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Tram images & Birmingham

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dib44

master brummie
Just killing a bit of time and found these photographs on eBay
dozens more, too many to go through.
 
How my Dad hated the tram tracks as the narrow tyres of his motorbike would follow them around a corner if he got into them.
 
Yeah I know what you mean, I once got caught in the tram lines on my bike and had to ride all the way to the depot before I could turn round.:D
 
dib44 said:
found these photographs on eBay
Click to expand...
The left photo is interesting, the car so close to the tram, the white painted rings on the lamp posts - war time feature. Also I should know what the strange object on the street corner is, but I can't remember...Nice photos, I've never used Ebay and I'm surprised someone would put photos on to sell without a watermark or similar. I've just saved the one to enlarge it so I could look more closely at the features. :)
 
Isn't the object on the corner a miniature police call box (as opposed to the Dr Who type). I don't remember them as white, but they were probably painted white for the blackout in the war (i was born in 43 so wouldn't remember)
Mike
 
Dib44,
I think both of those pics have been on this site before, and have spent half an hour trying to find where - without success. The first one was taken probably in late 1940 after the first air raids which for a short time made the tram tracks to Carrs Lane and Albert Street impassable, so they were diverted to Station Street, which had traditionally been an alternative in-town terminus for the Stratford Road and Coventry Road routes. The police box was a common pre-war feature before most people had a telephone. You had to break the glass press a cone-shaped brass button and a Mr Plod would ask you what was your problem. I think they all disappeared by 1950, but cannot say for certain - I never dreamt of using one.
The second pic is of the old Lodge Road 32 tram route, in Warstone Hill. At the top of the hill on the left you can see the Argent Centre, now the home of the Pen Museum, a wonderful institution several of us visited last weekend.
Peter
Peter
 
mikejee said:
Isn't the object on the corner a miniature police call box
Mike
Click to expand...
Thanks Mike - Now I remember, I was a child during the war and remember white stripes on some kerbstones etc. I think the car also has 'shielded' headlights and the man on the pavement might be carrying a steel helmet. With regard to forum searches, it's fairly easy finding words etc, but finding images is like doing a crossword puzzle.
oldmohawk
 
Peter W said:
Dib44,
The first one was taken probably in late 1940 after the first air raids which for a short time made the tram tracks to Carrs Lane and Albert Street impassable, so they were diverted to Station Street, which had traditionally been an alternative in-town terminus for the Stratford Road and Coventry Road routes.
Peter
Click to expand...

I wondered what the 84 tram was doing in Rea Street! Good spot, Peter:)
 
Isn't it Holly Lane, the spur terminus serving the Dunlop works?
The occasion is an enthusiasts tour using two trams shortly before the closure in 1953. I recognise one or two faces of the people (don't ask me to remember names, though!).
 
oldMohawk said:
Thanks Mike - Now I remember, I was a child during the war and remember white stripes on some kerbstones etc. I think the car also has 'shielded' headlights and the man on the pavement might be carrying a steel helmet. With regard to forum searches, it's fairly easy finding words etc, but finding images is like doing a crossword puzzle.
oldmohawk
Click to expand...
I agree with oldMohawk, i would be about 12yrs and all those tyres used to make me want one but i could`nt afford to buy one. Len.
 
If you had shown the second pic first it would have been easy. Theres no mistaking the Dunlop building in the background.
 
Would these numbered trams always have worked the same routes and would they have had dedicated drivers, i have a relative photographed driving a No 15 open fronted tram and wondered if this may have been the case
 
Correct, frothy. On the corner of Holly Lane and Tyburn Rd. It was derelict when I knew it, then knocked down a couple of years ago.
 
mossy it was Steelhouse Lane to Pype Hayes route.:)

The Tram it self was destroyed in an Air Raid in 1941:(
 
Tyburn Road, looks like Bromford Lane junction. If so, the buildings on the right are where a Mercedes car sales place is now.
 
Thanks for that information Alf.Lloyd,the shape of the road does look like Tyburn Road at the Bromford Lane junction.
Moss.
 
Sort of, but safer in my view (having used both types!).
These AEC Mercury wagons were the best equipment overhead linesmen could get in the thirties, and a few went on to second lives elsewhere either continuing on overhead line work (Walsall, for instance) or use as street lighting maintenance vehicles. Here's no.2 (AOH 2) at Miller Street during the war, and a similar one from London Transport which is now in their museum collection.
 
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