THE TRAMS
HORSE TRAM No. 23
Built in 1892 at the Falcon Works (now Brush) at Loughborough, this
four-wheel car seats 18 inside, and 26 upstairs on "garden seat"
arrangement. It was initially operated by the Woverhampton Tramways Company on
standard-gauge (4' 81/2") tracks. It was taken over by Wolverhampton
Corporation in 1900, and continued to run until 1904 when the horse tramways
were replaced by electric trams running on 3' 6" gauge tracks.
On its retirement it was acquired by a farmer in Seisdon for use as a
summer house, where it rested until the 1980s when it was rescued by a group
from the Friends of the Black Country Museum and, after a period of storage in
a safe place, eventually came to the Museum at Dudley.
In recent years No. 23 has been completely restored, on behalf of the
Black Country Living Museum, by the Horse Tram Enthusiasts Group at their
workshops in Southport, being returned to Dudley in 1998 and placed on public
display.
"TIVIDALE" TRAMS 5 and 34
From the late 1890s until 1930 the Black Country was served by a number
of separate tramway companies. The Dudley, Stourbridge & District company
was based at Hart's Hill Depot in Brierley Hill and operated the routes from
Dudley to Cradley Heath, Kingswinford and Stourbridge (also a local route in
Stourbridge).
The Birmingham District company was based at West Smethwick Depot and ran
the route from Dudley to Birmingham through Oldbury and Smethwick, and
originally was responsible for the route mileage outside the Birmingham
boundary to Soho and Bearwood although these were served mainly by Corporation
trams. A curious arrangement also existed with the ownership of a short
"shuttle" between Old Hill and Blackheath, although remote from the
West Smethwick Depot so it was worked on their behalf by the Dudley,
Stourbridge company. All operation, together with West Smethwick depot, was
handed over to Birmingham Corporation in the 1920s, and the routes from
Birmingham to Soho, Bearwood and Dudley continued to run, long after the rest
of the Black Country tramway companies had ceased to trade, until a few weeks
after the outbreak of War in September 1939.
The South Staffordshire company was based at Darlaston Depot and ran the
lines to the north of Dudley, also the "main" routes from Dudley and
Wednesbury through West Bromwich to Handsworth where they linked with the
Birmingham Corporation line to the city centre. Operation of the routes from
Birmingham to Dudley and Wednesbury also passed to Birmingham Corporation in
the 1920s, and continued until the Spring of 1939.
The Wolverhampton District company was based at Bilston Depot running
local routes in that area, until they were bought out by Wolverhampton
Corporation for the purpose of conversion to trolleybus operation. The trams
allocated to Bilston thus became Corporation-owned for a few months.
The Kinver Light Railway was based at Amblecote Depot on the Dudley -
Stourbridge route, and ran the somewhat short-lived line which at its outer end
was very rural in nature. Kinver was a major attraction at holiday times, and
Bank Holidays would see great crowds being taken there by tram - even running
through from places like Birmingham (it is recorded that a special tram even
ran through from Cotteridge Depot in the southern suburbs of Birmingham on the
occasion of a tramwaymen's annual outing).
All of these companies were under the aegis of the British Electric
Traction Federation, who created for the Black Country an overall governing
entity, The Birmingham & Midland Tramways Joint Committee. Its headquarters
were at Tividale Works, between Dudley and Oldbury, which was used for tramcar
building and heavy maintenance for all the constituent companies.
The ravages of the 1914-1918 War left the companies' tracks in poor
condition, and the then Board of Trade placed a ban on double-deckers on the
main Dudley - Stourbridge route. The Joint Committee put into hand at the
Tividale Works an urgent replacement programme with a batch of new single-deckers,
suitable for "passenger-flow" operation, whereby passengers boarded
at the rear under the control of the conductor, and alighted at the front under
the control of the motorman. To help matters a small batch of trams was also
built by the Brush company of Loughborough to the new Tividale design.
Trams numbers 5 (completed in 1920) and 34 (completed in 1919) , as seen
operating at the Black Country Living Museum are two of these
"Tividale" cars. No. 5 was allocated to the Dudley, Stourbridge
company (hence the letters "DS" displayed on the rocker panel), while
34 was allocated to the Wolverhampton District company (and for the last weeks
of its working life was a Wolverhampton Corporation tram) and hence the letters
"WD" on its rocker panel.
The body of Tram 5, on the abandonment of the Stourbridge route in 1930,
became a summer house in the back garden of a house in Bennetts Hill, in
Dudley. It was acquired by the Black Country Museum in 1973, and restoration
started when secure accommodation became available in the late 1970s. Motive
power was provided by one of two Brill 21E trucks which became surplus to the
requirements of Brussels tramways, and the complete tram entered service at the
Black Country Museum in 1980. After running for far longer than it did for its
original owners, it is now in semi-retirement, being replaced by the more
recently restored no. 34.
When Wolverhampton finally abandoned the Bilston-based tramways in 1930,
the bodies of Tividale trams 34 and 102 were sold off and became the basis of a
bungalow in Codsall Wood, in the rural hinterland of Wolverhampton. Both of
these bodies were eventually "rescued" when the bungalow came to be
rebuilt, and were brought to Dudley. No. 102 was deemed to be the poorer of the
two and became the fixed "waiting room" at the southern end of the
Museum's tram line. No. 34 was restored to running condition, being powered by
the other of the two ex-Brussels 21E trucks. Its restoration was completed, and
the tram entered service on the Museum's line, in November 1997.
One of the few Brush-built "copies" of the Tividale design, has
also miraculously survived since its withdrawal in 1930. It is no. 75, and is
on-site at Dudley. Some work was done on it in the 1980s to strengthen the main
body structure, but currently it lies "preserved" under tarpaulins
awaiting eventual restoration.
WOLVERHAMPTON CORPORATION TRAM 49
Upon abandonment of the Penn Fields route in the mid-1920s, the bodies of
two sister cars, 47 and 49, were bought by an undertaker in Ironbridge,
Shropshire. One was used as an "office" while the other, connected by
a passage cut into the sides of the cars, was used to store the timber used for
coffin-making. Both carbodies were eventually acquired by the Black Country
Museum, and it was found that the body of 49 - the one used for timber storage
- was in the better condition of the two. No. 47 was therefore cannibalised for
parts necessary to make one good tram out of the pair. After a particularly
severe gale blew over the remains of 47 on the Museum site it was deemed beyond
help and was eventually destroyed.
Wolverhampton trams originally ran on the "Lorain"
surface-contact system of current collection. Nos. 47 and 49, built in 1909,
were subsequently converted from open-top to covered top, and finally equipped
for overhead trolley when the Corporation abandoned the Lorain system. In
restoring No 49 to open-top condition, but with mast and trolleypole for
running on the Museum's line at Dudley, it is effectively being
"restored" to a condition in which it never actually ran.
Its motive power is an exotic mixture. A pair of Brill 21E trucks was acquired
when declared surplus to requirements by Porto tramways in Portugal. These were
to 4' 81/2" gauge, and so had to be cut down for use on the Museum's 3'
6" gauge tracks. However, inserted into the cut-down truck frames is a
pair of 3' 6" motored axle sets acquired when the freight tramways at
mines in Kimberley, South Africa had no further use for them.
Tram 49 is now completed and was launched in August 2004. It is seen below on the launch day:
OTHER TRAMS ON SITE
One of the original open-top double deckers used from 1901 on the
Stourbridge line, which were replaced in 1919/1920 by the "Tividale"
single deckers, survived the scrapping programme to become an engineering car
on the Wolverhampton District section until the abandonment by Wolverhampton
Corporation in 1930. It is known that it was numbered as Engineering Car 19 in
the WD fleet, and reasearch shows that it is very likely, although not entirely
certain, that it was No. 36 in the original DS fleet. After the 1930
abandonment it became part of a barn on a farm in Trysull, near Wolverhampton.
The remains were brought to the Black Country Museum in 1989, and now lie under
wraps for eventual restoration.
Acquired by the Museum in the 1970s is a very rare object indeed. It is a
surviving car from the Birmingham Central Tramways' cable-operated route from
the city to Handsworth. The car ran from c.1889 until the cable line was
succeeded by Corporation electric tramcars in 1911. This tram, together with a
sister car, was acquired as a summer house in a back garden in Smethwick. It is
not on public view, and consideration is currently being given to an
appropriate future for it.
Lastly there is a complete 8-wheel bogie car acquired from Lisbon
tramways - this too is under wraps while a future is being decided for it.
(S.E.L.,
12-99)