Glasgow - the last tram

[hq1hitchin]

Just found this, which I think is wonderful:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO2DmTnX ... annel_page

[mr B]

Great,,, was'nt Glasgow clean, must have been before the boat came in mr B

[hyperion]

Great, hq1 - tears to the eyes ! Even though I havenae been to Glasgy since the LCGB trip in 1956.

I remember London trams around Holborn Viaduct - and Sunderland trams when I were a lad on annual trips to me mam's family home.

[kudu]

I remember London trams around Holborn Viaduct

Did you ever go through the Kingsway Subway? Front seat on top, of course.

Kudu

[52D]

Did you know the Glasgow system also carried rail traffic for the shipyards and some yards had electric locos for this work.

[Flamingo]

Did you know the Glasgow system also carried rail traffic for the shipyards and some yards had electric locos for this work.

Yes, that's right. I found this picture in a 1960s ABC. I wonder who has right of way.

Tram route 9 went to Auchenshuggle, what a name to conjure with.

[kudu]

Didn't Huddersfield have a similar arrangement? Maybe steam freight on our tramways was relatively common, though I never heard of it in London.

Kudu

[PGBerrie]

I wonder if the driver got a marble clock like Norris Lurker did? Was the driver Henry McCrun?

There's something about Huddersfield trams here http://www.jsh1949.co.uk/HUDDERSFIELD%20TRAMS.htm. My experience of Yorkshire tram's is restricted to Leeds, starting I think at Middleton (coming in on the bus up Dewsbury Rd.). I think the only ride I had on them was to Temple Newsam. Here's someone who has more memories (turn up the sound)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLrBZ9huv-8.

Peter

[coachmann]

Good to see the Youtube film......They were the modern trams. The ones I spent a fortnights holiday on in 1954 were the old standards, top deck rear window always open to the elements, and two teenagers hanging out and soaking up the atmosphere. The last trams I had rode on belonged to Stockport Corporation. They bounced and banged along the tracks down to Hyde Market. Quite smooth in Glasgow though. The commentary mentioned the trolleybuses. Little did the narrator know they too would soon be on their way too.

[61070]

Did you know the Glasgow system also carried rail traffic for the shipyards and some yards had electric locos for this work.

It's a fantastically evocative film. Glasgow had many modern trams in its fleet, and the Corporation was building it own designs of modern 'streamlined' bogie trams in the 1930s-1950s, as seen in the film. The interiors were beautifully fitted out. What a waste.

52D - your point about the interoperation of standard gauge locomotives and wagons with the tramways in Glasgow (over fairly short sections of route, but there were several of them) is an interesting one, and it affected the system in a fundamental way right from the start. It meant that the rail gauge of the Glasgow tramway system, and all systems that were physically interconnected with it, was 4' - 7 3/4"! At first sight this appears to run against what you would expect, but it was down to the different wheel profiles of the two systems - 'street tramway' and 'heavy rail' - in particular the latter with its much deeper wheel flanges. The arrangement was that the heavy rail stock ran on its wheel flange edges in the bottom of the grooves of the tramway rails, which were laid with a specially reinforced rail head section where interoperation took place. The geometry of this arrangement means that the gauge between the inside edges of the rail heads of the tramway is determined by the flange profile of the heavy rail system, and has to be 3/4" narrower than nominal standard gauge. The Glasgow trams in operation at Crich and elsewhere have been regauged by 3/4" to make them compatible with those of other standard gauge systems. Not a lot of people know that!

[kudu]

I was aware that trams needed a different gauge to handle railway wagons but hadn't appreciated that Glasgow was unusual in this respect. Maybe I'm wrong about Huddersfield for a start. But was Glasgow unique? Did any other trams need re-gauging at Crich? (I didn't know about Crich - I thought all trams had a different gauge.)

Kudu

[richard]

It is over ten years since I was at Crich, but I thought they had two gauges. I can't remember if that was just the sheds or if some of the "main line" is dual gauge as well.

As well as a range of British stuff, they have a relatively modern Berlin tram. That was rebuilt for disabled access, so it is possible it was re-gauged at the same time.

Richard

[giner]

I remember London trams around Holborn Viaduct

Did you ever go through the Kingsway Subway? Front seat on top, of course.

Kudu

Happy memories there, Kudu. Going from Archway to the Embankment was a Sunday treat for me as a kid. Front seat on top, for sure. Who knows, we might even have sat together.

[61070]

I was aware that trams needed a different gauge to handle railway wagons but hadn't appreciated that Glasgow was unusual in this respect. Maybe I'm wrong about Huddersfield for a start. But was Glasgow unique? Did any other trams need re-gauging at Crich? (I didn't know about Crich - I thought all trams had a different gauge.)

Kudu

Glasgow and the Clyde area was unusual with its 4'-7 3/4" gauge, but I don't know if it was unique. Not being particularly up on tramways, except for the Glasgow system, I can't say if it was used elsewhere. Not sure about the dual gauge at Crich either. I think 3'-6" was the next most common gauge for street tramways in the UK after standard, so perhaps that's the other gauge they have there. Bournemouth's was a 3'-6" system.

[52D]

ISTR that there was a gauge change between two of the adjacent Yorkshire tram system perhaps Leeds and Bradfords systems so they couldnt run through trams.