Trams … trolley buses …… and a thank you

I am a fan of those old stately Corporation trams which trundled our towns and cities for almost half a century and were the workhorse of public transport from London to Manchester and onto Glasgow and pretty much everywhere in between.

Car 1858, route 38, destination New Cross Gate

I am told I was present as the last London Transport tram finished its last journey and with some ceremony slid into New Cross depot and into history.

Trolley bus route 696  Welling to Woolwich Ferry

I was only three and have no memory of the event, but it is just possible I travelled on one as a passenger on a journey.

That said I can own up to regular trips on a trolley bus which while it looked a bit like a motor bus was powered by electricity from overhead cables.

They were operated by most local authorities, but my experience of them was via Derby Corporation, and consisted of tortuous journeys from the town centre out to the small village of Chellaston.

I have never travelled well in cars or buses, but trips in those trolley buses were infinitely worse.

It may have been the mix of smells from the leather and fabric seats combined with the disinfectant and the heat but I never once escaped feeling sick and to this day that humming, whirring noise the engine or what passed for an engine makes still brings back horrible memories.

The terminus for the trolley bus at Chellaston was Shelton Lock which was a good ten-minute walk from Nana’s house, which gave time for a sort of recovery.

But the dread was always that there would be another journey on another day, on another trolley bus.

Still over 60 years later I can be objective about the trolley bus and recognise its place in transport history, but will always have a soft spot for its predecessor the tram.

All of which brings me to Ron Eaton who posted some wonderful images of a London tram and trolley bus with the message “Hi Andrew thought you might like these”, which of course I do.  

All the news fit to print, on car 1858, r, 

It was on the back of the story “Travelling on LCC number 1622 with memories of the Old Kent Road and Well Hall which appeared yesterday on my blog.

I have yet to ask Ron where he took them and indeed whether I have permission to reproduce them.  But as he sent them via social media, I am guessing it’s ok. 

So thank you Ron, and I hope your trolley bus experiences were better than mine.

And Ron now tells me  'they are all ianEast Anglia Transport Museum well worth a visit".

Location; the days of trams and trolley buses

Pictures; courtesy of Ron Easton, 2024

*“Travelling on LCC number 1622 with memories of the Old Kent Road and Well Hall,  https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/11/travelling-on-lcc-tram-number-1622-with.html

Catch the tram ……. and travel the history of Greater Manchester

I missed the First Age of the Tram.

Arriving in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, from Hightown, undated

Despite being born in the first half of the last century the old corporation run trams were fast vanishing from our streets like snow in the winter sun.

Car 1622, Route 40, London Transport, 2015 

The last Manchester tram completed its last journey on January 10th, 1949, and according to family legend while I was actually there at New Cross when the last London tram took its last trip in the summer of 1952 aged 3, I don’t remember.

And today memories of travelling on those tall stately trams are fast fading from living memory and soon all we will have left are the pictures and the stories.

Some services in some places lingered on but as early as the 1920s the motor bus was seen as the future only to be joined for a brief while by the trolley bus.

Now I have never been good on buses and certainly hated the trolley bus with its quiet whirry sound, which combined with the heat, and distinctive smell of old upholstery and disinfectant.

Huddersfield trolley bus , 2014

To travel on them was a lottery which might erupt into me feeling violently ill.

Happily, no such thing happens when I use the modern tram which must be my preferred form of getting around greater Manchester.

Like the London Underground it is the ease with which you can change and go off on a different line in a different direction to a different location with the added bonus of linking up with trains or even as a last resort a bus.

So, the Second Age of the Tram is something I have embraced since the first started running in 1992.*

And so, it is fitting that Peter and I have chosen a new series which aims to tell the history of Greater Manchester by tram.

Taking the curve, Shudehill, 2022

The books will wander along the network, taking in nine or so Metro stops allowing readers the opportunity to jump on and off the tram traveling the routes.

And we shall start with the line that takes you south to East Didsbury, taking in Trafford Bar, Firswood, Chorlton, St Werburghs, Withington, Burton Road, West Didsbury, Didsbury Village and ending at East Didsbury.

When trams meet, Shudehill, 2023

Some will remember we floated the idea back in 2017 and the plan was to produce one big bumper book, but we chose to wait till the Trafford spur had been built and then Covid got in the way.

And now we have gone for a series of smaller books which take just a bit of the network, and cost less than the price of a day travel card.  They will be pocket size and will be colour coded to match each of the lines.

It is the novel and a fun way to learn about the past.

Leaving me just to announce that the first in the series has gone to the printer today and will be on bookshelves in late April

Location; Greater Manchester

Pictures; Car 134, route 13 passing through Chorlton-cum-Hardy, undated, from the Lloyd Collection, Car 1622, Route 40, London Transport at the Crich Tramway Village, 2015, from the collection of Andy Robertson, taking the curve into Shude Hill, 2022 and Shudehill Interchange, 2023, from the collection of Andrew Simpson

Painting; Huddersfield trolley bus  © 2014 Peter Topping, Paintings from Pictures,

Web: www.paintingsfrompictures.co.uk Facebook:  Paintings from Pictures

*Of course in some parts of the world the tram never went away, but here it did