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Electric Trams

The 1953 photograph of the tramcar at Rea Street is interesting. It seems, by the destination blind, to be Depot Only or maybe Special Car but I would have thought the car would have people on the upper deck if that was the case. This being 1953 means the extra wire for the trolley buses, which ceased in 1952, has been removed and besides no tram services ran along Digbeth at that time, the last service cars to Stechford and the Moseley Road routes being in 1949.
Presumably this tram is from the 1953 closure of the 2/78/79 routes and on its way to Kyotts Lake Road depot presumably via Rea Street and Bradford Street rather than Deritend and Camp Hill..
The quaint little car, to the left of the rear of the tram, looks rather like one of those three wheelers - single wheel at the rear.
 
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Alan
Am not sure, but tried to clean it up, and I think I can see two wheels on the right hand side, so presumably it is an old 4 wheel MG or something similar.

TramWires.jpg
 
Looking at the pic in post#328, there appears to be a large queue outside the Apollo Cinema and if so it must have been a very popular film. As they queued, the last tram was travelling along the Tyburn Road and perhaps they glanced at it ... the folk on the near pavement are definitely watching the tram.
 
I thought it was a hedge Alan ! But magnifying it seems to show up people.

This one had no details with it but is at the tram stop on Sutton Road. We discussed the tram building somewhere else on this forum. You can just make out the arched side window of the shelter to the right of the tram. Also there's a Sutton/Erdington/Birmingham border sign there too. Looks about late 1940s/1950s (?). Viv.

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It looked much better to me (bus enthusiast of course) when the Midland Red buses were on the waste ground where that ICAP place now is. And there were no spy cameras in the original pic!
 
A lot of overhead wires AND a Bundy clock on Stratford Road. Looks about 1940s (?). For the tram uneducated, can anyone tell me if a Bundy clock always marked a terminus please? Viv.

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Vivienne14 said:
A lot of overhead wires AND a Bundy clock on Stratford Road. Looks about 1940s (?). For the tram uneducated, can anyone tell me if a Bundy clock always marked a terminus please? Viv.
Hi Viv,
Most termini, if not all, had a bundy clock. However they were also placed at important stops on the route presumably to show whether or not the trams and buses were keeping to time.
Old Boy
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Vivienne, mostly but not exclusively a terminus, sometimes they would be situated at turn back points (known as short workings). Also with routes like the 8 Inner Circle and the 11 Outer Circle they were placed at intervals along the route.
 
Vivienne14 said:
A lot of overhead wires AND a Bundy clock on Stratford Road. Looks about 1940s (?). For the tram uneducated, can anyone tell me if a Bundy clock always marked a terminus please? Viv.

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Usually, except on the Outer Circle (I think here they were at the smoking points) and presumably the Inner Circle. The question now is were there rogue Bundy clocks that did not indicate a terminus?
Bob D
 
In 1939 a No 87 tram on the Dudley Road passing the Grove Cinema showing a George Formby film that week. Crossover points on the tracks and corresponding crossover on the overhead lines.
TramPastGroveCinema1939.jpg

Today as seen by Google's wide angle lens. The cinema building is still there and the front entrance steps and railings survive. Wonder what it is like inside?
Grove Cinema Now.JPG
 
Very damp by the looks of it Phil ! What's the man selling from the cart next to the tram? He looks like he might be in a cinema uniform. Viv.
 
The crossover was for trams on the 55 route terminating there and returning to Edmund Street. The cart, apparently from other archives suggest it is for ice cream. The cinema has been open for just about six years. The car HA1118 I am sure belonged to the photographer as it can be seen in quite a few photos of the period.
 
Hi Viv, I think he is selling ice creams, but what about the bloke riding his bike apparently 'no hands' !
Phil
 
They were a cradles for the trolley pole when in the down position. This tram, like is brothers and sisters, was rebuilt got a roof and lasted until just before WW2.
 
Sorry I have got a little behind in my reading. There are a couple of posts in which Old Mowhawk says that the one way system in Corporation Street did not apply to the trams. I can remember the trams running one way round a loop Dale End, Martineau Street, Corporation Street but what happened when they got to Lewis's and the Old Square. I remember that as being one way into the city with traffic having to turn either left or right into Bull Street.
 
Inward bound trams passed the Central Fire Station, along Dale End, up Martineau Street, then they were outbound along Corporation Street towards the Fire Station. The outbound No 6 Perry Barr tram in post#321 has passed Bull Street, stopped outside Lewis's and will soon pass the Old Square.
 
There must have been a good reason why that route was not reversed so avoiding trams heading towards oncoming traffic either side of the tracks. Or was it simply, like some trains in the USA that run along present day roads, the fact that the trams were here first?
 
Two pics, the first is a 1954 view of the Corporation St/Bull St junction. The tram track can be seen crossing from the left and one way traffic from New St turns left or right into Bull St. The traffic coming from the oppposite direction does the same. When the tram tracks were removed the island was reshaped as shown in the second pic.
CorpstBullst1954.jpg
BullStCorpSt.jpeg
 
The 1952 picture, whilst not as busy as the later one, does have more interests for me. The bus on route 12 appears to be one the GOE registered buses, the first new BCT buses post WW2. On the far right we have, I believe, a newspaper seller, a woman taking her chance standing in the road when a motor cycle is nearing her. Beyond her is a man with a bicycle talking with a young woman; they only have eyes for each other so maybe there are more than good friends, if not about to become so. ;) I cannot read the name of that smart Austin van but it does look new or well maintained.
The newer pic has an older style ambulance, looks like a Morris, and might have come from the General Hospital in Steelhouse Lane. Only buses here are two B&MMO ones.
 
In 1949 this tram has come from Martineau Street and is crossing the Bull Street junction. Before the junction it was travelling with the one-way traffic, after the junction it will be travelling against the other one-way traffic.
City Corporation St 1949 .jpg
 
This 1892 - 1905 map shows there was twin track in Corporation St with a turning loop in the Old Square. I've not yet seen a photo of a tram on that loop.
1892-1905.jpg
 
For that period OM you would be looking at horse drawn trams. It could well have been their terminus. The 6 Perry Barr, 7 Nechells, 8 Alum Rock, 10 Washwood Heath routes started with electric trams in 1907. They all started in the once famous Martineau Street.
The Nechells route was abandoned in1922 when it became the first Birmingham trolleybus route also numbered 7. This was curtailed at the beginning of WW2.
 
The date is post 1928, according to my records. This is based on the second and third traam in the picture which are. as far as I can see, from the 762-811 batch built in 1928 and were fitted woth those bow collectors - for the 8 and 10 routes at varying times after 1928. Of the batch only one, 785. was destroyed in an air raid in 1941: the rest survived until 1952. Towards the end of the Alum Rock and Washwood Heath tram routes in 1950 they were progressively fitted with the more common traction poles for use on the still operational Bristol Road routes. When Washwood Heath garage was being converted in, 1950 for buses, they were stored on the reserved section near the Fox and Goose. Some folk may remember that.
 
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