• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Birmingham Trams

Alf,
the doors were locked i made a mistake that is a Swansea tram there is just the front end of the Swansea and Mumbles tram at the back of the yellow one.
 
Here is an early view of an open balcony car in strange colours at Aston Cross, and before Ansells set up their brewery here.
 
heres a couple for you tram experts out there...sorry if they have been posted before...

pic 1 corner of bromsgrove st/hurst st dated 1939

pic 2..a totally deserted bradford st...dated 1939...i like this one...

lyn...
 
On my grandfather's death certificate it has that he was a discharged soldier but pre viously a tram conductor - what would the tram have looked like in 1917 - I'm sure someone will have aphoto so thank you
in advance,
Sheri
 
sheri said:
On my grandfather's death certificate it has that he was a discharged soldier but pre viously a tram conductor - what would the tram have looked like in 1917 - I'm sure someone will have aphoto so thank you
in advance,
Sheri
Click to expand...

Here you are Sheri this is a typical tram that was operating during the wartime 1917 period. You can also get a good idea of the uniform your grandfather would have worn. He would have issued tickets from a ticket rack and punched a cancellation hole in each one with the Bell Punch as worn by the conductor in this photo.
Mike
 
Hi Motorman- Mike, thank you so much for your reply - the tram was more uptodate than I thought - it's interesting to see what my grandfather did for a living - I thin k it must have been only a short time as he was a very sick man.
Sheri
 
Alf, "The Resident Diplomat?", "Pretty, no not you Len", is very undiplomatic & i am sobbing into the largest looking glass (mirror to you!) i have. Len.
 
Cheer up Len, how about this superb colour shot of car 706 with the summer jacketed crew chatting away their break at the Short Heath Bundy clock on the 78 route.
 
Can anybody answer this query from another forum, did trams ever turn out of New Street into the bottom of Corporation St. If so could you give information on route or numbers and the years they ran for. Thanks so much.
 
I'm certain that no trams ran from News St to the bottom of Corparation St, Buses Yes not trams.

If you look at old pictures you will find overhead lighting but not over head power cables.
 
They did not run all the way along Corporation but they did run from Martineau St. past Lewisses and the old square and then turned down to Coleshill St. right up to the end of service.
 
It's almost traffic free in Bordesley Green as open balcony car 337 with Picture Post eyes leaves the old Fire Station stop heading for Stechford.
 
Hi Trev, I wonder if the men who laid the track were related to the ones who
dug out the canels many years before, or had they all returned to Ireland?
bye for now Bernard
 
Bernard67Arnold said:
Hi Trev, I wonder if the men who laid the track were related to the ones who
dug out the canels many years before, or had they all returned to Ireland?
bye for now Bernard
Click to expand...

Certainly after railways came along replacing canals the 'Navvies' who dug the cuts and tunnels moved to the generally similar work of altering the landscape for the new tracks. Early street tramway tracks were often laid by contractors, and I suppose the same men could have found work with them. The laying of cobblestones in the road (tramway operators were required to pave and repair roadway between, and 18 inches to either side, of the track) was done by Paviours, and being again a labour-intensive job they probably did that as well.
 
Track benders like that (sometimes called 'Jim Crows') are still used on railways today. Here's a modern hydraulic one.
 
Laying tram track, particularly on new routes, was extremely disruptive to any other traffic, and in pre motorcar days, streets were just closed. Here's Broad Street Worcester during what became known as the "tramway siege" when roads in the centre were closed for weeks at a time.
 
How about this for a siege, tracklaying for the old London County Council tramway that had the added complication of conduit pickup instead of overhead wires. We will get to see a siege in Corporation street when the Metro extends. Must get some photos when the time comes if I haven't popped my clogs by then:D
 
motorman-mike said:
We will get to see a siege in Corporation street when the Metro extends. :D
Click to expand...
Personally, I hope it never happens. What a white elephant the metro has been - the trams only seat 58, need a conductor because the original ticketing system didn't allow for defrauders who just rode free, they can't be run in multiple unit or tow trailers, and are ten years old now so quite a way through their working life (well, except no7 which stood out of use for eight years donating parts to keep the others running!).
If you're going to have a street tramway, do it properly, not use a closed railway line where the stations aren't where people live or want to go. Croydon tramlink, for example, has articulated cars that can move 200 people, and they are integrated with the road network as well as having high-speed (50 mph) separated lines between the various centres of population (remember the Bristol Road central reservation reserved track? Oh that we could bring it back now, with cars like this.)
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s-OPm8rFws"]YouTube- London Trams -2- Croydon to Wimbledon[/ame]
 
Thanks Lloyd for the U-tube piece on Croydon Tramlink. For over 40 years I have lived a few minutes walk from East Croydon station, where that film starts, and was I quite active in promoting for the tramway project, later living through the construction and reconstruction of the system. (The overall planning was fine, but the technical design could have been done by sixth-formers, and much of the building was done by cowboys, each sub-contractor certifying that his work satisfied the terms of his contract, without any outside supervision. The result was a lot of rubbish, which has been rebuilt at vast expense, paid for exclusively by the London ratepayers.
[Meanwhile the original contractors and sub-contractors, members of the public-private partnership, after taking their 'share' had spent vast sums of money on accountants, lawyers etc. to sort out internal squabbles over who was really to blame for all the mistakes].
Serious rebuilding the track started early this year and a vast amount has now been done, although there are some still some tricky little bits around the points between single- and double-track sections on the ballasted track, where the hired tamper can't do what has to be done with the human eye and hands.
Being a bit more cheerful, I would recommend anyone interested to visit the Nottingham tramway, opened five years later in 2004. Much, much more successful, although I can't say that our Croydon has been a failure. It's often packed out!
Peter
 
Going on right now in Edinburgh is this upheaval for their new tramway. Pity they didn't keep the original one they had with handsome cars like 237 here,and upgrade it over the years the same as Birmingham should have done.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top