Works Trams of the British Isles

Works Trams of the British Isles
Author: Peter Waller
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Total Pages: 275
Release: 2019-05-30
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 1473862256

A photographic overview of the little-known cars and engineers that kept British tramways running smoothly and safely. While generally unfamiliar to the passengers that used tramways, works trams were an essential facet of the efficient operation of any system—large or small—and this book presents an overview of the great variety of works trams that served the first generation of tramways in the British Isles. Although construction of most tramways was left to the contractor employed on the work, once this was completed the responsibility for the maintenance and safe operation of the system fell on the operator. The larger the operator, the greater and more varied the fleet of works cars employed; specialist vehicles were constructed for specific duties. Smaller operators, however, did not have this luxury, relying instead on one or two dedicated works cars or, more often, a passenger car temporarily assigned to that work. This book is a pictorial survey of the many weird and wonderful works cars that once graced Britain’s first generation tramways.

Kent's Transport Heritage

Kent's Transport Heritage
Author: James Preston
Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited
Total Pages: 96
Release: 2017-09-15
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 1445669927

James Preston explores the transport heritage of Kent.

Britain's Second-Hand Trams

Britain's Second-Hand Trams
Author: Peter Waller
Publisher: Pen and Sword Transport
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2021-05-30
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 1526738988

During the history of Britain’s electric tramcar fleets, many thousands were manufactured of which the vast majority saw out their operational life with a single owner. However, for several hundred there was to be a second – if not, in certain cases, a third – career with a new operator. Almost from the dawn of the electric era in the late 19th century tramcars were loaned or bought and sold between operators. The reasons for this were multifarious. Sometimes the aspirations of the original owners for traffic proved wildly optimistic and the fleet was downsized to reflect better the actual passenger levels. War was a further cause as operators sought to strengthen their fleets to cater for unexpectedly high level of demand or to replace trams destroyed by enemy action. For other operators, modernization represented an opportunity to sell older cars while, certainly from the 1930s, a number of operators – such as Aberdeen, Leeds and Sunderland – took advantage of the demise of tramways elsewhere to supplement their fleet with trams that were being withdrawn but which still had many years of useful operational life in them. The process was to continue right through to the mid-1950s when Glasgow took advantage of the demise of the once-extensive Liverpool system to purchase a number of the streamlined bogie bogie cars that were built in the late 1930s. In this book the author provides a pictorial history – with detailed captions – to the many electric trams that were to operate with more than one tramway during the period up to the closure of the closure of the Glasgow system in 1962.

1889-1907

1889-1907
Author: Great Britain
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1088
Release: 1907
Genre: London (England)
ISBN:

Glasgow Trams

Glasgow Trams
Author: Martin Jenkins
Publisher: Pen and Sword Transport
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2022-09-15
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 1526794411

This book has been commissioned to mark the 60th anniversary of the closure of Glasgow’s remarkable tram system, when over 250,000 people lined the city streets on 4 September 1962 to watch a final procession of some 20 trams representing different periods in the history of the undertaking. Using a wealth of previously unpublished photographs, the book shows as many areas and aspects of the city as possible. The trams are once again back where they belong, right in the heart of the city and its suburbs with people, period buses, cars and lorries, shops, churches, theatres, cinemas, parks, shipyards, factories and even steam and electric locos running on the tram tracks. Furthermore, the coverage goes way beyond the city boundary to encompass Airdrie, Coatbridge, Cambuslang, Rutherglen, Barrhead, Paisley, Renfrew, Clydebank and Milngavie. Over the years many locations have changed beyond recognition while others remain instantly recognisable. There are scores of photographs of the long-lasting Standards (some even in Glasgow’s legendary colored route bands), trams acquired from Paisley including those cut down to single-deckers, Kilmarnock bogies, modern Coronations and Cunarders, ex-Liverpool cars, one-offs and also works cars. For those who still remember the trams, we hope you enjoy looking back as much as we have and for those who have no memory of wires and rails in the street, we hope this will recapture a lost way of life when services were frequent and fares relatively inexpensive.