Bob Davis
Bob Davis
A draughtsman friend and I went over this photo with a fine toothcomb, firstly scaling the windows from a sideways view in one of David Harveys books, the back tram has room for four windows as a typically four window bay, taking into account all the other bits and pieces, the zebra crossing slopes away. but that could be the road camber, the shadows are a little suspect, but that again could be the angle of the shot. The important thing is that the roof of the back tram is correct to be the roof of the front tram, and there is no slippage of the livery. The picture at 416 does in actual fact line up the tracks with this picture and I think any seeming disparities are at the hands of the late 1940s early 1950s cameraman. From the shadow s it was obviously a bright day and we do not know what sort of camera he was using, and of course the trams were moving so he took a snapshot. What did amaze my draughtsman friend were the people waiting to get off as the tram is not stationery but moving into the tram stops further along the line, and yet they stood with only one hand to steady them on that bottom step as the tram swayed (and yes they did sway) into the stop. He felt that in this day and age, trams like this would be banned, then I showed him the picture of the stairs to the upper deck. But I suddenly realised that all these black and white photos of trams and those coloured by Old Mohawk show a magnificent machine, reminiscent of an age perhaps but with an identity and a proud livery usually very clean reflecting the pride that the city took in its transport fleet. Now we have all these identikit tin boxes bereft of a manufacturers name, but garishlypainted and so often now with the windows covered in advertising.Radiorails
I do not want to disagree with you as your information and knowledge is always spot on, but I think there is only one tram at the back. it does look unusually long, but there is no trolley pole visible at the left hand side of the picture and you can see the shops on the far side of the road through the windows of the tram. I printed this out on A3 and went over it with a magnifying glass. If there is a skilled draughtsman and the measurements of a tram were available it could be possible to draw the missing body in through the 79 tram and prove how many trams there are. I tried it roughly using a side view from one of the David Harvey books I have and it did match up.
Bob
Bob