A bit late I know.Re post#220 : Taken in Glasgow Corporation's "Motorman's school" during WW1 when women had to be used as so few men were around. Here are a few in full tartan skirted uniform:
View attachment 98405
They where called skids and replace the trolley wheels in an attempt to reduce arcing important during the war to prevent bombers tracking them, also they reduced the damage to overhead lines.Hi Ray,
I notice the tram in your photo has a bow collector so it is different to the tram in the Perry Barr photo ... I wonder why Birmingham trams had different types of power collectors.
Regarding your upside down photos problem, I've only ever known it when posting from iPads. It is some thing to do with the image's 'exif' information.
Perhaps it might be worth you starting a separate thread about it in the 'Advice' section because one or two members have recently had similar problems possibly posting from Windows.
There was some discussion about iPads in an old thread see link below
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/sunset.43809/page-2#post-523812
oldmohawk
Click the up arrow to go thereTwenty five AEC Regents were converted to run on gas between 1942 and 1944. The gas was produced by burning anthracite in a hopper carried on a trailer towed by the bus. The end result was smelly and not very efficient, but could rely on home produced fuel. The producer gas Regents were put to work on service 33 (Kingstanding - City), the route being entirely transferred to Perry Barr Garage for the purpose and re-timed to allow for their inferior performance.
From Birmingham City Transport by Malcolm Keeley, Monty Russell and Paul Gray. Sorry I can't scan the photos well enough to show here.
Thanks Radiorails,I believe the metal 'V' fitting was placed above the conductor wire to minimize sparks, during WW2, when the trolley pole was re-wired.
Also possible Alan or maybe even to stop the neighbours complaining about being disturbed by the flashes.
I had never heard of special runs for enthusiasts but you must be right because in this pic tram 367 is closely behind the more modern tram 830 which has 'Pebble Mill' on the balcony route indicator. Some ladies on 830 have gone along for the fun.Old Mohawk's pics show both sides of the car as far as I can see. I guess the balcony route blind (3) (route 3 was disbanded shortly after the start of WW2) had been changed by a passenger. Route 1 was infrequent and did go to Stockland Green from Steelhouse Lane. The 78 continued further to Short Heath. I feel this is a special run for tramway enthusiasts which was not unusual but many of these special runs asked for car 843 which was the last tram built for the Corporation and was a little more modern in appearance. From memory car 843 ran on the Cotteridge route and maybe it was not possible/convenient to use it in the Perry Barr route.