Liverpool's Trams - Your Memories

Images of Liverpools Buses and Trams

From "Paddy Carey" <paddy@vidamac.wanadoo.co.uk>

I have greatly enjoyed browsing your website.

I went to SFX, then a Jesuit Grammar School, in 1955 and this entailed a tram journey from Gillmoss to Salisbury Street by the 19 Tram.

I had a Corporation tram pass, but only for 19 and 19A - I could have used the 44,44A as well as several other routes but why my parents never challenged this is a mystery. Most of my friends had several choices of route on their passes, but mine was the most minimal of any of my crowd of tram travellers, which included boys from The Liverpool Institute.

I also used to travel regularly on the 6A route to Bowering Park with my mother to see her sister, and so many of the images and locations on the site brought back mixed emotions from over 50 years ago. I also travelled on the LOR with my Dad shortly before it closed.

I am trying to pull together a talk/slide show/document that traces my involvement with Trains as a train spotter, and although I did not start train spotting until about 1960, by which time I think the trams had disappeared, I have been trying to work out which of the various railway lines [LNWR, CLC, L&Y] I would have passed under or near on my journey to school.

Later we moved to Upton on the Wirral, so I then used the electric Mersey railway from Birkenhead North to Liverpool Central, or went by bus to Woodside and took the ferry to Liverpool. On the way home we spent a half hour or so at Lime Street station to train spot before trekking back to Upton.

All memories that come flooding back now as I draw the elements together, never realising what a rich mixture of transport I enjoyed at the time. I will be checking your website as I start the account, and trust it will endure.

From "Peter R Handley" <bery@handley49.freeserve.co.uk>

I used to get the 40 tram at Thomas Lane on the other side of the road to Ken Dodd's house and was at the last tram run at the 6A special procession. I went over to see it after being on one of the last fare paying runs on the 40 route. The 40 was the last route to run in service but everyone remembers the procession but this was for invited passengers only.

I enjoy looking at your site and remembering those long gone days. I was a mere 14 years old in 1957.

From "John Hurley" <johnhurley6@bigpond.com>

Stumbled across your site by accident. Boy what memories the photo's brought back. I used to live on the Bungalow estate at Knowsley and used to get off the 19 at the ICI. I think that stretch of track between the Cherry Tree and the ICI must have been used as a tram race track. The drivers used to open the throttle as wide as they could , and the tram would be twisting on the track like a wild thing. You took your life in your hands if you got up prior to the tram getting to the ICI , as odds on you would be thrown from one side of the gangway to the other as you tried to make for the stairs. I never did like the Baby Grands though, as they couldn't handle that stretch of track as well as the Bogie Goddesses. Would you know if there was any official speed for the trams [I mean top speed]? Although my memory plays tricks with me now, I'm sure they must have been well able to do 45-50 mph if not more.

PS They have a Tramway system here in Adelaide - Glenelg on which they use what appear to be American built Streetcars. They are extremely comfortable and fast on reserved track. Hope Liverpool Council get their fingers out and bring the trams back.

Best Regards from OZ.
Ed Hurley

From "David Scott" <david_scott_r@yahoo.com.au>

I was brought up in Ardrosson Road which was of Utting Ave and near the rail bridge in your gallery #1. I went to Pinehurst Ave Pirmary and Junior School and used to walk to the baths at Norris Green in the summer to go swimming. I remember as a boy the trams and the Overhead Rail down at the docks. I was born in 1950 so these are just and I mean JUST memories. I remember riding the tram past Lime Street Station one day with mum or dad and past the Mersey Tunnel [which I traveled the length and breadth of often before leaving home for Australia]. I remember catching the 17D or 17C to go to the docks and join my ship as I was a sailor when I first left school and reached the rank of Petty Officer Catering or the Pier Head.

I still have my mum and Foster Brother living in Sunbury Road of Stanley Park Road near Utting Ave and still get quite home sick even after 40 years in Australia. I wish you good luck with the site as what I have seen is great. I also went to Arnot Street Secondary Modern School for boys before it became Alsop Comprehensive. My sisters went to Stanley Park Comp, and I used to race the bus along Stanley Park Road To catch it on the other side of Utting Ave outside the school to go to Church on Sundays at the Old Walton Lane Salvation Army.

Looking at the latest maps and compering them with and old street directory from the 1960's I see a lot of the streets that I played in have now gone. Is Stanley Park itself still a park?