# The Ghosts of the Leeds tram cars



## phill.d (Apr 18, 2009)

**A NOSTALGIC LOOK BACK AT 50 YEARS OF TRAMWAY CLOSURE IN LEEDS**

It was 50 years ago when the final farewell tram entered Swinegate depot for the last time. Leeds was one of the last Cities in England to abandon it's trams. Sheffield been the last in 1960.






Leeds had one of the best tramway systems in England. Much of it was on reserved track.
All traces of the trams running on the streets of Leeds gradually disapeared over the years. Track was lifted and tram poles taken down.
Today all we have are the old archive photographs to show us how it used to be.




This View shows the last tram to run in Leeds entering the depot after its final journey on the 7th November 1959. The tram was waved along by a large crowd of people lining the route. This illuminated tram had come from Cross Gates, Temple Newsam and Halton. Fares varied between 1d (less than 1p) and 6d (approx 3p). The first trams in Leeds had run on the 16th September 1871 from Boar Lane to Headingley.




Special souveniour last day tickets of Leeds tram operation.




This picture was taken during the early hours of the 4th Otober 1957 after all the service cars had returned to the depot. Here we can see two Feltham cars making there last journey from Swinegate depot to the scrap yard at Lowfields road. Car 562 had been out of service for some considerable time was dragging sister car 539 by a length of chain. Both cars are at a virtual standstill, 562's wheels spinning furiously, motors whinning with enough noise to wake the dead. Sand is been pumped onto the rails to try gain adhesion.




This is the next day aftermath of the previous nights activity.
With unseemly haste the torch is put to the two ex London tram cars. All re-useable parts had been stripped from the trams cars by this time. Setting fire to them was the quickest way to reduce them to bare metal.




No time was waisted removing all traces of the trams from the streets of Leeds. Here workmen can be seen dropping the wires on Stanningley road.
Surprisingly there are still traces of the tramway to be found across the City. Tram poles and supply boxes can still be found.
Track that has been buried under tarmac for 50 years occasionally re-appears when the roads are dug up.




Today Dafodils grow where once tramcars ran.
This picture shows track been lifted along the reserved track section of Roundhay road. The last tram to run down here was on the 28th March 1959.




A little higher up towards the Oakwood clock, a reminder of the tramway along Roundhay road re-appears once again. This section of track is revelaled after been hid under Tarmac for 50 years.

It was here on the 4th September 1952 a tram car careered driverless all the way from Roundhay park gates to the Oakwood parade of shops.
The tram smashed into a citybound tram before mounting the pavement. The driver had left the tram without applying the parking brake. The conductor who should have applied the emergency brake jumped off in panic. At Oakwood the driver and conductor of the other tram were knocked unconscious as the tram was shunted from the stop at high speed.
The tram was stopped by a heroic passenger at Gipton Wood who jumped on and applied the emergency brake.









The extensive tram network in 1945.
The last line in Leeds to be built ran to the new Middleton housing estate. The Middleton tramway was originally a light railway built to transport building materials for the building of the estate. Once upon completion it was adapted for passenger tram service.




Grand plans were drawn up to put much of the tramway system underground. This is how it would have looked under city square.
However the popularity of the motor car and buses put these plans on hold.

I find it ironic how Leeds has gone full circle. The roads are a nightmare at peak times. Traffic slows to a crawl across the city




There's something very nostalgic about the old trams.
How warm and inviting must one have looked on a cold Winters night as it bounced along in the distance as you waited?
The warm glow of it's lights making it seem even more inviting.

This atmospheric night shot was taken at Chapeltown depot as car 162 perpares to run the last service back to Swinegate depot.
Chapeltown depot closed in 1955.




We thought it would be nice to celebrate the 50 years since the last trams ran in Leeds by documenting what was left of it.

Hold on tight for a rickety ride down memory lane when the tram was very much 'king of the road'





DING DING!
What better place for our first stop than the National tramway museum at Crich in Derbyshire?




Several Leeds tram cars thankfully escaped the cutters torch and are now preserved at Crich.
Here 'Beeston air brake' car 399 looks resplendent in the Spring sunshine.




Car 399 was one of the last of it's class to be withdrawn. It was used for many years after withdrawal from passenger service as a 'shunter' in Kirkstall depot. Note the drivers window is missing so to save cleaning it. The extra metal around the fender was to help shunt odd shaped cars around the depot.

Car 399 is seen inside the dark confines of Kirkstall depot in 1956.
399 was built at Kirkstall works and entered service in 1925.
It was restored back to operational service at Crich in 1990 .




Car 345 has an amazing story behind it. It was withdrawn from passenger service in 1948 and became a Joiners store at Swinegate depot.
It is seen here windows boarded up and covered in grime inside the depot in 1957.

Car 345 was built in 1922 and saved from the scrapyard in 1958.
Leeds 345 had been stored unserviceable at Crich for over 30 years.
It was finally restored and was launched with due ceremony on Saturday 1st April 2006.
During renovation work, there were many artefacts and tickets found behind seats, and panels from when the tram was in service on the streets of Leeds over 60 years ago.




'Horsfield' car 180 is pictured at Kirkgate in 1957 on route 12 to Middleton. 180 carries the last red livery used by L.C.T before the trams were withdrawn.

180 was built by Brush in 1931, these trams were known as Showboats or Horsfield trams.




Tram stop from the number 6 Meanwood route saved at Crich.









I've walked past this rusty old box many times and never given it a second thought. It wasn't until i noticed what looked like the Leeds coat of arms on the side that i took a closer look.
I was most surprised to find it was an electric supply box for the tramways some 50 years after the last trams had ran on the streets of Leeds.
I wasn't to know it then, but this box would start us off on a hunt for all the other tram relics across the city.




Rich and Sam take a closer look at the supply box on Lidgett park road near the allotments. This box seems to have been moved and used by the City light department.
We did our research and spent several weekends out and about collecting all the tramway relics we could find. 




This scene is a few yards away from where the supply box is now situated on Lidgett park road.
Car 175 has travelled from Oakwood along the reserved track section on Soldiers field and is about to cross Lidgett park road.
A supply box can be seen to the right of the tram. Is this the same box pictured above? Heavy duty poles can be seen either side of the box. These appear to have been to protect the box from accidental contact with passing trams.
One of the protection poles can still be seen there today.




Probably the most well known about tram relics in Leeds are the tram poles at the terminus of Roundhay park.
A little known fact is that trams never used this terminus. No tram tracks were ever in place.

The terminus was actually built in 1953 for the Military Tatoo marking the Queens Assession for the purposes of loading buses. There used to be feeder barriers for passengers to load up. The poles were used for lighting by the City lighting department. The Tatoo finishished at midnight, so buses were laid on to provide transport home direct to all parts of the city where the trams couldn't get to. The terminus was used on many occasions for childrens and sports days. Tram poles were used as street lighting poles on many tram routes for which the lighting department paid a minimal fee.




The picture on the left is one of the conductor grates on Street lane. Most of these grates have been worn away by years of passing traffic. You can see where timber blocks were one fitted in the slots.

The picture on the right is taken on New Briggate outside Primarks. It is in far better condition with all the timber blocks still intact.




Moving West accross the city to Morley we look at the old tram depot on Worral street. The depot is the large building half way down the road on the right hand side.
The depot was opened in 1920, and only stayed open 15 years closing in 1935.
Morley trams ran through Leeds City centre to Meanwood on the number 6 route.




The tram depot has only recently been demolished. I was glad the tram tracks and original cobbles had escaped the bulldozers.
It's amazing to think that no trams have passed over these rails for 74 years.




The next reminder of the Leeds tramway can be found in the road where Headingley tram depot used to be.
Here times have changed on St Chads road. The depot has been replaced by housing.




The picture on the left is one of the old track point switches. It is situated beside car 185 on the picture above.
The picture on the right is inside a working point switch at Crich.




The next visible signs of tram track can be found on the railway bridge on Albion road, Armley.
Enough vibration by passing trains and cars, have caused large lumps of tarmac to break away revealing the tram tracks once again.




A true hidden place where trams used to go was arch 99 under Leeds City station. A single track ran out of the back of Swinegate depot into a narrow yard and under the arches. Here withdrawn and older cars used only at peak times were kept.




Chamberlain car 76 is seen about to leave the arches in 1956. Car 76 was only used on peak time and football specials by this time. Within the arches the track split into three. It was a desperate place with rats and mice flourishing. Today arch 99 is used as a private car park.




This Building on Abbey Road, Kirkstall is a Leeds City Tramways electricity substation. The substation was built in 1906 and used to provide power on Route 4 from Woodside Avenue, Kirkstall Road to Hawkworth Road terminus. The plant was decommissioned in 1948 when a new power plant was installed at the Kirkstall Road works.









Another tramway relic survives on the central reservation on Crossgates road. These steps and railings were once a tram stop on the number 18 route.




This old tram pole still survives on Whingate just past the junction with Tong Road.
The New Inn pub on Tong road still commemorates it was the tram terminus on the number 16 route.




56 years seperate these two shots near Kirkgate market.




The conductor of Chamberlain car 139 swings round the bow collector to travel in the opposite direction. 139 is about to run back to Harehills on the number 17 route.




It's easy to look back at the trams with Rose tinted glasses these days. In reality the trams were old and draughty.
The Leeds track was badly worn and in need of replacement. The buses could go anywhere and were cheaper to run.
You can see just how dreadful the conditions must have been for the drivers in the earlier open cars like Number 7 in the Winter months.

That aside i bet they hold some great memorys for the older generation of Leeds folk.

I know which i'd prefer to ride to town on.
A rickety old tram car beats a modern 'plastic First Leeds bus' any day





What better shot to finish off with than this tranquil setting at Temple Newsham?

Horsfield car 178 rests at the terminus before heading back to the Corn Exchange on the sunny morning of the 30th May 1959. In less than six months time this scene would be all but a memory.
The run to Temple Newsham was a pleasent journey through the woods. Tram cars often reached break neck speeds as they ran down hill towards town. The service was always busy during the Summer months. But during Winter the half hourly service often ran empty.




And so it was on the cold foggy night of the 7th November 1959 that the last tram car entered Swinegate depot and brought about an end to 88 years of tram cars on the streets of Leeds.


**That's just a fraction of the full story*
It can be viewed in more detail 

HERE*
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=265602590&blogId=482180312
*
There's even a video of the trams at Crich lol*


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## Reaperman (Apr 18, 2009)

Thats an excellent writeup, a really good read. You've obviously put loads of time into this and it really shows.

Shame there wasn't a nice large terminus or depot to photograph though!


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## swanseamale47 (Apr 18, 2009)

Brings back memories of the Mumbles train (somwehat similar to these) claimed by some to be the first passenger carrying railway, sadly no more.
Nice to see pics of thses. Thanks for sharing. Wayne


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## the_delta_force (Apr 18, 2009)

A brilliant post

Well done...


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## ricasso (Apr 18, 2009)

A truly epic post! you obviously know you subject inside out , love the "before and after" shots,well done


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## TK421 (Apr 18, 2009)

Phill.d, that is a really great read, I bet you had great fund tracking down all the existing relics, there are a suprising amount to stil be seen. Great post and write up, thanks for sharing this with us.


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## fezzyben (Apr 18, 2009)

Brilliant read thanks buddy


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## MD (Apr 18, 2009)

great report makes for good reading


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## simaving (Apr 18, 2009)

*leeds trams*

thank you for an enjoyable,enlightening write up mate,first class!


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## simaving (Apr 18, 2009)

*leeds trams*

thank you for an enjoyable,enlightening write up mate,first class!


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## shatters (Apr 18, 2009)

Amazing amount of work gone in to this report, newbies take note 

This is how a report should look

Well done guys

Phil


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## Trinpaul (Apr 18, 2009)

That is a great report and presentation  thank you very much for it, very enlightning


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## borntobemild (Apr 18, 2009)

thanks for this phill. 
I used to live near Roundhay Park. When I was a kid you could still see the tram rails by the clock at Oakwood. I think they must have been covered over when the junction was altered (late 70s early 80s?).

We moved to Leeds from Gateshead where they had trolley buses - similar principle.


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## parcans (Apr 18, 2009)

Fantastic stuff, really well done!

Thanks!


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## oldscrote (Apr 19, 2009)

Great report love the then and nows,went down very well with me bacon and eggs


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## sqwasher (Apr 20, 2009)

Excellent photos, write up & research Mr D! I bet a lot of people wish Leeds still had some of this system remaining!


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## night crawler (Apr 20, 2009)

Excellent stuff, I remember them in Reading. Strange that now they are trying to bring them back in places.


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## The_Revolution (Apr 20, 2009)

phill.d said:


> Grand plans were drawn up to put much of the tramway system underground. This is how it would have looked under city square.
> However the popularity of the motor car and buses put these plans on hold.



Excellent write up. Interesting to see these plans; with this being next to the station they were so close to get an integrated transport system just like the ones the majority of big European cities now have.


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## james.s (Apr 20, 2009)

This is a really interesting report, loved reading it. I am near the national tramway museum, and have seen the photos of the trams being burned in there. What an awful shame.


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## sheep21 (Apr 20, 2009)

brilliant post and with a really informative write up, a very interesting read.

thank you.


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## smileysal (Apr 20, 2009)

WOW, what an excellent write up, and excellent pics of then and now. Loved reading all this, you've put a hell of a lot of work in. 

Just bought a book about the old tramways in Chesterfield, so will now have to have a search around there and try and see if there's anything left of that one too.

Excellent work mister, loved this.

Cheers,

 Sal


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## strangechap (Apr 21, 2009)

*Excellent!*

Never really had any interest in trams, but your post was informative and nicely written and I found it fascinating.

Had me glued to my monitor for ages (when I should really have been working!)

Thanks for posting, you put a lot of time and effort in to that.


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## Derek (Apr 21, 2009)

Yeah, good write up Phil.d, I enjoyed that. Always had a soft spot for trams, me, I'll never for the life of me understand why we scrapped them. Madness, total madness. Am I right in thinking Leeds is now the biggest city in the UK without any light rail? Even Birmingham has some!



swanseamale47 said:


> Brings back memories of the Mumbles train (somwehat similar to these)



Oh very many happy memories of the Mumbles train







But that's another story (this image from here)

Derek


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## djrich (Apr 22, 2009)

Very interesting read and great pics, thanks.


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## volksy (Apr 23, 2009)

Great read!

There is one depot still about i think, situated just by the armley gyratory, now a van hire place.

The sub-station on Kirkstall road is now one of my mates businesses, they have only just moved here, it was earmarked for change of use into apartments, but given the current climate they cancelled, and my mate took it on for his metalworking business.


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## scribble (Apr 26, 2009)

That was fascinating. I always loved the Yorkshire Relish tram when I visited Crich. It is wonderful to be given such a wealth of background information.


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## L3AN (Apr 26, 2009)

Excellent and detailed as ever Phill.d - Great read

- I must say Leeds will forever been known as the city who could of had it all but was never bold enough - same goes for these days too  Love living here but man it so pisses me off how the council are SOOOOOOOO short sighted in just about everything they do!


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## plazzyman (Apr 26, 2009)

a really great report well done, your love of trams really shows,pity there is nothing like that left here in plymouth all we have is the plymouth corporation tramway main depot building left and it is still home to the ciys public transport busses ,apart from that everything was destroyed by the blitz or the city council .As for being cold and draughty ,ever been on a plymouth city bus ?


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## paulvwells (Apr 30, 2009)

very interesting, its amazing what is right underneath our noses sometimes!


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## freebird (May 1, 2009)

Great write up Phill! I swear you missed your vocation as a history reporter! A newspaper should sign you up!


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## Looloo (May 1, 2009)

What a fascinating read, thanks for all the info and putting all that effort in.


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## shatters (May 1, 2009)

freebird said:


> Great write up Phill! I swear you missed your vocation as a history reporter! A newspaper should sign you up!



Since when has newspaper been interested in facts ?

Phil


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## bricoleur (May 1, 2009)

Wonderful stuff - thanks for sharing.

They should never have gotten rid of them IMO - so beautiful.


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## rwalton159 (May 4, 2009)

Excellent thread


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## chelle (May 4, 2009)

*Amazing*

This is without doubt one of thee most informative reports I have seen ever..brilliant "then and now" concept that works effortlessly.Many thanxx Phil.

Stu


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## slimrick (May 30, 2009)

Awesome write-up. I'm now late reading my little lad his bedtime story because of you!!!


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## Guiseppe (Jun 21, 2009)

That 1945 tram map has answered some questions for me - I always wondered why North Parkway is a dual carriageway but then comes to an end so strangely. Makes sense now!


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## Lightbuoy (Jun 21, 2009)

Another well researched Report Phill 

Especially like the attention to detail given to the tramway remnants.

Thanks for your efforts -got something of a soft spot for Trams


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## Misstee (Jun 21, 2009)

Only just found this report. Thank you for making a dull Sunday afternoon more interesting. A really great, informative report - loved it. Thank you.


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## mal33bb (Jun 21, 2009)

*Trams of Today*

I should imagine Tramway Systems of today (manchester ect) are built with the know how of the vast expertise of Past engineers . Many lessons learnt on the Building a safe reliable Tramway . The move to Green Transport means more Tramways may thrive .


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