British Trams of Yester-Year

[Uncle Al]

This may be of interest for those who love transportation history.

British Trams on YouTube

This info came from my N-Scale Catenary list serve.

Also great music

Uncle Al

[Sylvain]

No wires?

[Uncle Al]

Most of these were operated with a "Plow Shoe" in a 3rd track/rail.
When the 3rd rail was not available, the 'overhead' wire was used.
Both types of 'wiring' are in the video.

Uncle Al

[Raakone]

Nice video. I noticed at the end, one of the background trams had "DESIRE" in big letters. Perfect name for...a streetcar! *laughs*

When did they leave London? Montreal's last trams ran in 1959. In 1966 the last trolleybusses ran (but the wire wouldn't go down for several years), and the same year, our Metro started. We now have talk about ressurecting them...but of course the "sexy" term is "Light Rail."

And I made a point of riding the Croydon Tramlink once when I was in London. Amazing. Parts of it seem more like a "Tube-Lite" than anyone's traditional idea of what a tram is!

[Kirbstone]

Great film compilation, well put together and set to evocative period music. Very enjoyable.

I remember being taken aboard one of these trams in Dublin by my mother in the late '40's. I insisted we ride on the top deck, for the view !
She told me that when I was 2 yrs old (1944) I lay down on the street in front of one, bawled my head off and wouldn't board it.

[cessna152towser]

Excellnt nostalgic scenes of London shortly after the end of World War 2, even a few un-redeveloped bomb sites. Many of the locations are still recognisable today - Fulwell and New Cross depots both still exist as bus garages.