Peter Walker
gone but not forgotten
The third (electric tramway)
Only a year after the cable trams began, the other part of the original horse tramway in Birmingham - along the Bristol Road - was also re-gauged and “modernised”, in this case using electric cars powered by lead-acid accumulators beneath the passenger seats (not a Health and Safety recommendation!). Overhead-powered electric tramways became the obvious choice - indeed the South Staffs Tramways company opened its own pioneer line between Wednesbury and Walsall on 1 January 1893. Within Birmingham the city fathers wanted to see underground conduit supply rather than unsightly overhead wires, and from 1897 the City Council was locked in dispute with the new British Electric Traction Company, which was acquiring all the private tramway systems with a view to electrifying them, insisting on the expensive and technically problematical conduit system rather than straightforward overhead wires. By 1900 the company finally won agreement to erect wires on the Bristol Road, to get rid of the potentially lethal battery cars, and from then onwards the overhead wire system had proved its point.
Again the Black Country was quicker off the mark as the South Staffs steam tramways in West Bromwich were rebuilt and electrified by 19 December 1902 between Carters Green and the ”Woodman” near the Hawthorns ground, cars being stabled, together with some remaining steam trams, at the small depot on the non-electrified bit between the “Woodman” and New Inns. The depot was not wired up, and the electric cars had to be towed in and out of the depot by steam tram engine. The Handsworth Council seems always to have had bad relations with the tramway company. The council used its powers to purchase the remaining steam tracks on 5 June 1903 and to lease them to the company until 1911, when the lease of the cable tramway would also expire.
In 1904 the Handsworth council rebuilt and electrified the steam tracks on this section, but at first did not provide an electrical supply, it being hoped that power could be taken from the West Bromwich section, which was owned and supplied by West Bromwich council. However the company was not on the best terms with that body either, and the formal lease had not yet been completed let alone signed, and no rental had been paid since electrification in 1902! By 8 September 1904, the contract had been signed and the company paid up, early next morning connected the new Handsworth section to the West Bromwich supply and ran its first electric car under power. Handsworth responded by parking its steam roller across the tracks, disconnecting the power supply and earthing the overhead wires. No trams ran in this part of Handsworth until a new lease agreement was completed on 1 October 1904. Trams ran from New Inns to Dudley and Wednesbury, with occasional excursion workings at weekends and bank holidays to Kinver, which must have been an experience.
In 1909 Handsworth purchased the cable tramway between New Inns and Hockley, and leased it to the company and obtained powers to rebuild and electrify it by the expiry date of 30 June 1911. From the next day, 1 July 1911, electric services ran from the ‘Woodman’ through to Colmore Row, operated by Birmingham Corporation. On 9 November 1911 the Urban District of Handsworth was taken over by the City of Birmingham, together with many outlying areas such as Aston Manor, Erdington, Yardley, Moseley, Kings Heath and Selly Oak.
By 1911, Birmingham Corporation already had a fleet of 360 electric cars, which was growing rapidly as new routes were opened and the last of the company routes were taken over. By 1913 the fleet totalled 450 cars less than ten years old plus a motley collection of 61 ex-company cars, after which a new type of car was introduced which was to become the workhorse of the Soho Road routes for the next 25 years, the 512 - 586 class. During 1912, a new “Black Country Through Car” service was operated by the South Staffordshire Company between Snow Hill Station and Darlaston (later cut back to Wednesbury) using Corporation tracks within Birmingham. On 20 November the Lozells routes via Wheeler Street and via Hamstead Road were opened, and the branch from Soho Road to Grove Lane and Oxhill Road followed on December 1912. The Corporation also started its first bus service in 1913,
World War 1 brought few changes to then trams, except for a new route numbering scheme which the Corporation introduced in 1915. The outer termini of the tram routes running at that time were numbered very roughly clockwise from 12 o’clock, for the northern half, then anticlockwise for the south, so 1 was Stockland Green and 2 was Erdington, 3 was Witton via Six Ways and 3X Witton via Aston Cross. 4 was a real bastard - Stoney Lane, off Stratford Road in the south, but 5 was Lozells and Gravelly Hill, 6 was Perry Barr, and 7 was Nechells, 8, 9 and 10 were Alum Rock, Ward End and Washwood Heath, and so it went on. After Bolton Road 22, we somehow got Colmore Row to Handsworth (Woodman) as 23, the two Lozells routes as 24 and 25, Oxhill Road as 26, Stafford Road, by the Library as 27 and New Inns as 28. In addition to material, and cash shortages the early post-war days saw grandiose plans for the future, with new homes for heroes, and plenty of wide new roads to serve them. Most of the new houses were semi-detached and some of the wider roads were laid out with a dual carriageway, as in Island Road. But most of Handsworth was already built up, and so people (mainly the younger ones) moved out to new areas like Great Barr, Kingstanding and Perry Barr.
Until 1924 Birmingham Corporation buses and trams never ran outside the city boundary, but in the previous year West Bromwich started negotiations withy Birmingham over running its trams through that borough after the lease to the South Staffs Company expired on 31 March 1904. Birmingham was already supplying gas and electricity outside its territory and the Municipal Bank (God bless it) had branches outside the city, so it wasn’t such an incredible thing. Birmingham agreed, and took over the through route as far as Wednesbury (75) and opened another through route to Dudley (74) on 1 April 1924. West Bromwich paid towards the maintenance of the extra cars, and received all the fare revenue - ‘special’ tickets with two crosses printed on them were issued for journeys outside the city, and these were accounted for separately.
During the 1920s the design of the double deck motor bus made great strides, and the new AEC Regent brought out in 1929 proved a winner. But the Soho Road trams continued to run until after the agreement with West Bromwich expired at the end of 1938, owing to a delay in obtaining new replacement buses. The last trams ran on Soho Road on 1 April 1939, replaced next day by buses run jointly by Birmingham and West Bromwich Corporations.
My special memories
Although I was only 5 years old I was intensely interested in the Soho Road trams and knew them quite well, as my grandparents lived in Grasmere Road. I especially remember the little depot at the “Woodman”, which was normally used only for parking football specials when the Albion was playing at home. Just by the grounds, the tram tracks divided into four and the kerbside tracks were used to store and load home-bound football supporters going into Brum and the Black Country.
I remember that the staple diet of tramway men was tea, which was dispensed outside Hockley depot in enamel pots and drunk out of a enamel mug. I was impressed to see a driver using both hands to pour out his tea while ascending Soho Hill. Once over the top, past Villa Road, and we coasted down to the stop at Soho Road station, as he wound his brake on and sipped his tea before the car had come to a standstill.
Fifteen years later at Miller Street depot I was looking round a tram that had once run on the Soho Road routes, and was then about to be broken. Under some panelling I found some old ’special’ tickets which had been issued beyond the Boundary in West Bromwich.
Only a year after the cable trams began, the other part of the original horse tramway in Birmingham - along the Bristol Road - was also re-gauged and “modernised”, in this case using electric cars powered by lead-acid accumulators beneath the passenger seats (not a Health and Safety recommendation!). Overhead-powered electric tramways became the obvious choice - indeed the South Staffs Tramways company opened its own pioneer line between Wednesbury and Walsall on 1 January 1893. Within Birmingham the city fathers wanted to see underground conduit supply rather than unsightly overhead wires, and from 1897 the City Council was locked in dispute with the new British Electric Traction Company, which was acquiring all the private tramway systems with a view to electrifying them, insisting on the expensive and technically problematical conduit system rather than straightforward overhead wires. By 1900 the company finally won agreement to erect wires on the Bristol Road, to get rid of the potentially lethal battery cars, and from then onwards the overhead wire system had proved its point.
Again the Black Country was quicker off the mark as the South Staffs steam tramways in West Bromwich were rebuilt and electrified by 19 December 1902 between Carters Green and the ”Woodman” near the Hawthorns ground, cars being stabled, together with some remaining steam trams, at the small depot on the non-electrified bit between the “Woodman” and New Inns. The depot was not wired up, and the electric cars had to be towed in and out of the depot by steam tram engine. The Handsworth Council seems always to have had bad relations with the tramway company. The council used its powers to purchase the remaining steam tracks on 5 June 1903 and to lease them to the company until 1911, when the lease of the cable tramway would also expire.
In 1904 the Handsworth council rebuilt and electrified the steam tracks on this section, but at first did not provide an electrical supply, it being hoped that power could be taken from the West Bromwich section, which was owned and supplied by West Bromwich council. However the company was not on the best terms with that body either, and the formal lease had not yet been completed let alone signed, and no rental had been paid since electrification in 1902! By 8 September 1904, the contract had been signed and the company paid up, early next morning connected the new Handsworth section to the West Bromwich supply and ran its first electric car under power. Handsworth responded by parking its steam roller across the tracks, disconnecting the power supply and earthing the overhead wires. No trams ran in this part of Handsworth until a new lease agreement was completed on 1 October 1904. Trams ran from New Inns to Dudley and Wednesbury, with occasional excursion workings at weekends and bank holidays to Kinver, which must have been an experience.
In 1909 Handsworth purchased the cable tramway between New Inns and Hockley, and leased it to the company and obtained powers to rebuild and electrify it by the expiry date of 30 June 1911. From the next day, 1 July 1911, electric services ran from the ‘Woodman’ through to Colmore Row, operated by Birmingham Corporation. On 9 November 1911 the Urban District of Handsworth was taken over by the City of Birmingham, together with many outlying areas such as Aston Manor, Erdington, Yardley, Moseley, Kings Heath and Selly Oak.
By 1911, Birmingham Corporation already had a fleet of 360 electric cars, which was growing rapidly as new routes were opened and the last of the company routes were taken over. By 1913 the fleet totalled 450 cars less than ten years old plus a motley collection of 61 ex-company cars, after which a new type of car was introduced which was to become the workhorse of the Soho Road routes for the next 25 years, the 512 - 586 class. During 1912, a new “Black Country Through Car” service was operated by the South Staffordshire Company between Snow Hill Station and Darlaston (later cut back to Wednesbury) using Corporation tracks within Birmingham. On 20 November the Lozells routes via Wheeler Street and via Hamstead Road were opened, and the branch from Soho Road to Grove Lane and Oxhill Road followed on December 1912. The Corporation also started its first bus service in 1913,
World War 1 brought few changes to then trams, except for a new route numbering scheme which the Corporation introduced in 1915. The outer termini of the tram routes running at that time were numbered very roughly clockwise from 12 o’clock, for the northern half, then anticlockwise for the south, so 1 was Stockland Green and 2 was Erdington, 3 was Witton via Six Ways and 3X Witton via Aston Cross. 4 was a real bastard - Stoney Lane, off Stratford Road in the south, but 5 was Lozells and Gravelly Hill, 6 was Perry Barr, and 7 was Nechells, 8, 9 and 10 were Alum Rock, Ward End and Washwood Heath, and so it went on. After Bolton Road 22, we somehow got Colmore Row to Handsworth (Woodman) as 23, the two Lozells routes as 24 and 25, Oxhill Road as 26, Stafford Road, by the Library as 27 and New Inns as 28. In addition to material, and cash shortages the early post-war days saw grandiose plans for the future, with new homes for heroes, and plenty of wide new roads to serve them. Most of the new houses were semi-detached and some of the wider roads were laid out with a dual carriageway, as in Island Road. But most of Handsworth was already built up, and so people (mainly the younger ones) moved out to new areas like Great Barr, Kingstanding and Perry Barr.
Until 1924 Birmingham Corporation buses and trams never ran outside the city boundary, but in the previous year West Bromwich started negotiations withy Birmingham over running its trams through that borough after the lease to the South Staffs Company expired on 31 March 1904. Birmingham was already supplying gas and electricity outside its territory and the Municipal Bank (God bless it) had branches outside the city, so it wasn’t such an incredible thing. Birmingham agreed, and took over the through route as far as Wednesbury (75) and opened another through route to Dudley (74) on 1 April 1924. West Bromwich paid towards the maintenance of the extra cars, and received all the fare revenue - ‘special’ tickets with two crosses printed on them were issued for journeys outside the city, and these were accounted for separately.
During the 1920s the design of the double deck motor bus made great strides, and the new AEC Regent brought out in 1929 proved a winner. But the Soho Road trams continued to run until after the agreement with West Bromwich expired at the end of 1938, owing to a delay in obtaining new replacement buses. The last trams ran on Soho Road on 1 April 1939, replaced next day by buses run jointly by Birmingham and West Bromwich Corporations.
My special memories
Although I was only 5 years old I was intensely interested in the Soho Road trams and knew them quite well, as my grandparents lived in Grasmere Road. I especially remember the little depot at the “Woodman”, which was normally used only for parking football specials when the Albion was playing at home. Just by the grounds, the tram tracks divided into four and the kerbside tracks were used to store and load home-bound football supporters going into Brum and the Black Country.
I remember that the staple diet of tramway men was tea, which was dispensed outside Hockley depot in enamel pots and drunk out of a enamel mug. I was impressed to see a driver using both hands to pour out his tea while ascending Soho Hill. Once over the top, past Villa Road, and we coasted down to the stop at Soho Road station, as he wound his brake on and sipped his tea before the car had come to a standstill.
Fifteen years later at Miller Street depot I was looking round a tram that had once run on the Soho Road routes, and was then about to be broken. Under some panelling I found some old ’special’ tickets which had been issued beyond the Boundary in West Bromwich.
