Bob Davis
Bob Davis
Perhaps a mod will put this in the posting to which it refers. Recently questions have been asked about traffic at the time a tram stopped and there has been no realisation that we are thinking and knowing 21st century about a transport system that was gone in the main mid 20th Century. In the picture of the 37 at Hill Street, the question was what was the woman doing? I think she was actually about to cross the road in front of the car and behind the tram. I am sure you all had a mother like mine who would grab you by the hand and drag you across New Street/Corporation Street, in fact any street where you were on the wrong side of the street. Remember there was no green cross code, no look right, look left and look right again because unless you were on the Chester Road, Coventry Road etc, there was not a great deal of traffic, there were until the mid fifties still a lot of horse and carts, Co - op coal, Scribbans bakery, Handsworth Dairies and even still a few Railway deliveries done by horse and cart. Post war cars were faster than their pre war counterparts, motor bikes did not have the power we now see, we remember lovingly AJS, Matchless, Vincent HRD etc there were fast sports cars Frazer Nash MG, Allard etc. That covers us, the transport now to the crux. My relationship with trams covered routes 2, 3x, 78, 79 and the trams to the Lickeys,. To a lesser extent I had used since the age of 9, the trams that ran from Martineau Street. Sent up to town to pick up the new ration books and some Marsh and Baxter sausages, Mum was at work, I was a bit of a loner and I travelled and explored and developed my love of public transport so to get back to Court Lane, I devised many ways of travelling home. BCT tram and bus the 8 and 11 often featured. But in all that time, I never saw a vehicle overtake a tram when it was stopped to pick up passengers, I jumped off enough before they had fully stopped and have seen those about to board step into the road well before the tram reached the stop. Cars would also stop. I cannot recall ever seeing a car undertake or overtake a stopping tram. Often a Horse and cart would delay the exit because the tram had drawn level with it at the stop. The other thing we need to remember is that the platform was at least two feet above ground level watching people with sticks, like my grandad, and crutches was painful. Sorry if this has gone on a bit, but what about your memories.
Bob
Bob