In message , Stephen
Furley writes
"Alan J. Flavell" wrote in message news:Pine.LN
.. .
On Thu, 18 Nov 2004, BH Williams wrote:
[excessive quotage now snipped]
I was only four or five at the time and much more interested in the
seats which had backs that could be folded according to the
direction of travel...
Sounds like me as a toddler on the rare occasions I was taken on
Birmingham trams. Where can we see one of those today? We never
actually went to the terminus (Rednal, IIRC), and I was fascinated by
the idea of changing ends and reversing the seat backs.
But they'd been abolished before I was paying proper attention.
It was a great pity that none were preserved
Doesn't the Black Country Museum have a tram from that part of the
World on its system?
Well, they have three trams two "Tividale" type single deckers (of which
one, 5, is no longer operational and the other, 34, provides the
mainstay of the Museum service). A Wolverhampton District car (49) has
also recently entered service but is used sparingly.
I seem to remember that they ran on track of a
narrower gauge than standard, but I can't remember what it was.
It was 3' 6" (or 1067mm).
Only one complete Birmingham tram remains in existence, car 395, which
is now on display at Think Tank, Birmingham's Science and Technology
Museum.
Although they are very close (and shared a common tramway gauge (with
connections) it is worth mentioning that Birmingham and the Black
Country are very different area with much (friendly!) local rivalry.
People from one area get slightly huffy at being mistaken for natives of
the "other" area. For that reason alone, I suspect that seeing 395
restored to operational condition and operated on the Museum line at the
Black Country Museum would be very unlikely. That said, I would dearly
*love* to see it done!
Many of the modern trains on New Jersey Transit have reversible backs.
As do trains on the Sydney system, the only place I've ever seen that on
a railway.
--
Ian Jelf, MITG, Birmingham, UK
Registered "Blue Badge" Tourist Guide for
London & the Heart of England
http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk