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Birmingham Trams

Alf said:
I like the advert on the Selly Oak Tram, do they do it in Tablet Form yet Mike:)
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:DAlf, people have pondered for years about that ad - did Ty-Phoo give or cure indigestion? Hardly summat to advertise if it did, LOL!
Mike
 
mallyb2 said:
Thanks Mal, and you are right with prewar as the photo is dated 1937. Glad to have the location as well now.
Mike

Now for another view on the 2, but this time is at the terminus at Erdington, where car 563 is about to depart to City.
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I was sent a photo of an old tram the other day that was supposed to be from Birmingham in Valletta Malta shame I can't copy it for the forum. Will ask my son to try when he comes round again. Jean.
 
Hi Mike,just to be a pain in the ****,I don't think that is the terminus at Erdington,tho' I could well be wrong.From what I can recall,tho' bear in mind we're going back well over 50 yrs,Erdington terminus was faced by a row of shops.There was also a shelter,and a bundy clock,none of which seem apparant in the above photo.Can some greater authority prove me right or wrong,look forward to any suggestions.Fabulous pictures,though,keep 'em coming ! Mal.
 
Hi Mike,just remembered,Erdington terminus was single trackway,so that would seem to prove my theory, but--WHERE is it? Mal.
 
motorman-mike said:
OtherHalf, I think the Church stands on the corner that is now where Lookers Vauxhall showrooms and garage are at Elliot Road.
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Thanks Mike it was by the side of the canal walkway which is still there.. on the original photo just behind tram is a small building which led down to the canal cant remember what the building was for but again thanks:D
 
Hi Mike,looking at that photo again,and stirring the memory banks into action,putting two and two together,and maybe making five,I think the picture was taken on the Erdington by-pass,which I think may have been called Sutton New Road.I say this because,apart from Lichfield road,near salford bridge, this is the only stretch of reserved carriageway the no.2 to Erdington travelled on.Am I right,I wonder ? Mal.
 
Mal, you're absolutely right. Sutton New Road was built as a dual carriageway to take the traffic out of the High Street, which was a busy shopping centre in those days. I never liked the New Road, and it interrupted pedestrian access to the High Street from the Short Heath side, but pedestrians didn't matter of course - only cars.
Back to the terminus, here is a pic I took in the last year (1953) of my mate Peter Hammond turning the pole at the Yenton terminus. We were both students at the Art School the time, but spent an awful lot of our time on the trams. And as for the models he made! They are world famous today.
Peter
 
Hi Peter,you're quite right what you say about pedestrian and even passenger safety.Any would-be passengers would have to cross the dual carriageway to wait for and board a tram,and if I remember correctly,at the six-ways (erdington ) junction,a tram-stop and shelter was constructed in the centre of the round-about ! Talk about road safety ,I think not, Mal.
 
Sorry I forgot in my half-awake state to add the pic of the Yenton terminus last night when I sent my last post. Here it is on the left, together with another showing the Sutton New Road when it was new, together with the horrible post office.
Peter
 
I hang my head in shame, for you are all correct who say it is not the 2 terminus - the car is further towards City at St. Barnabas Road. (The crossover there fooled me). A quick look at 'Where is this? 131' shows more of this location to the left of the photo.

To make amends, here definitely is the terminus with car 581 and crew.
 
Over to Dudley Road to see car 93 heading for Dudley outside the Grove Cinema where a George Formby flick is showing. Note the 'stop me and buy one' ice cream man by the cinema.
 
The CBT steam trams were known locally as "the Shufflers" as this was how they moved along the road with the steam engines pistonscausing this type of motion.
 
Car 843 was not as well constructed as the Short-bodied lightweightcar 842. The Brush body was too light and lacked structural integrity at upper saloon floor level and around the bulkheads. This is why it was taken out of service in January 1951 a full 6 months before 842. 842 was the last tram to run on Pershore Road, leaving Cotteridge depot as the last tram to go on the Sunday morning, 6 July 1952. So good was 842's body, which might have pointed the way forward if circumstances had been different, that apparently a tentative enquiry was made by Llandudno about its possible purchase. Alas it had only hust been cut in half!
 
Here is bow collector car 50 peeping out of Rosebery Street depot from where it worked the Lodge Road route to the terminus seen in the second photo on a dark and dismal day that did nothing to improve the surroundings there. (Probably with a pint of M & B in the pub was the best place to be:))
 
motorman-mike said:
Here is bow collector car 50 peeping out of Rosebery Street depot from where it worked the Lodge Road route to the terminus seen in the second photo on a dark and dismal day that did nothing to improve the surroundings there. (Probably with a pint of M & B in the pub was the best place to be:))
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Another nice picture Mike I presume re the M&B and the pint :D you meant the public ?:D looking at the picture though bet the driver wished he had on that kind of day:D:p
 
Mike do you know if that is the pub at the Bottom of Wellington Street ( The Railway inn) where the 96 bus terminus used to be just by the railway bridge
 
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This fascinated me. Ansells looks like it boarded up and where is the Ansells sign?
Is it being Built?
 
Yes, Maggie, it was the Railway Inn, which has survived almost banything else in that area. The last time I should have seen it but didn't was from the train last October before the 60s night do. There were so many other things to look out for on the train, I couldn't say whether it's still even standing - and with the current financial nonsense, I would guess it's not in business. Pity - because it was a good building, well equipped to serve decent beer, even if perhaps they didn't in the last years. Times is hard when you ain't got no customers.
Peter
 
Only just had the chance to get back on thread so thank you for getting back to maggie about Lodge Road Peter.
Mike.

Now at the risk of upsetting certain other football team supporters here is outside the Hawthorns on a match day during the tramway era. I reckon there are over 20 cars lined up here to get the fans home.
For a chuckle, a tram and a football cartoon fits in nicely here as well.
 
The quadruple tracks at the Hawthorns was installed for the football traffic, so as not to hinder normal through cars while the match was on. Others were parked in the former tramway company depot nearby, which has been dismantled and reassembled at the Black Country Museum.
 
And now for something different - Kyotts Lake Works with an early view (from livery) of car 560 undergoing body repairs.
 
Also at "The Lake" but later in its life, car 512 on jacks with bogies removed for overhaul.
 
Lloyd said:
Also at "The Lake" but later in its life, car 512 on jacks with bogies removed for overhaul.
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Interesting to see those photos of the wheel shop, thanks Lloyd. Taken over 50 years later here is a photo of a tram wheelshop in a city called Liberec in the Czech Republic. How alike the scene is to the Lake. I was with a party of West Midlands Travel drivers who in 1993 took a double decker over to the Czech Republic to a Bus Rally in Liberec where they still have trams. Some of their routes are on 3ft (Metre) gauge - 6 inches less than Brum yet the cars are wider than BCT cars were in their body width. All are single cab single deckers and run mostly in pairs. Every outer terminus has a loop similar to Rednal. Surprisingly the Liberec cars have to be reversed into the depot buildings at night!
 
Back on the road, the Moseley Road that is, and kids enjoy the open balcony of car 431 on the 42 as it passes the ABC Imperial Cinema where Alan Ladd and Robert Preston star in 'Whispering Smith'. Film buffs will no doubt be able to put a date to this view from that.
 
This is a very interesting thread - but my interest is a bit divergent form the main topic...
Is there likely to be any trace of personnel records for tram drivers, going back to the early C20th?

My grandfather was described as "motorman" on his marriage cert in November 1911, and as "tram driver" on the birth cert of his second child in October 1915. In the spring of 1916 he emigrated to Canada and then the USA - ending up (after a few detours) as a crane driver for Rotary Electric Steel in Detroit. I managed to find a maternal g-g-father's personnel record in the GWR records at Kew, and was hoping that something similar might exist for my paternal grandfather in his tram-driving role.

Do any of you tram experts have any idea whether it's worth looking? and, if so, where?

Christine
PS - A mod may want to tack this posting onto Jaybee's thread from Feb, being on a similar topic, tho' WW2 era.
 
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