Coventry Trams

Tram 21

I remember an evening when the street lamps burnt amidst a baleful gloom, a drizzle of sooty raindrops dripped remorselessly from the dirty sky. And Broadgate had an unending string of trams grinding their way one behind the other, all the time one's ears were battered by the scraping and grating of their wheels and the striking of their bells, and looked a menace in the darkness. The grating put your teeth on edge and a shiver down your spine. I think I was about 5/6 years of age.

Tram lines being laid in The Burges in the late 1920's

My great grandfather was killed by a tram on the Stoney Stanton Road near the Red House Inn in late December 1939 at 7.30 pm in the blackout. He was 73 yrs old and had worked at Alfred Herberts so maybe the noise of working in the machine shops had made him go deaf. As Kaga said the trams were very noisy. He was the 50th road victim and the 18th in the blackout of 1939.

No one is going to know the real amount of damage and injury the blackout caused because most of the injuries were not reported, even if they caused serious problems later. The blackout never really got the blame. A person walked behind a parked lorry shining a torch on the ground and hit her head on a piece of piping tied on the lorry. Twenty years later had serious head trouble that caused her death? But people did play risky games with the trams because they were so slow. I have no idea if the trams had a special electricity supply, that was hit early on, but there were trams ground to a halt in outlying districts just a few hours after the Blitz started.

Kaga, not wishing to stray from this thread of Coventry Trams but over the years I have since learned the blackouts were blamed for a lot of incidents during the war.

I have trouble remembering when the tram lines were built. That's an interesting photo Anne.

This will be a good place to start

Thanks for that MR. I'll try to remember that you posted the link because I fear the information will fall out of my head again.

3rd May 1883 The first tracks laid for steam trams in Coventry. Post copied from topic What happened on THIS day in Coventry's history? on 4th May 2018 10:30 pm

The route was from Coventry Railway Station to Bedworth - steam tram locomotives hauled open-topped trailers - and services commenced in 1884. They proved somewhat unreliable - one major problem was the climb up Bishop Street - and passenger numbers were never good. The service was ended in 1893.

I don't know where you gained your information from, but you are so far away from the truth - it hurts! I have seen copies of the yearly accounts/returns for the years, 1885, 1886, 1887, 1889 & 1891, and nowhere in them do I find any mention of lack of passengers! There were problems, many. 1, Southern owners who had an office in London, but very rarely (if ever) visited Coventry, They were only in it to make a 'quick buck', 2, They rented the system out to a 3rd party for just over a year and it was only the threat from the major investor of court action that they took it back, 3, Lack of spending on maintenance and other dubious activities, they were caught doing. Like for instance, buy cheap industrial coke rather than the more expensive locomotive coke, disconnecting the brakes on the trailers and much more. 4, The Corporation banned the trams from running through the city centre in 1892, this act then led to lack of passengers. There's a lot more I could say.

CPH - my source Please don't shoot the messenger

Your source, well, yes! Understand now, say no more!