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BCT Tramways Band

sospiri

sospiri

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
Can anyone throw any more light on the Tramways Band, including any photographs please? :rolleyes:

According to "On The Buses: A Social History", kindly supplied to me by Motorman Mike, the Band was formed just prior to 1908. No further mention of it appears in this publication, but in 1958 (when I was working for BCT Head Office) I bought an old alto saxophone belonging to the, by now, defunct Band, from Ken Reddall of the Social Club for the princely sum of one pound! :)

I've no idea where it is now as it was borrowed by a sax player who I used to gig with, and never returned before I left Birmingham in 1961. I'd just like to know a bit more about the Band if anyone has any info please.

Maurice :cool:
 
A nice atmospheric picture Lloyd - thank you. :)

The site looks worth further investigation too.

Maurice :cool:
 
Maurice,
Turned up this 1907 view of the Tramway Band leading the funeral procession of persons who died when a Lodge Road tram overturned in Warstone Lane following a total brake failure. Of interest is the second view of a Tramway Church Parade from the Council House to St. Martins in the Bull Ring. Possibly the Tramway Band would have led this parade.
Can't find out anything about the band but would expect that the bandsmen were employed as motormen or conductors because of their musical skills. It was common for good sportsmen to be employed specially so they could, through the Sports and Social Club, represent the Department in their particular sport playing inter depot and inter municipal and company fixtures.
Mike
 
Hi Mike,

Thanks very much for those pics. I'm trying to work out what the guy behind the bassoon player on the left is playing. I can only see loads of clarinet players on the right and brass players in the front. Somewhere in there should be someone playing the alto sax that I acquired from the Social Club in the late 1950s. It could just conceivably be that guy. Tried zooming in and sharpening, but the pic is just too fuzzy at that point.

Have you got any of the early Transport Gazettes which might just make reference to the Band, or is Wheelers Lane the only source?

Maurice :cool:
 
Thanks to Carl Chinn's Brummagem Magazine two more photos including the band have come to light which are probably a tribute to one of the victims of the 1907 tram accident in Warstone Lane as both were of the funeral procession after the accident.
 
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Hi All,

These are great photographs. They show how smart they were compared to our present day bus crews. Birmingham City Transport always had uniformed drivers and conductors. Now anything goes.

Old Boy
 
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