Coventry Trams

mcsporran, Thank you, but I hardly think that was around in the 1920/30's and before. Can you find out more? The trams stopped during the 1940 raid when the wires came tumbling down. No power, no trams.

Kaga. Whitehead's timeline suggests it could have been! "Thomas Whitehead was born in 1868, the son of a Leeds chemist. While at Leeds he was involved in establishing the first electric tramway in the country. On joining Coventry Electric Tramways Limited in 1896, he oversaw the electrification of the Coventry system. He retained his position as General Manager at the Corporation takeover in 1912 until his retirement in 1933. Thereafter he moved to Scarborough and died there in 1945."

The electric signalling apparatus is mentioned in the newspaper in the proceedings of the police court of a fatal accident on 6th November 1918.

Me neither, but I was listening to two residents of St Paul's Rd, Dr Bacon of 64 & Mr Brown of 24, describing the scene where a bomb had bellied down onto the track at the Foleshill Rd end of St Paul's Rd, where the track was projecting at an angle of around 60deg, into the air. So no track either. Thank you for your posts & memories on this.

Hi all, I was quiet aware of the electricity that drove the trams, but could not remember traffic lights. Now taking a further look I do believe you can see the lights on the Old Wheel pub. My apologies to everyone.

Just found this. Think this is the most comprehensive tram map I've seen so far. Apologies for the resolution. If anyone wants a zoom up of any specific area, let me know.

Good that it shows the single and double track areas. I wonder if there were rules like 'stop at passing place by the Wheatsheaf until the 21 passes you coming the other way'?

Probably "drive on sight". If the single track is clear you can proceed. The longest single track section is about 1000 yds and straight, most are a lot shorter. If you do have a "meeting" on the single line one tram has to swing its trolley pole and go back a loop so not too serious. At the slow speeds there is little risk of a collision. Some tram lines had automatic signals on single lines, but I think these were developed too late for Coventry. On blind corners an inspector could be provided to hand signal the trams. The "wait for No.21 at the Wheatsheaf" is fine until No.21 doesn't turn up. The inspectors hut in Broadgate was much photographed, but were there any others?

Peter B you have to remember before 1940 Coventry had little traffic, spaced out houses, great Heathes, the trams could be heard from miles away, put your head down near the line and you got this zinging noise down the line, we got used to listening to this noise and could judge how far away the tram was, before it came insight, there where few blind corners, Leicester row and the Swanswell became the first then Hale street. and every thing more on time. in ten years I never saw a problem except the top of Bishop street, here was the canal basin and very tall buildings.

Hi PeterB if you read a few posts back, there was an electric signalling system in place at about 1918 and was invented by Thomas Whitehead who was working for Coventry Electric Tramways.

Since reading MR's post 261, I found enormous documents on this topic from Foleshill Railway to other tram depots. Bringing trams in and out of Foleshill Depot onto the main line required some sort of signals, as Annewiggy said, but nothing was mentioned of the countryside it went through in those days, so I thought I would mention it.

We have CliffB to thank for this one. It's the first time I've seen an image of the Earlsdon terminus. Note the Beechwood Avenue and Rochester Road signs. I know the line was there in 1913 so, anyone know when that section was built?

Looking at the excellent Coventry Tramways website - looks to have been around 1905.

And here's that Earlsdon terminus again, but later. St Barbara's was built 1929-31, this is 1932. I like the Market Street ad!