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Getting on the tram

There were basically just two hand controls and a foot pedal. There was the controller which regulated the speed and the brake handle which is a winch so you wind it in or out to apply the brakes. Because Birmingham (and Black Country) trams were narrow gauge the cab was not wide enough for the driver to turn the handle, you could always tell a Birmingham tram in a black and white photo because the lower right window of the cab had the glass replaced with a metal place with a bulge in it so that there was room for the drivers hand on the handle. This controlled the mechanical hand brake.

The controller could be pulled right back to operate electrical braking which in an emergency will operate electromagnets against the track. For more technical information on tram brakes see

Finally the foot pedal operates the bell which should be rung every time the tram moves away from a stop.
 
DavidGrain said:
There were basically just two hand controls and a foot pedal. There was the controller which regulated the speed and the brake handle which is a winch so you wind it in or out to apply the brakes. Because Birmingham (and Black Country) trams were narrow gauge the cab was not wide enough for the driver to turn the handle, you could always tell a Birmingham tram in a black and white photo because the lower right window of the cab had the glass replaced with a metal place with a bulge in it so that there was room for the drivers hand on the handle. This controlled the mechanical hand brake.

The controller could be pulled right back to operate electrical braking which in an emergency will operate electromagnets against the track. For more technical information on tram brakes see

Finally the foot pedal operates the bell which should be rung every time the tram moves away from a stop.
Click to expand...
David
Thank you very much, a mystery from my youth solved.

Bob
 
So a little off thread at first I worked with a retired fireman in the 70's and he told me that driving the truck with the water was the hardest to stop, the water would hold enough energy to push the engine through the traffic light under braking.
I am now wondering how good the brakes were on a tram and how were the brakes affected with more folks on board, and weather the bottom of the Lickey road on a bank holiday heading back to town was a nail biter.
I am pretty sure some of those "Motor Men" had a little need for speed once in a while, the Bristol Road had a two or three hills that could satisfy this need ?.
I recall once in a while in my youth being on board a bus that was flying we just thought he was behind schedule ?, of course now thinking about it that poor bloke driving may have had other needs.
 
What I should of spoke about in my last post I am sure no one would have been getting on a tram going down the Lickey Road on a bank holiday as the tram would have been packed liked sardines.
So no stopping to pick up but that tram must have been on the brakes all the way down.
 
Part of photo below of a tram driver shown on Robert Darlaston's website.
I remember when a tram reached the terminus the driver spun the brake wheel presumably to unwind any brake action at that end of the tram before he went to drive it from the other end. I used to hear a ratchet making a clicking sound. Look at the sharp edges on those steps.
Driver.jpg
from
 
oldMohawk said:
Part of photo below of a tram driver shown on Robert Darlaston's website.
I remember when a tram reached the terminus the driver spun the brake wheel presumably to unwind any brake action at that end of the tram before he went to drive it from the other end. I used to hear a ratchet making a clicking sound. Look at the sharp edges on those steps.
View attachment 137723
from
Click to expand...
Thank you a wonderful link great read with some wonderful pictures and great information
Now keeping with the thread getting on and off a tram must have been a little inconvenient first of all for the motor man he stood in front of the steps and must have had to move all the time.
 
So I wish I could talk to a motorman, did that sheet metal with the bulge in cause a blind spot when loading and unloading
Then just a question why not fit a smaller wheel ?, and keep the glass
I wonder if a jump seat was ever tried as a regular seat would have gotten in the way ?. standing all that time must have been uncomfortable after a while.

Just a little tidbit we did not how to bend glass never mind put a bulge in it, that is why all trams buses and cars had a flat windshield, and to give a raked or swept look two windshields were used with a center devision.
 
Robert Ensor (bob) said:
Thank you a wonderful link great read with some wonderful pictures and great information
Now keeping with the thread getting on and off a tram must have been a little inconvenient first of all for the motor man he stood in front of the steps and must have had to move all the time.
Click to expand...
No, you could only get off and on at the non driven end.
Bob
 
I have a vague memory of the conductor turning the brake handle and I wondered why. Perhaps it was the conductor's job to apply the back brake at the terminus so that the driver could release the brake at the front.
 
DavidGrain said:
I have a vague memory of the conductor turning the brake handle and I wondered why. Perhaps it was the conductor's job to apply the back brake at the terminus so that the driver could release the brake at the front.
Click to expand...
You are right, that did used to happen thank you for your vague memory, he did that and then got out and swing the trolley pole. The memories return post by post. Then he did the same before the tram moved off. Now was the bell a big push thing that was hit with the whole hand and a wire like the Routemaster attached to the ceiling ran through each saloon?
Bob
 
I can remember the cable pull of the bell on pre-war built Midland Reds which lasted until the mid 1950s. I did not ride on BCT buses in those days. I was amazed when I was in London on the Routemasters, supposed to be the most advanced bus in their day, that London still had cable pulls. But then London Underground trains still have whistles, admittedly now blown by compressed air rather than steam.
 
The cord-pull bells had the advantage they could be reached anywhere along the saloon, not just where the pushes were (BCT over the pillars between the windows, Mid Red on the ceiling). Routemasters were the last buses to have them.
 
Robert Ensor (bob) said:
So a little off thread at first I worked with a retired fireman in the 70's and he told me that driving the truck with the water was the hardest to stop, the water would hold enough energy to push the engine through the traffic light under braking.
I am now wondering how good the brakes were on a tram and how were the brakes affected with more folks on board, and weather the bottom of the Lickey road on a bank holiday heading back to town was a nail biter.
I am pretty sure some of those "Motor Men" had a little need for speed once in a while, the Bristol Road had a two or three hills that could satisfy this need ?.
I recall once in a while in my youth being on board a bus that was flying we just thought he was behind schedule ?, of course now thinking about it that poor bloke driving may have had other needs.
Click to expand...
The trams were powered by electric motors and their brakes were mainly through the motor, which were pretty good and reliable as long as there was power (electricity). The buses on the other hand was another story.....the brakes were marginal at best and the more passengers there were the harder it was to stop! Some years ago I did some locomotive brake development work, some of the stories from the older guys was really scary. Not only weren't the brakes that good they did not last very long!
 
Richarddye said:
The trams were powered by electric motors and their brakes were mainly through the motor, which were pretty good and reliable as long as there was power (electricity). The buses on the other hand was another story.....the brakes were marginal at best and the more passengers there were the harder it was to stop! Some years ago I did some locomotive brake development work, some of the stories from the older guys was really scary. Not only weren't the brakes that good they did not last very long!
Click to expand...

Trams had several brake options - via the motor, as a generator, either by feeding the overhead line (regenerative braking) or through the control resistances (rheostatic braking); via brake shoes on the wheels (applied mechanically, by a handle or by air or by hydraulics [Birmingham used a combination, the Spencer - Dawson air-oil brake]); and by track brakes, where a magnetic shoe energised by electricity either from the overhead or the motor generating it was strongly attracted to the track to rub along it. The only problems with all these brakes was sliding on wet or greasy track. Buses only moved from two- to four-wheel brakes in the late '20s, operated by rods from the driver's pedal, sometimes assisted by vacuum or, more rarely until the 50s, air. Correctly maintained and adjusted, they worked within the (now) current regulations for bus brakes.
 
I remember travelling on a Walsall Corporation trolley bus. The cord pull ran along the ceiling downstairs then went up to the top of the stairs where it had a large knot in it to stop it getting lost. This meant that the the conductor, if he was collecting fares upstairs, had to come to the top of the stairs where he could see the platform to ring the bell.
 
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