Britain's Preserved Trams

Book excerpt: It is almost 100 years since the first tram was preserved in Britain, in the century since then a great variety of trams have been saved from tramway systems small and large. Some trams were purchased directly out of service and others were acquired after many years alternative usage, some being summer houses or homes, while others were used on farms or allotments where they served as sheds and out buildings, before being lovingly restored over many years. The story of tram preservation is not wholly positive, in the early days many trams suffered from being stored in the open at unsafe sites, where the historic vehicles were often subjected to acts of vandalism and suffered badly from the weather. This changed to a large extent in 1959, with the acquisition of the site of the future National Tramway Museum at Crich in Derbyshire,, where a comprehensive collection of trams from all over Britain and also foreign tram networks has been assembled, to secure a collection of tramcars for future generations. There is also today fine collections of trams in other museums in Britain and Ireland, which cover much of the rich history of this once common form of public transport. This book looks at almost 200 of these trams when they were in service, through historic photographs, prior to their withdrawal and eventual preservation.