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The Soho Road trams - 2: the cable trams, 1888 - 1911

P

Peter Walker

gone but not forgotten
The second (cable) tramway
As population grew, traffic on the Soho Road tramway increased, while proposals for a new 3ft 6in gauge tramway outside Birmingham, between Darlaston and New Inns were mooted in 1881 and opened as a steam tramway by the South Staffordshire Tramways Co Ltd on 16 July 1883. In Birmingham and Handsworth there was local pressure against steam traction and, after investigation into recent projects in San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia and a visit to the new cable tramway on Highgate Hill in London, it was agreed that the two councils would rebuild the old standard-gauge horse tramway from Colmore Row to New Inns as a cable tramway to 3ft 6in gauge. Work started in 1887, while a bus service was operated by the company, and the new line opened as far as Hockley Brook on 24 March 1888, extended to New Inns on 20 April 1888. Two continuous loops of steel cable ran on pulleys in channels between the rails from either terminus to Hockley Brook, where they entered the stationary steam engine house next to the depot. The were propelled a movable gripper device which could be manipulated to clutch on to the moving cable, but starting and stopping must have been very jerky, and the multi-stranded cables tended to fray. Nevertheless the system continued to operate for 23 years.
 
Peter, Any idea when this was used as I found it in an old tin box many years ago, I should image it was on the hat of a driver of the tram
 
Crom, I've only just seen your posting from ages ago, when I was offline. I would guess that the badge dates back to the first ten years of Corporation trams from 1904, before they started operating buses as well. In that period they built up a fleet of over 500 trams, so they would have had a very large number of drivers and conductors. Alfred Baker, the first manager, was a stickler for smartness, and they may have had a very large number of those badges made. I wonder how many still exist today.
Peter
 
Chris, when I finish posting most of the other stuff I will start posting my badge collection on,which you will enjoy
 
Here's another one Rupert cable car no. 96, operating in Handsworth sometime between 1896 and 1911

Colin
 
Did the cable cars run on a cable system?

Rupert the link you posted has some paintings of Frank Lockwoods, the Artist who left behind a delightful series of local scenes, accompanied by his diaries. When I found his scetches I knew I was in for a long session:)

I also found a painting of Hamstead Mill for Loisand, thanks Rupert.
 
Yes the cable was in a trough in the ground between the rails. I think it was only on the Handsworth route. There is a drawing somewhere if I can find it I will post. The drive for the whole system was in Soho and the cars grabbed the cable to go and let go of it to stop. Must have been a bit of a jolt. Incidentally there is a super plan of the soho manufactury on this site; showing the Hockley Brook and the feed off to Aston Furnace. The Nursery just above the brook is shown. Know now why Nursery Road was so named.

Here it is..

https://jquarter.members.beeb.net/morepublictransport.htm
 
Cable trams

Hi, may I come in here? If you take the link to https://www.cablecarmuseum.org/mechanical.html these pages (click on the pictures) explain the workings of the San Francisco cable cars, which like the Handsworth cars uses the system devised by Andrew Hallidie. There were several cable tramways in the UK, Edinburgh's was probably the largest and Matlock's or Douglas, Isle of Man's the smallest. Glasgow's underground was originally cable-hauled also.
The cable winding gear and engines were at the depot (which later became Hockley bus depot) and a lot of the pulley wheels that used to carry the cables are still buried under the streets.
On the enclosed picture of a 'toastrack' type cable car, pictured in Hockley depot yard, the grip lever can be plainly seen. If you watch [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niyiK9L0FPM"]YouTube - San Francisco - Cable Car Grip Man[/ame] you can see the driver ('gripman') pulling on the cable-grip and brake levers, note how the grip handle moves as the car takes a corner - that's why the slot in the Handsworth car's dashboard seems large for the handle leaning through it.
The winding gear would have looked like that in [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FOp0U4ulr0"]YouTube - Cable car powerhouse, San Francisco[/ame] except that large steam engines, not electric motors, would have done the work. And remember, the cable's life is less than a year - and it's length in Handsworth was Colmore Row to the New Inns and back, plus the loop into the winding house!
Incidentally, the body of one of the double deck cable cars survives, currently in store at the Black Country Living Museum awaiting restoration after spending the majority of its life as a garden shed! Sadly it is not on view to the public, but is in excellent condition.
 
How did they turn the trams car round at the end of their journey? Presumably they couldn't have remained connected as the cable revolved around the drive wheel.
Wonderful posting and pictures so far TY
 
At the terminus...

Apollo said:
How did they turn the trams car round at the end of their journey?
Click to expand...

Unlike the San Francisco Powell-Hyde cars, which are single - ended and have to be turned at each end of the route, most cable trams were double ended, so as with an electric tram, the driver just goes to the other end and theres a duplicate set of controls.
I've just found this, a working Lego model with accurate cable gripping gear. The ingenuity of some people!
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLs937XeeGY"]YouTube - The LEGO Cable Car[/ame]
It's based on San Francisco's California Line cars, which are double ended.
 
Lloyd,

Sorry to be such a dim-wit:redface:

Did the Hockley system work on a continuos drive cable i.e. with a large drum/wheel at each end. That would be dual carriage-way drive one rope going one way and the the other in the opposite direction. My query is how; when the carriage got to the end it could reverse it's direction without going around the drum. If both cables ran together I can understand how the drive could be switched without turning round but that would need a points system to change track; is this the case?
 
The system was double tracked; allowing up and down trams to pass. In Colmore Row The rails just ended and the grab forks would presumably detach from the cable and grab onto onto the return cable when ready to go back. The cable would wind round a large pulley under the road surface and be directed back down the common trough by suitably placed horizontal cable pulleys for a short distance. The return grabbers (opposite end) would pick up on to this and once moving the car would be switched over to the return rails. For rounding bends the grabbers could be disconnected from the cable so as not to foul the pulley. Maybe short decline sections were allowed for this. Probably the driver would innitiate this operation. The site ref below shows the actual rails and by following down Snow Hill you will eventually arrive at the Soho terminus just south of Hockley Brook. This area is halowed ground indeed in the scheme of things being also home to Boultons Manufactory.
You might have to switch maps to get to the Soho end. I think you can just pick out the switches at the Colmore end if you zoom in using your mouse wheel whilst holding ctrl down.

https://www.british-history.ac.uk/m...d=10098&ox=1594&oy=893&zm=1&czm=1&x=333&y=145
 
Cable terminus

Not dim at all, shows you are thinking!
The trams could 'let go' of the cable (see the youtube video listed below if the Lego model's grip open and closed) and coast the last few yards to the terminus like the San Francisco ones do onto the turntable. Meanwhile pulley wheels carry the cable down to a large 'end of the line' wheel where it turns to go back, and regains operating level where the tram can grip it again. Imagine the tracks like a Y and the cable like a U under and slightly to one side of it, where the terminus is at the bottom.
It is likely that there were two cables, one from the depot (which was about half way between the route ends - I wonder if this is the reason it is where it is?) to town and back, and one to the New Inns and back. As the tram passes the point where the cable moves away from the track to the winding house, the driver has to release the grip and coast over the gap until the other cable starts - probably only a few yards. Note that the cars in San Francisco have to be pushed off the turntable by the crew (and tourists!) to where they can grip the cable again.
If the cable cars fascinate you, read https://www.streetcar.org/mim/cable/tales/index.html
which is Val Lupiz's online 'Tales from the grip'. Val is a San Francisco gripman. Some of the stories are fascinating, such as the crew who pushed their tram back to the depot when the cable broke, rather than wait for the tow truck.
and https://www.cable-car-guy.com/html/ccmain.html which details systems that used to operate all over the world. Strangely, Handsworth isn't mentioned!
 
Lloyd,

Ok with my innate technical ability (not) :D I can see how such a system could work using a series of cams and levers to avoid turning the carriage so that the driving position could be reversed. There could be a slight incline built into the track at the 'switching points' which would impart a rolling momentum from the release of the cable till it was picked up again. As with many wonders most of the workings would have been out of sight. It would be wonderful to see the drawing for this project.

Thanks again for such an interesting Topic. I guess this was the fore runner to many ski-lift type devices which also run on a continuous loop. I've seen elsewhere details of industrial Inclined plane systems used to transport coal and ore.
 
Apollo said:
Lloyd, I guess this was the fore runner to many ski-lift type devices which also run on a continuous loop. I've seen elsewhere details of industrial Inclined plane systems used to transport coal and ore.
Click to expand...

Actually, no. They use vehicles (or seats!) permanently attached to a cable, as do some cliff railways that counterbalance one car against another. In this system the cable is moving all the time and the cars have the ability to grab it and be pulled along - they are particularly suited to hilly areas as the wheels, not being the driving force, don't slip, and by gripping they can't go any faster downhill than the cable is going.
There is a disadvantage, if the cable breaks all of the cars stop, and if one or two of the cable strands breaks they can 'grab' a car's gripper, and haul it along whatever the driver does, as happened in San Francisco when Val Lupiz reported that he was laying over at California and Drumm (streets) when the cable unstranded and caught in the grip of car 52. 52 rear-ended Val's car, 59, and then pushed 59 into 54. No one was hurt, and the crews of 59 and 54 were able to throw the cable out of the grip and stop the procession. The cars were not damaged. The cable had to be spliced and the route was out of action for the rest of the day. His pic of the failed cable enclosed.
 
I can't answer this question with certainty, because I don't remember seeing any printed material about the Soho Road cable trams for nfifty years, and that was in a book which The old central Ref in Ratcliffe Place had - I often looked at it in those days. Its name was 'Tramways - their Consrruction and Working' by an Americn, D Kinnear Clarks, which was full of drawings. It was published in several editions around 1890, when electricity was quite new-fangled, and little or nothing had happened in Britain. The book has been reprinted and is still available for about £30 I believe.
I have assumed that there were two continuous cables that left the winding house at Whitmore Street, Hockley, later a bus depot of course. One did a right angle turn at the main road and went into town, terminating in Colmore Row by St Phillip's Churchyard. At this point there would have been a fairly large horizontal pulley wheel round which the which the cable would run and change direction back to Hockley. The other cale turned in the opposite direction and went as far as the New Inns. I cannot remember details of how the tram gripper was operated. It was on the clutch system, and must have been fairly flexibly mounted on the car platform, as the driver had to open the grip before stopping (with the aid of a ratchet wheel handbrake) and then slowly take a grip on the cable to start again. At Hockley Brook he would have to open thye grip and lift it above the cable before it reached the pulley leading to the engine house, and the drop it on the other side to take a grip on the other cable to continue his journey. In both directions he would have the adbvantage of a downhill graqdient to coast over the bit in between. At the two termini, it was more complicated, and I don't know whether the stub terminus had two slots beneath the rails, or perhaps the cars were manhandled empty over a crossover before hooking up on the return track in the opposite direction. Sadly there is no-one left to tell us more now .... it all disappeared in 1911.
Peter
 
Cable grip

Thought I'd find one somewhere!
From the San Francisco website, here's a diagram of a Hallidie grip, which was used by all cable tramways. Don't forget that the cable was running all the time, so the driver had to let go of the cable and brake every time a passenger wished to board or alight, then regrip to pull away. He also had to know where the underground pulley wheels were, to let the grip miss them, and of course where the cable ran to and from the depot. A hard and strenuous job, exposed in all weathers and standing up all day. The other pic shows a worker repairing a grip, (they can be lifted from the tram for maintenance) and you can see the slot where the cable runs and is gripped nearest to you.
 
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