TRAMS OF THE BRITISH ISLES 1945-1962

In the years leading up to the outbreak of war in September 1939 there had been a considerable decline in the number of tramway operators in the British Isles, but there still remained some 50 operators of varying sizes. There were four in Scotland - Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow, or five if the freight-only line at Cruden Bay is included; four in Wales - Cardiff, Llandudno and Colwyn Bay, Great Orme and Swansea & Mumbles - as well as six on the island of Ireland. Plus a number in England, from Bristol in the Southwest to Newcastle and Sunderland in the Northeast, and from Blackburn and Bury in Lancashire to London and Southampton in the South. Even with the pre-war abandonments, most significant towns and cities in England, with the exception of places like Nottingham and Derby, still possess some tramcar routes. Many of these systems like Bradford, London and Manchester had been converting their routes to either bus or trolleybus operation during the 1930s, and so many of the surviving systems were a fraction of the size they had been at their peak. The largest to survive World War Two that was serving Glasgow was a fleet of trams in excess of 1,000. The largest element were the Standard cars built between 1898 and 1924, such as number 48 seen on page 5. During the 30s Blackpool had a significant number of new single and double-deck trams. A system to be heavily influenced by a pro-tram manager was Sunderland, where Charles Albert Hopkins was in charge for two decades. One of the smallest undertakings to survive the war was Darwen, which latterly had a serviceable fleet of some five cars including two modern, centre-entrance streamliners built by English Electric in 1936. On closure both were regauged to 3ft 6" and sold, where they saw limited service until 1954 in Wales. The story of the decline of the tram car over these years is one filled with missed opportunities as new tram cars and route extensions were needlessly scraped or abandoned well before their economic life dictated. From the major to the smaller operators such as Giant's Causeway, the period was to witness an almost unrelenting retreat of the tram. The author records the story of those systems that were doomed from the moment peace was declared in 1945, through those that sought initially to invest but still succumbed, to the handful that managed to survive. A nostalgic 64 page fully illustrated softback.