes to keep the tracks open.:)
 
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I remember being told that in icy or snowy weather, the first tram running down any steep hill (Like Hill Top, between West Bromwich and Wednesbury) would run 'wrong line', i.e down the up line, so that the rails would be clear for it to climb up on its return.
There used to be snow-plough buses too, withdrawn ones which had a blade hung underneath and could run during the night to keep main roads and bus routes open for the next day, and the gritters would use lorries made out of old buses with the bodies taken off and lorry bodies built on instead, like this painting of ex bus 674 in New Street.

View attachment 43361
 
Brilliant picture Lloyd. The one that came up our moms road was just like that.
 
Great picture Lloyd, that is exactly the same as the one that used to grit our moms road.
 
Sorry this is slightly off-topic, but it makes me remember the quality of operation and maintenance on the Brum trams.
Last Sunday night we had about eight inches of snow in Croydon, with several days warning. I came home on our local tram about 11.30 and it was the snow was already about 3 inches thick. The tram was running perfectly well, but it was designed for worse weather than that.
No gritting or sweeping was done overnight, as far as I saw, and as a result no-one could drive to the depot next morning and no service was operated all day.
This morning they already had the route to Wimbledon running on the section converted from railway track, but they couldn't get into the town centre.
Still no news when they will come past our house again - already 48 hours without a tram.
What would Mr Baker have to say about that!
Peter
 
Alfred Baker (Birmingham Corporation's Tramways Manager) would have been apoplectic! Back in the days when civic pride was the rule, rather than the exception, tram drivers (sorry, 'Motormen') and conductors - and everybody else involved with running the network would have walked to work as normal and got the service out. Similarly Peter, Mr. Aubrey Llewellyn Coventry Fell, CBE, the chief officer of the LCC Tramways Department, must be turning in his grave.
 
Silver Fox,
The first electric trams were merely a replacement of horse (or steam)trams and went at that kind of pace. Add to that the narrow gauge and height of a double-deck car, and you will get of picture of the speeds they went at in the early days.
Motor traffic wasn't very fast in the early days. A Midland Red Tilling Stevens built in 1919 had the maximum soeed of 12 mph painted on the chassis, but by the mid-1920s the newer buses hade a limit of 20 mph, and by the early 1930s the limit was 30 mph.
From what I recall, the trams did not travel above 20 mph very often - that was mainly on the reserved track. But I do recall an exhilarating run one Sunday morning in 1950, going from Coleshill Street round the gentle curve into AB Row - he had to slow down later for the lights at Dartmouth Street of course. I would guess we were doing about 22 or 23 mph.
I remember some enthusiasts saying in those days that the fastest trips used to be past the Hawthorns Ground, on the long straight 3/4-mile section of the Birmingham Road (where the M5 junction is now). The cars on that line at 70-hp motors, and they could show their paces there. Most later cars had 60-hp motors, but the earlier ones were 40-hp.
Unlike buses, the trams had no speedometer, and drivers were expected to use their judgement, bearing in mind the simple nature of the braking system.
Peter
 
A nice taste of summer 1949 as the motorman of 730 waits for the Bundy to tick over to departure time and away to Cannon Hill. The younguns on board might be off to Cannon Hill Park. These days they would probably be leaning out of such lowered windows on the top deck!
 
jennyann said:
Hi Mike: I liked that bit about the trams sometimes running back and forth all night long when it snowed to keep the track open. Makes sense to me. These days we have a hugely expensive system in Vancouver called Skytrain
and what did the Transport people do when the snow came before Xmas...yes, they ran the Skytrains backwards and forwards along all routes to keep the tracks open.:)
Click to expand...

jennyann it's just like the old saying 'there's nothing new under the sun'
Mike ;)

and for the folks here - one of your Skytrains.
 
By way of a change here is a nice drawing of a wartime tram by an unknown artist. Notice the headlamp cover for use when running in the blackout.
 
Tram 173, a four wheeled U.E.C. built tram of 1906, waits in the pouring rain to turn into Stoney Lane on the last night of the Stratford Road services, 5 January 1937. A procession of trams waited to turn into Stoney Lane and then into Highgate Road depot. By the time the last tram, 564, was hauled on a rope by enthusiasts into the depot from Stratford Road, about two hundred yards away, it was nearly 1 a.m. Tram 173 would be transferred to Hockley depot and would finally be withdrawn in March 1939.
 
It is hard to imagine today how narrow Birmingham trams were. Running on 3ft 6ins gauge track, the car bodies were just six feet across - outside! Today's buses are 8 ft 6ins (or the new money equivalent) wide, with wheelchair access, thermostatically controlled heating - and last weeks chip papers. Here's car 668's lower deck, only room for 2 seats one side and one the other. No wheelchairs, baby buggies, heating or 'tasteful melamine surfaces'. No litter, either.
668 ran the rails of our city for 29 years.
 
Going back to Mike's post No 27, that is a beautiful drawing, well observed and accurately recorded, except for a prominent triviality.
Car 719 spent over a decade at Moseley Road depot, where it might have run on the route 39. But in April 1939 when the Soho Road routes closed, together with Hockley depot there was a major reshuffle, and most of the lower 700-series cars were transferred to Miller Street or Witton. Both depots were seriously damaged by air raids, but 719 escaped serious injury, and I can recall travelling on her a few times when I was at Aston Grammar, When the Witton routes closed in 1950, car 719 was transferred to Miller Street, and continued in service until the end in 1953. I think she was one of the last cars to make the final journey to Kyotts Lake Road works for dismantling on the evening of Saturday 4 July 1953.
The drawing appears to show route 36, which I'm fairly confident never happened during wartime or otherwise.
It's still a lovely drawing -t hanks for putting it on.
Peter
 
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