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Early Trams

Di.Poppitt

Di.Poppitt

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
From a book Roads and Rails of Birmigham 1900 - 1939 by R.T.Coxon

The first one is CBT Co Ltd Kitson  tram, with two gas wagons for tramcar lighting. It is turning from Bradford Street into Smithfield Street. The Drovers Arms in the background.
 
The second photos' are 1. an Aston Bogie in Steelhouse Lane - about 1906. The Weslyan & General Assurance Society building on the left.
2. Number 54 passing Small Heath Tavern en route for Station Street - about 1909. One for Jerry I think.
 
Di, thanks for the pictures.
Ray Coxon, who wrote the book you saw them in, is sadly no longer with us, but he was a real character. I first met him in the early 1960s after I had left Brum, when he was Secretary of the then newly formed Birmingham Transport Historical Group, which put an enormous amount of historical material on public record.
Ray was a teacher and organist at St Mary's Handsworth, shortly after my dad was ditto and ditto at St Michael's Handsworth, and lived in Wyecliff Road Handsworth. He bought and restored an old Dennis single-deck bus which I last saw Witton tram shed, and used to travel round to various transport rallies and exhibitions, to show of this bus. He also had a model tramway which he put over the seat backs along one side of the bus.
A true gent he was.
Peter
 
Peter the book is a treasure, and Ray Coxon's personality is evident when reading it. He tells a story of riding in coal tubs at Hamstead Colliery as a boy, and watching for miners to come walking along the tracks. I did that with my cousin and his friends when we were too young to realise how dangerous it was.

I will post more pictures later from the book.
 
I have and 'Evening Mail' supplement called Tram Days, it must have been published in the late seventies, it contains pictures of Ray Coxen with his wonderful lay out, the article tells of Ray's fascination for trams, also mentioned is Arther Camwell another great Tram Man.

Nick
 
Arthur Camwell was truly a transport great - probably more for his railway interests than trams, but he did a lot for both. He ran the Birmingham Areas of the Light Railway Transport League (the tram enthusiasts' group) and I think the Stephenson Locomotive Society, and became Treasurer for the former. He worked for the Municipal Bank, in later years as manager of the Kingstanding branch, and in his younger days played sax in a dance band in his spare time. During WW2 he was an auxiliary (volunteer) tram driver.
He organised the last passenger train journey on the Harborne branch in June 1950 before it closed in 1963.
Being a Handsworth man his funeral about 13 years ago was at St Mary's, the resting place of Boulton and Watt, and he has a locomotive named after him.
Peter
 
A falcon steam Tram and carriage in Moat Row 1890's in the forground is the horse and cart of T.Harvey Coal Dealer, shops are Mr Clayworth's Veterinary dispensary, R.L.McCullock herb beer and a coffee house
 
I have fond memories of Ray from the mid 70's.

My grand parents used to live directly opposite "Mr Coxon", and the bus was always present.

Has anybody got an image of the bus, they would be willing to post?

Darren
 
I don't know how I've missed this thread before - I knew Ray Coxon very well, and often visited him at his house in Wye Cliff Rd, just off Hamstead Road. I used to be involved with Ray and the '32 group' who restored and ran the bus - a 1929 Dennis 'E' type, formerly West Bromwich Corporation no 32. It was donated to the group by West Bromwich Corporation after many years as the 'Christmas Lights' bus for the borough, covered with a frame and canvas body painted with scenes of the area in years gone by and dozens of light bulbs powered by lots of bus batteries inside. After many years at Aston Manor Museum, it has (I believe) gone to the Black Country museum where two of the 32 group are volunteer workers with the transport group, and hopefully will soon be seen running round there (and out on the roads again, I hope!).

Ray married Helen (nee Bett, daughter of famous transport ticket expert Wingate H Bett) in 1946 and (at the time I knew them there) lived in the former Bett family home at 13 Wye Cliff Road. Ray was an avid cyclist and tram enthusiast, there are many photographs around of Birmingham trams with a bicycle visible propped against the roadside kerb, that was Ray's Birmingham-made Centric and he tried to get it in as many shots as possible. He would think little of cycling to visit relatives at Weston super Mare for the day in the 1960s and 70s, possibly even later than that.

Some time after retiring, Ray, his wife Helen and daughter Jane moved to Stafford, where he continued cycling almost until his death in 2001.

He was a wonderful, if slightly eccentric chap and someone who taught me a lot about Birmingham's transport history, and the need to preserve as much of the memory of it as possible.

There is a photo of the bus, with Ray driving, click here.
 
The sign on the wall reads Surveyors Cannon St,Birmingham.I have my doubts as to whether it is taken in Cannon St.
Moss.
 
Hi

The photo of the tram was taken in Moat Row just down from the Bull Ring. It has been on before.

Phil
 
doddyod said:
I have fond memories of Ray from the mid 70's.

My grand parents used to live directly opposite "Mr Coxon", and the bus was always present.

Has anybody got an image of the bus, they would be willing to post?

Darren
Click to expand...

Here is a more recent view of 32 at the Black Country Museum where it now resides.
 
Thanks LLoyd & Mike, this is a real trip down memory lane!

Living in Oldbury, I must get upto BCM to see it in the flesh again, after over 25 years!

My Grandfarther, "Big Dan" O'Donnell, and nan, used to live at No 10, along with his large collection of trucks, Jags and trannies, most painted in the Blue/yellow livery of his company.

Thanks again guys, this means a lot to me.

Darren
 
Frothblower said:
I thought this one was interesting.
Click to expand...

Interesting and sad, Frothy. Works car PW8 was the very last tram to be lifted onto a lorry and taken for scrap, this view is in Kyotts Lake Road, the former tram works is just behind the wagon.
 
Back to early trams and an atmospheric view of steam trams on the Stratford Road just before replacement by the electric trams for which the wires are already in place.
 
If it's Birmingham Trams your interseted in try .

British Tramways in Pictures 3. Birmingham by R J S Wiseman BA.
Short Review of Birmingham Corporation Tramways By P L Hardy & P Jaques
Memories of Birmingham Transport Parts 1 & 2 by D H Harvey
Birmingham in the Electric Tramway Era by W A Camwell
Birmingham Corporation Tramways Trams & Trollybuses by Transport Publishing Company March 1982
Birmingham Trams by John Marks
A Nostalgic look at Birmingham Trams 1933- 1953 3 books all by David Harvey.

All these books will give pictures to delight not only of trams but the different locations the photo's have been taken.

These books answer questions about roads & streets of the tramway, identiying Shops, pubs, cinemas, works and a lot more.

Hours & hours of saying i remember that.

Have fun Ray
 
This old tram No 8 has seen some alterations over years it introduce in 1904 as open fronted and open topped car it ws known as the open sky overhead.
 
A view difficult to imagine today, even though the same buildings are still there, is this one of Bearwood Road terminus early in the electric tram era. The houses to the left and those on the right behind the tram were soon to all become shops and today you would not think they had ever been anything else.
The standard service on this Birmingham and Midland Tramways Co Ltd operated route was every ten minutes from 5:10 am till 11:10 pm.
 
West Bromwich not Birmingham:
Horse-drawn trams were also operated in West Bromwich by Mr. B. Crowther, who leased the unprofitable Spon Lane and Bromford Lane lines from Birmingham and Midland Tramways Limited.
In April 1893 the company made an arrangement with Mr. Crowther, who owned a funeral service and a horse vehicle hire business, to use his premises in Paradise Street to house two small sixteen seater, single deck horse cars, which had been purchased from the Metropolitan Carriage and Wagon Company Limited.
Mr. Crowther supplied the horses, and the company began to operate horse-drawn trams over the two routes.
By the middle of 1894, Mr. Crowther had taken the horse tram operation over and was leasing the two lines from the company.
By September he had acquired two more cars and operated a fifteen minute service over the routes on Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
Birmingham & Midland Tramways Limited became part of the British Electric Traction Company Limited in January 1900. The company planned to run a unified network of electrically powered trams throughout the Black Country. After the take-over, Mr. Crowther continued to lease the Spon Lane and Bromford Lane lines, and operated his horse-drawn trams for several years.

This is from http://www.historywebsite.co.uk/articles/publictransport/horsetrams.htm

Apparently Mr Crowther was also a funeral director. Possibly useful if the trams had an accident
 
Thanks Mike. So would the mention of Birmingham in the labelling refer to the carriages purchased from the Metropolitan Carriage and Wagon Company ? Viv.
 
​

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mikejee said:
West Bromwich not Birmingham:
​
Horse-drawn trams were also operated in West Bromwich by Mr. B. Crowther, who leased the unprofitable Spon Lane and Bromford Lane lines from Birmingham and Midland Tramways Limited.

​
In April 1893 the company made an arrangement with Mr. Crowther, who owned a funeral service and a horse vehicle hire business, to use his premises in Paradise Street to house two small sixteen seater, single deck horse cars, which had been purchased from the Metropolitan Carriage and Wagon Company Limited.

Apparently Mr Crowther was also a funeral director. Possibly useful if the trams had an accident
Click to expand...

Also the service was withdrawn if the horses were needed for a large funeral!
 
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