The Steel Guitar Forum

Roger Rettig wrote:...We have a half-mile of powered overhead. The vehicle on the right - K-Class #1201 is 77 years old.

People tend to think of electric traction as modern, and steam locomotion as antiquated, but in fact electric traction, which creates no pollution and is quiet and clean, was first used in the 1880s. We think of the future as being in electricity but the past was much more ecology-friendly in many ways. Before the onset of the diesel engine most cities had clean, quiet electric streetcars/trams and trolleybuses.

I remember the London trams and trolleybuses with affection, although my hometown was Birmingham, which also had an extensive tramway system and several trolleybus lines.


The adjacent towns of Walsall and Wolverhampton had extensive trolleybus systems right into the late 70s, and I remember how my car radio would crackle as I drove behind them on my way to college in Wolverhampton in the evenings.

People tend to think of electric traction as modern, and steam locomotion as antiquated, but in fact electric traction, which creates no pollution and is quiet and clean, was first used in the 1880s. We think of the future as being in electricity but the past was much more ecology-friendly in many ways.

Well said, Alan.
There is nothing new under the sun...

Not the late '70s, Alan - the UK's last trolleybus system was Bradford's which closed in 1972.

Wolverhampton closed in 1967, Walsall in 1970. Birmingham was unusual in that their trams actually outlasted the trolleybuses which were abandoned in 1951.

Roger Rettig wrote:Not the late '70s, Alan - the UK's last trolleybus system was Bradford's which closed in 1972.

Wolverhampton closed in 1967, Walsall in 1970. Birmingham was unusual in that their trams actually outlasted the trolleybuses which were abandoned in 1951.

My memory is getting worse. Of course, you're right. It was the late 60s when I was driving back and forth between Sutton Coldfield and Wolverhampton.
The last Birmingham tram ran on 4th July, 1953. I was there for the event. My grandfather drove the last-but-one tram. The last tram was driven by the superintendant from Miller St. Depot, who pulled rank to do so. This was taken the day before.


That's my grandad, Joe Brasenell, his regular conductress, and me as a kid. The guy on the left is that famous tram photographer, WA Camwell, who became prominent in the Talylln Railway.

The actual last trams were on the following two Sundays, when he and his colleagues drove all the remaining trams from the Witton and Miller St. depots across town to Kyotts Lake Road Works for storage and dismantling. Because the overhead had been partly removed in the centre of town they had to coast for three blocks along the little-used lines that connected the north-east lines to the Bristol Road line, which had been closed several years before. Police were on hand to control the coasting over the dead section to make sure that they didn't have to stop for traffic, and tractors were on hand to give them a push. But, in the event, they moved all the cars, several dozen of them, without a single need for a push. It could only have been done on Sundays.

Very cool pictures Alan and Roger, in my town of Westfield,NJ we had a trolley system also, some of the tracks are still burried under the asphalt roads today.

My grandfather was a welder for the New York Central RR, in Cleveland Ohio, (Collingwood), worked over 45 years. I'll try to add some pics. Luckily my town also has two rail lines going through, one freight and one passenger, nice to hear the sound even in this era.

Thanks, Craig, but I must stress the disparity between trams ('trolleys') and trolleybuses. The latter require no rails at street level but steer independently just like a regular bus.

In my photo there are tracks in the road but you'll see that the trolleybus (right) is nowhere near them and, of course, has rubber tyres. The tram (bearing the route #38 ) is track-bound.

A streetcar (tram) picks up power on a single overhead wire and the circuit is completed via the steel wheels to the road. On a trolleybus you'll see two collector booms - one's positive, one's negative.

Here in San Francisco we not only still have trolleybuses, they're extending the system. They're much better at climbing hills than diesel 'buses, and, of course, they don't have to carry the weight of a tank of diesel fuel around with them, which can be pretty heavy.
Modern trolleybuses have batteries so that they can manoevre around their depots without the need for complex overhead wiring. The batteries are recharged as they go about their regular routes using the overhead. It's a similar principle to the hybrid cars that are becoming increasingly popular.
In the old days, to get back to the depot they would often raise one trolleypole to the tramway/streetcar overhead, and drag an earthing/grounding shoe along the tram tracks.