<div>This volume is the latest in a series of tramway books covering Britains post war tram networks. The book covers the systems that survived the Second World War, in the Midlands and Southern England, except London which will have a separate book.This extensive volume covers all the post war systems from their inception through to closure, with a superb range of images - many of which are previously unpublished - depicting each operation, from horse tram days through to the end. In addition, the comprehensive introduction provides an overview of the myriad other systems that once operated in the region but which did not survive after 1945, featuring such notable towns and cities as Bristol, Coventry and Norwich. Also included in the volume are accounts of the two second-generation systems to operate in the area: Midland Metro and Nottingham Express Transit.</div>

Midlands & Southern England

<div><B>&ldquo;Waller dips successfully into the social history north of the border during the first half of the twentieth century, when trams were the urban transport kings.&rdquo; &mdash;Evergreen</B><BR />  <BR /> Focusing on Scotland, this book provides an overview of the history of tramways north of the border from the 1940s, when the first horse-drawn service linking Inchture village to Inchture station opened, through to the closure of the last traditional tramway&mdash;Glasgow&mdash;in 1962.<BR />  <BR /> Concentrating on the big city systems that survived the Second World War&mdash;Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, and Glasgow&mdash;the book provides a comprehensive narrative, detailing the history of these operations from 1945 onwards, with full fleet lists, maps, and details of route openings and closures.<BR />  <BR /> The story is supported by some 200 illustrations, both colour and black and white, many of which have never been published before, that portray the trams that operated in these cities and the routes on which they operated. Bringing the story up-to-date, the book also examines the only second-generation tramway yet to be built in Scotland&mdash;the controversial system recently constructed in Edinburgh&mdash;as well as informing readers where it is still possible to see Scotland&rsquo;s surviving first-generation trams in preservation.<BR />  <BR /><B>&ldquo;An outstanding book . . . To leaf through the pages of this book is therefore to take a journey back in time, to an era that can now be remembered by a diminishing number of people. To see that era brought to life in such a vivid and immediate way is a real joy . . . a superbly researched history of trams in Scotland.&rdquo; &mdash;<I>Undiscovered Scotland</I></B></div>

Scotland

<div>This is the fourth book in a series that covers the history of the tram systems of the British Isles post-war. It covers the networks in Wales, the Isle of Man and Ireland.Peter Waller examines the history of the tramways in Ireland, Wales and on the Isle of Man. With three different legislative frameworks, the history of the systems covered are very different  from the surviving horse tramway at Douglas on the Isle of Man through to the new Luas system operating in Dublin.With an overview that provides the background to all of the tramways that once operated  plus the only tramway in the Channel Islands  alongside a comprehensive account of those systems that survived after 1945, the book is a fascinating portrait of the changing streetscapes of cities like Belfast and Cardiff as well as the remarkable survivor post-war, such as the Bessbrook &amp; Newry and the Llandudno &amp; Colwyn Bay.Fully illustrated throughout with mono and colour illustrations  many of which have never been published before  as well as system maps, the book will be of interest to all with a history of trams  past and present  in the British Isles.</div>

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Wales, Isle of Man & Ireland, Post 1945

<div>This is the second of a new series of books that will cover the history of tramway operation in the British Isles. Focusing on Yorkshire and the North-East of England, this book provides an overview of the history of tramways in the region from the 1860s, when one of the pioneering horse trams that predated the Tramways Act of 1870 operated for a brief period in Darlington, through to the closures of the last traditional tramways &ndash; Leeds and Sheffield &ndash; in 1959 and 1960, respectively. Concentrating on the systems that survived into 1945 &ndash; Bradford, Gateshead, Hull, Leeds, Newcastle, Rotherham, Sheffield, South Shields and Sunderland &ndash; the book provides a comprehensive narrative, detailing the history of these operations from 1945 onwards, with full fleet lists, maps and details of route openings and closures. The story is supported by some 200 illustrations, both colour and black and white, many of which have never been published before, that portray the trams that operated in these towns and cities and the routes on which they operated. Bringing the story up-to-date, the book also examines the two second-generation tramways built in the region &ndash; the Tyne &amp; Wear Metro and Sheffield Supertram &ndash; as well as informing readers where it is still possible to see surviving first-generation trams from the region in preservation.</div>

Yorkshire and North East of England

<div><B>A photographic overview of the little-known cars and engineers that kept British tramways running smoothly and safely.</B><BR />  <BR /> While generally unfamiliar to the passengers that used tramways, works trams were an essential facet of the efficient operation of any system&mdash;large or small&mdash;and this book presents an overview of the great variety of works trams that served the first generation of tramways in the British Isles.<BR />  <BR /> Although construction of most tramways was left to the contractor employed on the work, once this was completed the responsibility for the maintenance and safe operation of the system fell on the operator. The larger the operator, the greater and more varied the fleet of works cars employed; specialist vehicles were constructed for specific duties. Smaller operators, however, did not have this luxury, relying instead on one or two dedicated works cars or, more often, a passenger car temporarily assigned to that work. This book is a pictorial survey of the many weird and wonderful works cars that once graced Britain&rsquo;s first generation tramways.</div>

Works Trams of the British Isles

<div><B>A history of London&rsquo;s horse, steam, cable, and electric tramways, and the operation that ended an era. Includes photos.</B><BR />  <BR /> The final volume in the Regional Tramways series focuses on the history of tram operation in the London area. Starting the story with the pioneering horse tramways operated by George Francis Train in the 1860s, the book narrates how the various horse, steam, cable, and electric tramways evolved in the period leading up to the creation of the London Passenger Transport Board in 1933.<BR />  <BR /> The primary focus of the book is the period immediately after World War II when, following the retention of the tramways for longer than anticipated, the process of conversion&mdash;codenamed Operation Tramaway&mdash;saw almost 1,000 trams eliminated from the streets of London in less than two years. Also covered are the two second-generation tramways&mdash;the Docklands Light Railway and Croydon Tramlink&mdash;which now serve parts of the Greater London area. The book concludes with an overview of those London trams that survive into preservation.</div>

London Transport

<div><B>“What a variety are pictured here! Double deck ‘balloon’ cars, single deckers including open topped cars and various illuminated cars, a specialty of the town.” —York Model Engineers newsletter</B><br/><br/>In the early 1930s the tramcar in Blackpool was at a crossroads; the system needed investment in both new track and new trams while there was a serious threat that the “town” routes might be converted to bus operation.<br/><br/>The appointment of Walter Luff as the new general manager was, however, to prove a turning point. Working closely with English Electric, based in nearby Preston, Luff developed a series of streamlined trams—both single-deck and double-deck—that were to revolutionize the town’s tramway. By the end of 1930s, the corporation had acquired more than 100 new trams—the majority built by English Electric but with twenty coming from Brush—that ensured the survival not only of the key route along the Promenade to Fleetwood but also of the bulk of the “town” routes.<br/><br/>Over the next seventy years these trams were to form the cornerstone of the Blackpool system. It was only with the modernization of the system in the first decade of the 20th century that, finally, they became largely obsolete but still, as part of the heritage fleet, they remain very much part of the contemporary Blackpool scene.<br/><br/>This book examines the history of Blackpool’s streamlined trams of the 1930s from development through to preservation.<br/><br/><B>“An important addition to the more straightforward business and picture book histories of the Blackpool tram network which local historians and industrial archaeologists will find of great value aiding future studies of this subject.” —Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society</B></div>

The Blackpool Streamlined Trams

<div><B>“A fine tribute to the thousand-strong fleet of E/1 trams which gave such sterling service to Londoners for nearly fifty years, including two world wars.” —Tramway Review</B><br/><br/>Probably the single most numerous of tramcar constructed for operation on Britain’s first generation electric tramways, the London County Council’s ‘E/1’ class had an operational history that stretched for almost fifty years. The first were produced towards the end of the first decade of the 20th century and the last were withdrawn with the conclusion of ‘Operation Tramaway’—the final conversion of the once great London tramway system—in July 1952.<br/><br/>Over the years, more than 1,000 were built for operation by the LCC with similar cars being constructed for a number of the council operated systems in the capital prior to the creation of the LPTB in July 1933. The last batch—effectively rebuilds of single-deck cars that had once operated through the Kingsway Subway prior to its modernization—not completed until the early 1930s. During the 1920s the LCC cars had undergone a Pullmanisation program and, during the following decade, a number underwent the LPTB’s Rehabilitation scheme. Moreover, with the removal of the restriction on the use of enclosed lower-deck vestibules, many others were converted to full-enclosed during that decade.<br/><br/>Although withdrawals commenced in the 1930s, as the tram system north of the river was converted to trolleybus operation, and others were lost as a result of enemy action during the war, a sizable number survived to the system’s final days.<br/><br/>This book examines the history of this important class from development through to preservation.</div>

The London 'E/1' Tram

<div>During the history of Britain’s electric tramcar fleets, many thousands were manufactured of which the vast majority saw out their operational life with a single owner. However, for several hundred there was to be a second – if not, in certain cases, a third – career with a new operator.  Almost from the dawn of the electric era in the late 19th century tramcars were loaned or bought and sold between operators. The reasons for this were multifarious. Sometimes the aspirations of the original owners for traffic proved wildly optimistic and the fleet was downsized to reflect better the actual passenger levels. War was a further cause as operators sought to strengthen their fleets to cater for unexpectedly high level of demand or to replace trams destroyed by enemy action. For other operators, modernization represented an opportunity to sell older cars while, certainly from the 1930s, a number of operators – such as Aberdeen, Leeds and Sunderland – took advantage of the demise of tramways elsewhere to supplement their fleet with trams that were being withdrawn but which still had many years of useful operational life in them. The process was to continue right through to the mid-1950s when Glasgow took advantage of the demise of the once-extensive Liverpool system to purchase a number of the streamlined bogie bogie cars that were built in the late 1930s.  In this book the author provides a pictorial history – with detailed captions – to the many electric trams that were to operate with more than one tramway during the period up to the closure of the closure of the Glasgow system in 1962.</div>

Britain's Second-Hand Trams

<div>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.</div>

Britain's Preserved Trams

<div>Although there had been experiments with the use of a new form of transport - the 'trackless tram' (better known as the trolleybus) - during the first decade of the 20th century, it was in June 1911 that Bradford and Leeds became the country's pioneering operators of trolleybuses. Whilst, in Leeds, the trolleybus was destined to have a fairly peripheral role (and finally disappeared in 1928), in Bradford, perhaps as a consequence of the hills surrounding the city centre which represented ideal territory for the trolleybus, the 'trackless' was destined to have a long and illustrious career stretching for more than 60 years until - on 26 March 1972 - the final first-generation trolleybus system finally succumbed to the all-conquering motorbus. This is the first of two volumes to cover the history of all of the trolleybus operators of the British Isles and focuses on those systems in the North of England and Scotland as well as the only network in Northern Ireland - Belfast. The book includes comprehensive fleet and route histories allied to some 250 illustrations, both color and mono, including a map of each network featured.</div>

British Trolleybus Systems—Yorkshire

<div>Although there had been experiments with the use of a new form of transport - the ‘trackless tram’ (better known as the trolleybus) - during the first decade of the 20th century, it was in June 1911 that Bradford and Leeds became the country’s pioneering operators of trolleybuses. Some of the earliest operators were in Lancashire, northern England and Scotland; indeed Scotland can lay claim to having both the first system in Britain to close – Dundee in 1914 – and the last to open – Glasgow in 1949. This volume – one of four that examines the history of all trolleybus operators in the British Isles – focuses on Lancashire, Northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.</div>

Peter Waller
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Books By Peter Waller (12 Books)