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Oct 31, 2019 21:32:39 GMT
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I thought that but... According to the Friends of Chatham Traction (link in the first post) the tram line to Rainham opened in 1906. I think it was the last part built. The buses would have started in, say 1930 but it wasn't an instant switchover. So actually even the Rainham line was in use for 25 years. Not brilliant, but not terrible either. I suspect what really put the spanner in the works was World War 1 right in the middle of that period. Investment and maintenance would have been cut to nothing during the war and I expect the country was broke for a good few years after. Faced with the need for a massive reinvestment or dumping it in favour of exciting new omnibuses, the bus won. I guess you could argue that Chatham was ahead of the game in terms of dumping the tram. PS... some of it still very evident today It's a bit out of my normal stomping grounds so I don't know the area in detail. Have you got any examples out of interest? |
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Last Edit: Oct 31, 2019 21:36:13 GMT by Sweetpea
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theres a white elephant running from rainham to nearly the top of chatham hill, the very generous pavement/grass verge north side adjacent to the A2 is where the trams ran.  and a pair of trams in the exact same location as the google sat view above  |
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That's brilliant! I had no idea and if you didn't know you wouldn't guess.
I prefer the 'before' photo by a country mile. Any idea of a date?
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In postwar America, in cities that had perfectly good tram systems, General Motors (they made buses, too...) went to considerable lengths, including dirty deeds, to get cities to rip out the tracks and buy....GMC-Division buses. Part of our legacy of abysmal public transportation here. John/Connecticut/USA
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In postwar America, in cities that had perfectly good tram systems, General Motors (they made buses, too...) went to considerable lengths, including dirty deeds, to get cities to rip out the tracks and buy....GMC-Division buses. Part of our legacy of abysmal public transportation here. John/Connecticut/USA There was a good case for replacement in some places though. With the rise of suburban housing spreading the city, the tram just couldn't keep pace and, being on a fixed route could not service all the new areas easily. In addition, in the UK following the Second World War, there were huge tracts of once densely packed housing which had been levelled in the Blitz and it could be years before redevelopment, thus robbing previously busy routes of custom. Buses, however have the flexibility to operate where the passengers were and at a far lower CAPEX. Now that many cities are more 'settled', we are again seeing the resurgence of tram and light rail systems, mainly due to their ability to move huge numbers of people.  |
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Last Edit: Nov 3, 2019 1:00:42 GMT by georgeb
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That's brilliant! I had no idea and if you didn't know you wouldn't guess. I prefer the 'before' photo by a country mile. Any idea of a date? its not dated unfortunately, but looks edwardian ! this ones better quality, end of the line in rainham, outside the cricketers pub and st margarets  and this sombre picture from 1936 of tram graveyard !  |
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Last Edit: Nov 6, 2019 21:18:28 GMT by darrenh
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back on topic, vintage photo outside chatham town hall in 1944. i'll see if i can dig up some accidental photos of GKE68 !  |
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Damn it! Lost what I was typing. I hate touch screens.
I'll try again later with a proper keyboard...
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back on topic, vintage photo outside chatham town hall in 1944. i'll see if i can dig up some accidental photos of GKE68 ! I have a dvd boxed set of 100 years of British Transport. All very ineresting. One of the DVDs is about busses, from horse busses through to modern day (made in 2000 thereabouts). There's loads of period footage from all over the country. I'll have to have a watch again to see if GKE appears. 😀 |
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Tony, on first read I thought you wrote "100 DVD's" and thought "that's a lot of telly time!". Sounds good, though.
Those top deck tram seats must have been rather trying on anything other than a nice, clear summer's day. Imagine them on a damp winter's late afternoon. The buses must have seemed cozy by comparison. John
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Right, what I was trying to say is... Mr Darren sir, you are spoiling us with these photos! and this sombre picture from 1936 of tram graveyard ! I look at this photo and just think "Heritage Railway!" yay! Sadly in 1936 they apparently looked on from their comfortable new omnibus and thought "shagged old trams". back on topic, vintage photo outside chatham town hall in 1944. i'll see if i can dig up some accidental photos of GKE68 ! Oh my. This is really fascinating. First of all, it's still got the war time lamp covers on. Probably pointless as the drivers apparently didn't bother to use them very often. Then we have the fact that it has no near side wing mirror. But later photos show them fitted so they must have gone on some time just after the war. Next... It seems to have metal edging on the lower edge of the front wheel arches. I've never seen that. The engine side cover is louvered where as '68 has a plain cover with two access holes in it. Why? And lastly, GKE 72 appears to have 2 windscreen wipers. What's going on there!? Again I don't think I've seen that before and certainly not on any of the GKE sisters. Hmmm. I seem to have turned into a bus enthusiast. I probably always was one. I just didn't know how big of a one. tonycocacola, I think you'd be lucky to see Chatham Traction on your video let alone GKE 68! It'll be interesting to see what you do turn up though. Anyway, just to shuffle the topic on to another possible direction or two. I said GKE 68 was the only Chatham Traction bus left in the world. Well... GKE 65... And. GKE 69... Now this is a truly horrific story. I think, for a while, the greatest loss of life in a single road accident. James |
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Last Edit: Nov 7, 2019 22:07:08 GMT by Sweetpea
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There's loads of anorak bus spotters film camera footage, with excellent commentary, it's a great dvd.
I'm really hoping it's on there.
I'll have a watch tomorrow while I'm having my lunch.
😀
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Hi, That's not a metal edge on the front mudgaurds it's white paint to help with their visibility during the blackout.
Colin
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glenanderson
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 4,352
Club RR Member Number: 64
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Lots of wartime home-front vehicles had the edges of their wings picked out in white paint in an attempt to make them more visible in poor light. I understand from the stories my dad told, that shrouded headlights were so that others could see you coming, not so you could see where you were going.
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My worst worry about dying is my wife selling my stuff for what I told her it cost...
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I saw this the other day in Sunny Australia and thought of this thread. Other than the Bristol badge on the nose I've go no idea about it  |
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I saw this the other day in Sunny Australia and thought of this thread. Other than the Bristol badge on the nose I've go no idea about it It's a 1957 Bristol Lodekka LD6G with an Eastern Coachworks body. I'll get back to you with a little bit of history later but... Is it near you? James |
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Just had a watch of my bus dvd. The bus in the following photos was described as a Chatham and District Bristol. Reg is GKR750. Nothing of GKE68 I'm afraid.    😀 |
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I saw this the other day in Sunny Australia and thought of this thread. Other than the Bristol badge on the nose I've go no idea about it It's a 1957 Bristol Lodekka LD6G with an Eastern Coachworks body. I'll get back to you with a little bit of history later but... Is it near you? James Right, that bit of history... Built in 1952 and went to Crosville Motor Services, an operator in the west of England and Wales. They had it for 20 years - a pretty good life. Then it was exported to Melbourne where it seems to have run around doing tours until 2006. At that point it changed operator but was still doing tours in Melbourne. At some point it apparently had a Cummins engine fitted and you can just about see in your photo that the radiator cap in the hole above the grill is missing. Now... I got this from a web site run by a chap who tries to keep track of old Bristol buses. bcv.robsly.com/836afm.htmlI guess this isn't too bad for vehicles in the UK but for ones that went abroad it's probably a bit harder. It would seem that this one has changed hands again. According to the web site for the music shop it's being used as a classroom to teach people to play instruments. Cool! timmy201, You've stumbled across something we didn't know. With your permission I'd like to pass on the photo to the website to get it updated. You should get a credit for the photo. PM me if you want your proper name on the credit. I'm wondering if we should contact the music shop and see when they got it... James PS, I said "Lodekka LD6G". There were two series of Lodekkas. LD was the earlier ones. The later ones were F series. The "6G" bit meant it had a 6 cylinder Gardner engine in it. I guess after nearly 60 years of pootling around it was knackered and somebody put a Cummins in. Crying shame! |
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Last Edit: Nov 8, 2019 20:57:40 GMT by Sweetpea
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Just had a watch of my bus dvd. The bus in the following photos was described as a Chatham and District Bristol. Reg is GKR750. Nothing of GKE68 I'm afraid. 😀 Good grief! I can't believe you found anything from Chatham Traction. I'm very impressed! So what you've stumbled across is another Bristol K5G like GKE 68. In fact GKR 750 was one of the next batch after the GKEs. It was delivered in 1942, bob in the middle of the war. It was fitted with a Weymann "utility" body. Very square corners. The Coke bottle curve at the bottom of the sides was dumped in favour of a fairly straight sided design, and it had wooden slatted seats. Cheap and quick to build. In 1951 the chassis went off to Weymann again and had a new body fitted much more in the style of GKE 68. The video you found is the later, post '51, body. It has the coke bottle curve at the bottom, more rounded corners and so on. In fact she looks rather pretty, like a girl on the way to the ball, so I reckon it was probably filmed just after the new body went on. Towards the bottom of this page on the Friends of Chatham Traction web site there are a couple of photos... One of GKR 745 with the Utility body, and one of GKR 750 with her new body. Lovely find! I do appreciate you posting it. James |
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Hi, In the spirit of dragging out old pics I was looking through some books one of which was about bus company service vehicles. I found this of one of her sisters converted to a service vehicle, you may already be aware of it. -  Colin |
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some of it still very evident today
