Peter Walker
gone but not forgotten
The early history - steam trams
Witton tram shed was built in 1882 to house the steam trams which first operated a public service between the Old Square and Witton. The main shed still survives, with its inscription “BOROUGH OF ASTON MANOR TRAMWAYS DEPOT”, and four arched entrances and tracks dividing into seven dividing inside the hall. To the left of the main shed was the locomotive shed, entered off he road by a single track. The steam trams were very small and boxy compared with the bulk of the long double deck trailers, and the fires had to be looked after all night and steam pressure raised next day in time for service. But they were more powerful and efficient than horses, and lasted over 20 years. The passenger trailer cars were licensed to carry 60, but twice that number were carried for special events at the Aston Lower Grounds or the Serpentine Ground.
The depot and all the street tracks were owned by the Borough of Aston Manor, but leased to the Birmingham and Aston Tramways Company. Part of the original proposals was a loop round the Lower Grounds, from Aston Church along Trinity Road, Bevington Road and Witton Lane, which was opened for occasional service for special events in 1884. A branch was built under the same terms from Aston Cross to Salford Bridge and opened on 25 February 1885. Meanwhile the Birmingham Central Tramways Company opened steam tram routes from the Old Square to Perry Barr (where they built a depot) and later to Lozells, Villa Cross via Six Ways. New tracks were built along Witton Road from Six Ways to Bevington Road in 1887, but these were operated by Birmingham Central Company steam trams.
Electric trams
By the turn of the century, electric trams were in regular use elsewhere, and a big national corporation, the British Electrical Traction Company Ltd (BET), was set up in 1896 to take over existing horse and steam tramways, to electrify and operate them. Between 1897 and 1902 the BET acquired most of the tramway companies in Birmingham and the Black Country. Most of the smaller town were happy with this arrangement, but Birmingham, Walsall and Wolverhampton obtained parliamentary powers to operate tramways themselves, taking in the leases to existing companies as they expired or by other arrangements.
The Birmingham & Aston Tramways company’s lease expired at the end of 1903, and during that year, the company was taken over by the BET and Birmingham Corporation rebuilt and electrified the tracks southwards from the city boundary at Aston Brook Street to a new terminus in Steelhouse Lane, next to Snow Hill Station, together with a new depot in Miller Street, to the approval of the Board of Trade on 28 December 1903. Corporation trams started to run as for as Aston Brook Street, and passengers then had to change on to steam trams (which I guess reversed on the triangle leading to Miller Street depot) to get Witton or Salford Bridge. By 16 June 1904 the electrics ran through to Aston Cross, where the connecting steamers had to reverse, and by 19 September 1904 company electric trams ran through to Aston Church - presumably for the first few weeks the depot was being electrified and the company electric cars may have been stabled at Miller until Witton depot was ready and company cars ran through from Steelhouse Lane to Witton on 6 October 1904. The route to Salford Bridge was electrified on 14 November 1904.
It is on record that the 27 old steam locomotives cost between £625 and £895 each when new, and were sold for £25 to £45 each, while the 26 passenger trailers cost £220 to £250 each when new, and went for scrap at between £3 and £5. A year earlier, Birmingham Corporation paid £537.10.0 each for their new electric cars.
The old Borough of Aston Manor was merged into the City of Birmingham in 1911, and the various properties of the City of Birmingham Tramways Company were taken over by the Birmingham Corporation Tramways Department on 1 July 1911. The old locomotive depot was leased out - I think a firm named Birmingham Electrical Repairs was there in the 1930s and 1940s. The main depot remained in regular use until the rear part was badly bombed on 4 December 1940, bringing down part of the side wall on the right and most of the roof . All but two of the 38 cars housed there were damaged. Over the next month the damage was cleared, what was left of the cars was towed ( with the loose bits removed) to the back of Moseley Road depot, where there was spare room for them, while spare cars from other depots were used to keep services running, parked overnight on the Trinity Road / Bevington Road loop. By January, the depot had been cleared and dangerous structures removed, and new overhead wires supported by normal street poles erected within the depot were the wall had gone. At some time around 1946 (I wish I could remember when) the roof was replaced, and the depot came back into full normal use, until 31 December 1949, when the 3X route to Martineau Street was replaced by buses, The depot was still used for the Lozells 5 and some of the Short Heath 79 workings until 30 September 1950, when the Lozells route was closed. For the next few months the depot was used as an abattoir by the contractor W T Bird to cut the cars up into pieces which were transported to their yard near Stratford on Avon. Then followed an quiet time at the depot, with a few redundant cars being broken up in 1951, until most of the old Bristol Road cars were broken up there after that abandonment on 5 July 1952. That took some time, as there were well over 100 cars to deal with, and then it was time for the final abandonment in July 1953. As the big depot at Miller Street was to be converted for buses, it was decided to out-stable 30 or so of the cars from there every night at Witton from November 1952 until the final abandonment on 4 July 1953
My special memories
I became fairly familiar with Witton tram shed after I started at Aston Grammar in 1944, using the 3X and 5 trams a often as I could find an excuse.
Over the Easter school holidays in 1950 I paid many visits to the depot, where a few young fellow members of the Light Railway Transport League had inveigled themselves into into the maintenance engineers’ office in the evenings. Their den was in the right-hand corner at the back of the shed. They had quite a good view of the rest of the depot, and had the basic requirements for their job, a workbench, a table, plenty of chairs, stove, and they were provided with adequate coke and cooking materials, There were three or four men on duty each night, with various jobs to do. Somehow they all found time to talk to us, which I think they enjoyed as much as we did. The conversation was entirely about trams (although this was right next to the Villa ground) and we were taken through, underneath and on the roofs of the cars. They let us do a few simple jobs on the cars ourselves, like filling the sand hoppers for braking. This was quite unofficial of course, although the Manager, Arthur Chantry Baker had a policy of encouraging serious interest, and his successor Wilfred Smith on retirement became President of the Omnibus Society.
Birmingham trams may have been old and narrow-gutted, but they were always well maintained.
Peter Walker
Witton tram shed was built in 1882 to house the steam trams which first operated a public service between the Old Square and Witton. The main shed still survives, with its inscription “BOROUGH OF ASTON MANOR TRAMWAYS DEPOT”, and four arched entrances and tracks dividing into seven dividing inside the hall. To the left of the main shed was the locomotive shed, entered off he road by a single track. The steam trams were very small and boxy compared with the bulk of the long double deck trailers, and the fires had to be looked after all night and steam pressure raised next day in time for service. But they were more powerful and efficient than horses, and lasted over 20 years. The passenger trailer cars were licensed to carry 60, but twice that number were carried for special events at the Aston Lower Grounds or the Serpentine Ground.
The depot and all the street tracks were owned by the Borough of Aston Manor, but leased to the Birmingham and Aston Tramways Company. Part of the original proposals was a loop round the Lower Grounds, from Aston Church along Trinity Road, Bevington Road and Witton Lane, which was opened for occasional service for special events in 1884. A branch was built under the same terms from Aston Cross to Salford Bridge and opened on 25 February 1885. Meanwhile the Birmingham Central Tramways Company opened steam tram routes from the Old Square to Perry Barr (where they built a depot) and later to Lozells, Villa Cross via Six Ways. New tracks were built along Witton Road from Six Ways to Bevington Road in 1887, but these were operated by Birmingham Central Company steam trams.
Electric trams
By the turn of the century, electric trams were in regular use elsewhere, and a big national corporation, the British Electrical Traction Company Ltd (BET), was set up in 1896 to take over existing horse and steam tramways, to electrify and operate them. Between 1897 and 1902 the BET acquired most of the tramway companies in Birmingham and the Black Country. Most of the smaller town were happy with this arrangement, but Birmingham, Walsall and Wolverhampton obtained parliamentary powers to operate tramways themselves, taking in the leases to existing companies as they expired or by other arrangements.
The Birmingham & Aston Tramways company’s lease expired at the end of 1903, and during that year, the company was taken over by the BET and Birmingham Corporation rebuilt and electrified the tracks southwards from the city boundary at Aston Brook Street to a new terminus in Steelhouse Lane, next to Snow Hill Station, together with a new depot in Miller Street, to the approval of the Board of Trade on 28 December 1903. Corporation trams started to run as for as Aston Brook Street, and passengers then had to change on to steam trams (which I guess reversed on the triangle leading to Miller Street depot) to get Witton or Salford Bridge. By 16 June 1904 the electrics ran through to Aston Cross, where the connecting steamers had to reverse, and by 19 September 1904 company electric trams ran through to Aston Church - presumably for the first few weeks the depot was being electrified and the company electric cars may have been stabled at Miller until Witton depot was ready and company cars ran through from Steelhouse Lane to Witton on 6 October 1904. The route to Salford Bridge was electrified on 14 November 1904.
It is on record that the 27 old steam locomotives cost between £625 and £895 each when new, and were sold for £25 to £45 each, while the 26 passenger trailers cost £220 to £250 each when new, and went for scrap at between £3 and £5. A year earlier, Birmingham Corporation paid £537.10.0 each for their new electric cars.
The old Borough of Aston Manor was merged into the City of Birmingham in 1911, and the various properties of the City of Birmingham Tramways Company were taken over by the Birmingham Corporation Tramways Department on 1 July 1911. The old locomotive depot was leased out - I think a firm named Birmingham Electrical Repairs was there in the 1930s and 1940s. The main depot remained in regular use until the rear part was badly bombed on 4 December 1940, bringing down part of the side wall on the right and most of the roof . All but two of the 38 cars housed there were damaged. Over the next month the damage was cleared, what was left of the cars was towed ( with the loose bits removed) to the back of Moseley Road depot, where there was spare room for them, while spare cars from other depots were used to keep services running, parked overnight on the Trinity Road / Bevington Road loop. By January, the depot had been cleared and dangerous structures removed, and new overhead wires supported by normal street poles erected within the depot were the wall had gone. At some time around 1946 (I wish I could remember when) the roof was replaced, and the depot came back into full normal use, until 31 December 1949, when the 3X route to Martineau Street was replaced by buses, The depot was still used for the Lozells 5 and some of the Short Heath 79 workings until 30 September 1950, when the Lozells route was closed. For the next few months the depot was used as an abattoir by the contractor W T Bird to cut the cars up into pieces which were transported to their yard near Stratford on Avon. Then followed an quiet time at the depot, with a few redundant cars being broken up in 1951, until most of the old Bristol Road cars were broken up there after that abandonment on 5 July 1952. That took some time, as there were well over 100 cars to deal with, and then it was time for the final abandonment in July 1953. As the big depot at Miller Street was to be converted for buses, it was decided to out-stable 30 or so of the cars from there every night at Witton from November 1952 until the final abandonment on 4 July 1953
My special memories
I became fairly familiar with Witton tram shed after I started at Aston Grammar in 1944, using the 3X and 5 trams a often as I could find an excuse.
Over the Easter school holidays in 1950 I paid many visits to the depot, where a few young fellow members of the Light Railway Transport League had inveigled themselves into into the maintenance engineers’ office in the evenings. Their den was in the right-hand corner at the back of the shed. They had quite a good view of the rest of the depot, and had the basic requirements for their job, a workbench, a table, plenty of chairs, stove, and they were provided with adequate coke and cooking materials, There were three or four men on duty each night, with various jobs to do. Somehow they all found time to talk to us, which I think they enjoyed as much as we did. The conversation was entirely about trams (although this was right next to the Villa ground) and we were taken through, underneath and on the roofs of the cars. They let us do a few simple jobs on the cars ourselves, like filling the sand hoppers for braking. This was quite unofficial of course, although the Manager, Arthur Chantry Baker had a policy of encouraging serious interest, and his successor Wilfred Smith on retirement became President of the Omnibus Society.
Birmingham trams may have been old and narrow-gutted, but they were always well maintained.
Peter Walker
