Coventry Trams

What would be left before the bombing, just Broadgate-Burges-Fairfax Street or something, in the centre?

It wasn't the trams that disappeared, it was all the overhead stuff. Osmiroid, did you mean after the bombing, before the bombing was ok.

Kaga, I meant about what MR was saying, how various tram routes were withdrawn before the bombing.

Here's the details of the tram routes prior to the closures detailed above: By 1926 the development of the tramway was almost complete. The original route from Coventry Station to Bedworth divided at Hales Street, with a service via Jesson Street along Stoney Stanton Road to Bell Green and one via White Street, Primrose Hill Street, King William Street, Berry Street and Paynes Lane to Gosford Green and then along Binley Road to the Bull's Head. There was an alternative loop to Gosford Green via Ford Street, Lower Ford Street and Far Gosford Street. In the other direction, there was a branch at Broadgate via Smithford Street, Fleet Street, Spon Street and Spon End to Allesley Road (later known as Allesley Old Road). This divided at Spon End, where the Earlsdon route ran via The Butts, Albany Road, Earlsdon Street, Radcliffe Road and Rochester Road to its junction with Beechwood Avenue. 1926 saw the opening of the tramway loop from Greyfriars Green to Albany Road, the final link in the tramway network. The Earlsdon Service was re-routed via the new loop because of the congestion in Smithford Street. In 1930 the final extension of the tramway was opened, running further East along Binley Road to the New GEC factory.

Thanks

The Hiroshima trams were running three days after the atomic bomb. I think Coventry trams could have run after the blitz if there had been a will to repair the system.

Peter B, No, Coventry already had them on the way out before the war. They were slow, awkward, and as Coventry were becoming a motor industry, buses were in the mind.

I believe that the tracks were also a nightmare for cyclists, something else Coventry had a lot of. I agree, the trams were doomed before the war. I've been on the trams in Salford that wiggle round the docks. Loads of fun and worth the cost if you're ever in the area.

Tram tracks get very slippery when it rains and I have had a few "interesting" moments on them on both pushbikes and motor bikes. Just after they built the new ones in Manchester I was up there and somebody was knocked over by one - at the time they were very quiet - I heard the policewoman on her radio saying "We've got yet another one been hit". The person wasn't seriously hurt but it took a while for people to get used to them.

I was going to ask about the accident rate when the trams were in operation. Wasn't sure if there was a record kept or not at the time. Imagine them today ?

Neil, Birmingham had trams in the 50s to the Lickey Hills.

Dreamtime, hello, Hope you're keeping well, through that hot weather and now the lockdown. To answer your question, I would think small in number, you could hear them from a long way off, and you could feel the underfoot vibrations close up, but I loved them because they offered more open air spaces than the buses that became smoke laden travel.

Kaga, my aunt who lived on Stoney Stanton Road opposite the Swanswell in the 1930's had a Jack Russell that used to board the tram by himself and stay on to Bell Green terminus and return, getting off at the Swanswell again. That was your tram riding era, so you may have met him.

Just inside the bottom of Bishop Street was a loop, that turned the trams from a double track to a single, when they passed by The Old Wheel. There was another loop onto the Foleshill Road, that turned them back to double track from single, but what was the method that trams knew when they could enter a single line from either end? I do not know, as there where no radio's in those days, and blind to each other.

An article entitled "A History of Coventry Tramways" by F.K. Farrell appeared in the "Tramway Review" issue 30 of 1961 in a section headed "SIGNAL LIGHTS" had the following to say: "The signal lights invented by Mr. Whitehead, the Coventry manager, were installed to cover all single-track sections where it was not possible to see a car at the next loop. When a car approached a single-track section it switched on a green light at its own end of the section, a red light at the far end. If two cars approached from opposite directions, red and green lights appeared at both ends of the section, but the driver would have observed if the green or red appeared first. When two cars in the same direction entered the same section, the first car to reach the other end would clear the red light, so that a car in the opposite direction could enter the section, and meet the second car between loops; a furious argument between the drivers then ensued as to which car should reverse".