Rural/Suburban Tram Stops

[RateTheFreight]

Hi all,

 

I'm keen to include double deck trams on my small N gauge layout with a view to the trams serving the small village at the heart of the layout.

 

My question is, how prototypical would this be? Did any of the major city's tram routes extend out into rural villages either as 'end of the line' stops or otherwise?

 

Greg

[Joseph_Pestell]

Not sure what part of the country you are modelling.

 

But in West Yorkshire certainly there were tram routes through some quite small villages, notably between Bradford and Halifax.

[Nearholmer]

The Kinver Light Railway should give you a few ideas, although I don't think it ever had double-deck cars.

 

See below: spot the tram.

 

Kevin

Edited October 23, 2017 by Nearholmer

[Oldddudders]

Not sure what part of the country you are modelling.

Nor the era. ISTR the London 96 tram extended all the way to Dartford, and a bit beyond. I know that to be more than 15 miles from Charing Cross, because when I worked there I didn’t get London Allowance, while my assistant, based at Slade Green, did!

[Nearholmer]

The Burton & Ashby LR was another one with long rural sections, and that did run double deck cars.

 

K

[Echo]

The Mansfield and the Notts & Derby systems extended well outside the main centre and through what were then rural areas. Both used double decker trams. 

 

The Notts & Derby system went from Nottingham to Ripley by the way, not to Derby.

[tamperman36]

Some parts of the Leeds tram network were quite rural at the time and had double decker trams on services.

[Legend]

Yes Glasgow tramcars went right out into the country, the section between what is now Darnley and Barrhead was country. The eventual terminus of the line through Paisley at Cross Stobbs was also out in the country and used to go all the way through to Barrhead too

[RateTheFreight]

Thanks for the responses all; defnintely a possibility then. My layout isn't necessarily set in a specific geographic region as it has the ability to change dependent on the stock I'm using likewise the era although I prefer to model late '40's - early 50's. The village itself is fairly generic in that is has some cottages, a church, pub, butcher, baker and candlestick maker. It could also technically double as somewhere like Crich in the preservation era!

 

I've got a couple of Oxford Ngauge trams on order to see how they fit on the layout. I went for their Birmingham one as its my home town and a London one too (as I've been reading a book on the lost voices of London trams) but will likely get others to add variety especially as from the above responses most rural tram stops seem to be associated with North of Birmingham.

[Nick Holliday]

There were plenty of tram networks in the south which ventured outside the built up areas. The most rural of all probably was the Portsmouth and Horndean Tramway (or Light Railway). Google came up with some useful pictures.

[PatB]

Whilst I can't be certain, from my memories of old OS maps, the extremities of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne's tram system at Slatyford and Throckley wouldn't have been exactly urban pre-WW2.

[rockershovel]

You couldn’t get much more rural than the Wisbech and Upwell Tramway, although it didn’t run tramcars.

 

The Wolverton and Stratford ran to Deanshanger

[rue_d_etropal]

the original coaches on the W&U started out as tramcars(horse drawn?) on Millwall line. There was even a proposal(drawing in Peter Paye book) about adding an upper level of seating. Then there was the Wantage Tramway, again using what was in effect old trams.

 

Round here industry and countryside are pretty close , and there were a number of tramways running along routes, where the countryside started behind one or two rows of houses.

 

Look at any big town or city(even London) and what is now built on was possibly still rural, a hundred years ago, and it was the tram or train that helped turn it from countryside to a town. The Metropolitan Railway bought up the land, built their railway, then built the houses to provide the passengers. Talking of which, there was the Brill branch, which did not develop beyond its original line.

Edited October 26, 2017 by rue_d_etropal

[bécasse]

Examples of country running would have been rare post-WWII, although, without checking, I suspect that one or two of the Glasgow area examples lasted for a few years after the war.

 

There would have been plenty of examples in the mid-1930s.

[stewartingram]

Blackpool was rural until relatively recent times, between Cleveleys and Fleetwood.

 

Stewart

[tractionman]

Here's a lovely rural electric tramway scene

 

https://goo.gl/images/XwAutU

 

Always something nice about rural tramways.

 

Cheers,

 

Keith

[Dava]

Even on modern tramways, there is a quasi-rural section on the Sheffield-Halfway line on Birley Lane where the track reaches a summit with spectacular views over North Derbyshire countryside. 

 

Dava

[tractionman]

Even on modern tramways, there is a quasi-rural section on the Sheffield-Halfway line on Birley Lane where the track reaches a summit with spectacular views over North Derbyshire countryside.

 

Dava

And similarly from Edinburgh airport, the tramway route passes through fields.

 

All the best,

 

Keith

Edited October 27, 2017 by tractionman

[melmerby]

The Kinver Light Railway should give you a few ideas, although I don't think it ever had double-deck cars.

 

 

Kevin

At one time it did get through cars from Brum at high times and holidays, but even those were single deck.

 

The trip to the Rednal Terminus of Birmingham City Trams (actually just across the boundary in Worcestershire) went through fairly rural landscape when first built, as did the spur towards Rubery.

The Swansea and Mumbles railway used huge double deck cars (room for 106 passengers) and that was fairly rural and ran along the sea front

 

I would think that many tramways pushed beyond the urban areas as they expanded with many areas later being fully built up.

In the heyday of tramway expansion there were many plans to link the systems in different towns and cities.

e.g. there were plans to link systems from Newcatle Upon Tyne down to Bishops Auckland. (obviously never happened!)

 

You could always use the premise that two nearby systems decided to join up through the intervening countryside and use that as an excuse to run D/D trams through the greenery.

 

Keith

[melmerby]

And similarly from Edinburgh airport, the tramway route passes through fields.

 

All the best,

 

Keith

Plenty of greenery on NET as well (south of the river)

 

Keith

[melmerby]

What about the Gosforth Park Light Railway?

 

It had a 1500' cutting, 1700' embankment, a bridge and a 4 track section and was operated by Newcastle Corporation trams.

 

Keith

[Velopeur]

I remember reading about an early 1900s unfulfilled plan to link up all the tramways on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire borders into one vast network. Just imagine Chesterfield, Derby, Mansfield and Nottingham all joined up. Lots of rurality in-between!

[tractionman]

I remember reading about an early 1900s unfulfilled plan to link up all the tramways on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire borders into one vast network. Just imagine Chesterfield, Derby, Mansfield and Nottingham all joined up. Lots of rurality in-between!

 

Many years ago I bought a second-hand copy of 'Great British Tramway Networks' (by W.H. Bett and J. C. Gillham), for rather more money than it appears to sell for now (!):

 

http://amzn.eu/inYMDSO

 

Not to worry, it's a great resource for reading about both planned and built tramway routes, plus it contains excellent route maps showing the networks as they were at their peak for the different regions of Britain.

 

Definitely recommended reading.

 

cheers,

 

Keith

[melmerby]

I remember reading about an early 1900s unfulfilled plan to link up all the tramways on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire borders into one vast network. Just imagine Chesterfield, Derby, Mansfield and Nottingham all joined up. Lots of rurality in-between!

There were a lot of expansion plans around in that period but few got anywhere.

One of those sorts of plans I hinted at in a previous post was the County Durham plan of 1921. It never got authorisation so went no further.

 

Pity really as it would have meant a possible run of 60 miles or more from Newcastle down to Shildon!

If it had gone ahead there could have been other links around the UK almost leading to a tram equivalent of a national railway network.

Mind you some of the longer journeys would have taken ages!

 

Keith

[Conrail76]

Plenty of examples on the Croydon Tramlink believe it or not, once you're away from Croydon town centre, especially on the New Addington section.