Last 3 years of the city's trams

Sheffield City Centre 1957 - 60

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fqv6PTHKW0

 

 

Sheffield the last trams

 

Anyone around at this time ?? Anyone remember these ?? Ever ride on one ??

Edited August 17, 2014 by Dyke

There is an earlier tram ride HERE

I should think there are loads of SF members who remember and rode on the trams!

I started at Abbeydale Grammar in 1959 and had to travel from Malin Bridge to Millhouses. The Tinsley/Millhouses route was the last one to run and during my first year at AGGS, I caught the tram either at the top of Snig Hill (remember the bobby in the middle of the road directing the traffic?) or at the Town Hall (traffic bobby there too) to travel to the bottom of Bannerdale Road.

We loved sitting upstairs, and because the seat backs could be moved to either side, four of us could sit two facing the other two and have a natter.

Happy days!

Edited August 17, 2014 by susie1
Add info

I rode the tram to Grange Grammar School in 1958 for just a few months before we left Sheffield. Trams always, then and now, seem so much better than buses.

There is an earlier tram ride HERE

Yes I have seen that footage a few times, I especially love Victorian footage, think its great, though most are all poor and do extremely hard graft including the children, they all seem content.

My dad worked on the trams through my childhood. When I would stand at the tram stop on Chesterfield road with an enamel billy can of tea the top doubled as a cup. He would take me to the terminus where I would reverse all the seats. Before setting of back. At the stop opposite where I got on he would drop me off and see me safely over the road. Loved those trams. !

Yes I have seen that footage a few times, I especially love Victorian footage, think its great..

Yes indeed, it gives a fascinating insight into the life of the city at that time. Here are some "then and now" views from that 1902 film (they were posted on another thread): Queen's Road . London Road . High Street ..Pinstone Street .Commercial Street .Waingate.

...just a timely reminder that "Sheffield's Last Tram" , Roberts car 510 has re-entered service at Crich after major restoration work and looks a beauty ! - see the progress of work here...http://bit.ly/1pCwA8O

 

---------- Post added 17-08-2014 at 16:47 ----------

 

...a recent pic !...

 

http://bit.ly/1vXPuvI

Edited August 17, 2014 by bracken

Yes indeed, it gives a fascinating insight into the life of the city at that time. Here are some "then and now" views from that 1902 film (they were posted on another thread): Queen's Road . London Road . High Street ..Pinstone Street .Commercial Street .Waingate.

thanks for the links .. nice pictures

 

Abit of footage here

http://player.bfi.org.uk/player/watch-sheffield-street-accident-1902-150655731/xxa2Y1ZTreDv-qRQ3JMozYkPr8072Wr7/default/search

Edited August 17, 2014 by Dyke

Sheffield Trams

 

Forgive me for taking the liberty of talking about Sheffield trams well before the last three years of their existence this is because during that last three years I never had occasion to use them, but I had lot’s of experience of riding them on many of their routes from the late 1930’s for about 20 years and thought that what I remembered may be of interest,

but with so many memories flooding back it is difficult to know what to leave out !

 

Prior to WW2 their outside body livery was a dark blue /black lower deck with gold outlines and the top deck in cream, later this changed to all cream with a blue thin panel running around the center of the body, busses followed the same livery.

 

Sheffield used a central mounted 4 wheel single bogey design unlike many other cities who preferred two 4 wheel bogies , one at each end of the tram. The single bogey could result in the tram pitching fore and aft like a boat on occasions and quite violently if at speed with the front ‘body catcher’ which was underneath crashing on the tarmac each time, this catcher was designed for the driver to drop if anything fell in front of the tram and he could not stop in time to avoid running over the object. I often wondered about this bogey design, possibly chosen to make turning easier on a sharp curve, possibly it was cheaper to build but I am sure someone will know.

But the design did lead to at least one incident which may not have happened if it had it had a double bogey, the tram was at a stop on Chesterfield road facing downhill when a car out of control shot out from the end of the even steeper Derbyshire lane just as the tram started to move.

The car struck the rear end of the tram and collision caused enough leverage to spin the tram out of it’s tracks,and as this was all took place on a slope the tram fell over, luckily no one was injured !

During the war many trams were lost in the blitz, when a warning of an imminent raid was circulated crews were instructed to drive their tram to the nearest public shelter to get their passengers to safety and take cover themselves leaving the tram abandoned which resulted in the trams getting catching fire in groups mostly in the city center.

 

The resulting shortage was relieved to some extent by other towns as far afield as Scotland loaning what stock they could spare and some we suspect from their museums and we rode around for a long time in variously coloured trams with open top decks or open front upper bays, open rear staircases, single deckers, and many with wooden seats, the early ones often had on the lower deck a row of wooden slat type seats down each side of the saloon so the passengers faced one another, you name them we rode on them.

 

In wartime getting around even when riding in a tram could be dangerous, the blackout resulted in all the windows of the passenger compartments being blacked out and a thin string like net gauze was stuck on to avoid flying glass should you get caught in a raid, a very small area was left clear so travelers could see where they were. But as there was a total blackout of the streets it was rare to know just where you were and you relied on the driver or conductor calling out the name of the road at each stop, dangerous too as many pedestrians were knocked down and quite a few killed when stepping off the tram ( in the middle of the road) when a vehicle was passing, the car headlights were so heavily masked you had great difficulty in seeing more than a few feet in front of you.

 

Even just after the war trams were always packed to the doors at commuting times, no maximum standing rules, they were packed in so much that regular travelers on the route would have an armband to show they had some authority and would operate the bell to tell the driver to stop or start as the conductor taking fares inside or on the top deck could not possibly struggle back to the rear platform to take control.

 

Getting on at peak times during the war was selective, it was workers first as they were either going to work and had to be on time or were weary after a long shift and then the general public got on afterwards, and it was accepted .

Some routes in the city were only covered by busses and these gradually increased as the tram routes were taken over but many citizens did not like these change. Trams were cheaper as far as the passenger was concerned and if you lived up to a couple of miles from the city center you could find more than one route running your way. A good example were the routes down the Moor, 6 or 8 from memory which meant that there was almost a continuous stream of trams starting in Fitzallen square to the bottom of the Moor.

 

Here they split up, about 5 routes went up London road and a couple up Ecclesall road, I can’t be exact after all this time, but it meant that if you lived as I did at Highfields you could catch any of the trams on these routes to get you home, usually about one every three minutes.

But it had been decided that busses would be cheaper and they did not need rails which with a 12 tonne tram pounding along played havoc with the roads and they needed constant repairs, also the bus could take alternative routes to destinations.

 

In hindsight the trams had to go, a double track running in the center of the road made passing almost impossible and then only on the inside, and traffic congestion compounded because every time the tram stopped a body of people would step into the road to board which would stop the flow of traffic. Putting the tracks to one side had been advocated and even tried alongside Millhouses rd and Abbey lane but elsewhere there was insufficient room .

 

Sharing the road with a tram was not easy, overtaking on the inside was allowed, in fact recommended as trying to pass on the outside could be suicidal. The foolish ones would try this if they could not pass on the inside because people were boarding the tram ,an oncoming tram on which you may have misjudged speed and distance can’t swerve and with two side by side it would force you to a head on meeting with it or ramming the tram in front, don’t forget that this one had stopped !

 

Trams had very good acceleration and braking characteristics , having allowed the passengers to board you would move off on the inside and probably get a whole car length start but suddenly this monster would be level with you and beat you to the next stopping place, frequently this ding dong would carry on for several stops with you having to stop at each tram stop as passengers were standing in the road waiting or before either of you managed to get clear of one another. On the matter of brakes as I remarked the tram could stop very quickly, an unapproved method I understand used by the drivers was in an emergency to pull the regulator lever from the forward speed setting they were on at the time to the zero speed and then further backwards to bring on electric braking or reverse I am not sure which, if used too severely it could unseat passengers with ease but drivers used it quite a lot and if you were directly behind one that used this bouncing off the tram’s very substantial solid steel fender did your car no good at all !

 

The average car had poor brakes by today’s standards and not a great deal of power, and here the tram pinch comes in. Most tram route roads were wide enough to allow passing a tram on the inside even by commercial vehicles often with only inches to spare , however there were a few places where that spaced varied and often with no warning signs. The distance between the curb and the track could narrow sometimes without any warning signs and very suddenly, I saw this on just one occasion myself when an Austin 7 which was a very small car, the driver thought his car could negotiate the pinch and beat the tram to it as well so he carried on regardless, meanwhile I am sure the tram driver was unaware of his presence and also carried on blissfully. The car seemed to be lifted bodily sideways and was deposited on the pavement fortunately there were no pedestrians and it seemed no damage had been done, it was only when it was on the pavement that the tram driver saw it in his mirror !

 

I think it was not until the 1950’s that a streamlined tram arrived ( as far as you can streamline a body shaped like a brick ) and this had folding doors on both platforms so at least the driver could keep a little warmer in winter, the normal garb being a heavy army style overcoat with the collar turned up and leather mittens, they did not need fingers to drive, but he still had to stand up, they did supply a stool type seat on a single pole that was stuck into a hole in the floor but was seldom used .

The early tickets were held in a small multi clip board, coloured for different prices, when selling a ticket the conductor would first insert the ticket into his ticket punch and clip out a small piece out of a numbered scale on the ticket, that’s how the conductor/esses got the name clippie I think.

This clipping allowed the ticket inspectors who were always getting on at random to check to see if you had bought a ticket and could see where you got on and if you purchased sufficient fare. Yes we had fare dodgers in those days, later machines that printed the information replaced the ticket punch.

 

At the terminus sometimes there was loop to get the tram onto the return tracks but frequently the tram driver simply walked to the other end and switched control to that end to drive back, but the poor clippie had to take a long bamboo pole with a hook which was located outside and alongside the tram and hook the current collector arm with it’s pulley from under the overhead cable then walk round in an arc to return the collector to the overhead supply again so the arm was in a trailing position, quite a struggle for the slim built young women as the spring system for holding the arm and pulley was quite strong.

Staying on the subject of tracks…….. normally flush with the road surface they did have a flange and a groove at one side to take the corresponding ridge in the tram wheel but could sink below the surface at times , get your car in one of these depressed tracks could send you off course , the joke was that you may have to drive to the tram depot to get out !

Cyclists had a terrible time, your front wheel fitted quite snugly into the groove in the track, crossing tracks on a slight diagonal could bring you off, and avoid points at all costs as from personal experience if you rode your front wheel into these it would drop into a wider opening them jam in the points stopping the wheel dead while you and your bike carried on ! And I won’t even mention the cobbled sets that were often used alongside and between the tracks.

 

But for all their faults I think we all loved them and mourned their passing, you could not fail to be impressed watching the spectators flooding out of the Owlerton stadium after a dog or speedway meeting and being whisked away by a line of waiting trams in a matter of minutes.

worked on some bits of trams as an apprentice---but as I started work at Queens Rd in 1959 it was chocker with trams and parts --with only a few buses in the top shop---

well remember as it was a no smoking workshop--some of the men used to go upstairs on the front of trams and lie down to have a drag--

also as with a lot of firms in the past most of the work was carried out "in house"

Westmoors mentions the stopping power of the old trams. They actually had three braking systems, conventional wheel brake that had wooden blocks which pressed against the wheel rim, the track brake, which wound down pressed on the track and could lift the tram some inches, and the reverse current which acted as an electronic brake.