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Old Sheffield trams

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i used to love the old trams rattling along it was like being on a rolling ship at times and the seats that wou;d swing over so you sat facing the front or back depending on which way you were going

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I have just read this thread through and I'm glad someone else remembers the postbox on the tram....
Yes - I'm not old enough to remember them (honest I'm not..;)) but here is an extract from the book "Hillsborough by her people":

 

From 1904 postal boxes were carried on trams leaving certain suburban termini around 10 p.m. About 1910 Hillsborough came into the system and up to 1916 there were two such trams leaving at about 9.45 p.m. and 10.45 p.m. The first of these would connect with the General Night Mail for London and the South, and the second with the Supplementary Night Mail for same and with the Central Night Mail for the North. From 1917 only one tram operated at about 10 p.m., this connecting with the last mentioned trains. The system was extended to certain bus routes in 1922 but came to an end with the outbreak of the 1939 war.

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Just wondering if any other oldies remember a large number of the ex-London, Feltham trams (pronounced ' Feltam' ) being transported by low-loaders through Sheffield on their way to further service in Leeds in the early 1950's. The original route had been via the Great North Road (A1) but, following the survey, a road under a bridge somewhere had been resurfaced and lessened the clearance there. The new route took them through Sheffield and over the Woodhead Pass, the long way round to Leeds.What a diversion and what a sight! The Felthams were, I think, the largest cars to run in Great Britain with the exception of the massive Mumbles trams running in the Gower Peninsula in south Wales. The Feltham at Crich is one of the few, pre-production experimental versions being the only one with central doors which restricted it to non-conduit areas of London due to it being unable to accommodate the 'plough' mechanism beneath ( the conduit being a slotted central rail from which the cars picked up under-road power by means of a 'plough' ) Due to this, it was soon sold off to Sunderland where it ran for many years. This is not really relevant to this discussion, but you could say, correctly (and win a bet !) that London trams once ran "through" Sheffield ! If anyone is furthur interested in this, I have a letter from Geoffrey Hilditch, GM of Leeds at the time, explaining the 'migration' and the problems adapting the Felthams to service in Leeds.

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London trams actually ran in Sheffield many years previously. Twenty London County Council trams were bought by Sheffield in 1917 (10 at £450 each) and 1918 (10 at £550 each). A further six LCC cars which had been bought by Rotherham Corporation at the same time were purchased by Sheffield in 1926. The last of these 26 ex London trams were withdrawn in 1931.

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