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© Glesca
Tramcaurs Page 1 |
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The love affair of the century? Glesca and its tramcars.
If you spoke about 'the caurs' before the 1960's it wasn't about
motor cars being referred to, it was tramcars. The shooglie caurs!
They clanged, shoogled, lurched, swayed and shuddered...ah wis once thrown
fae the relatively safety of the inside of a tramcar, standing beside ma granny, to suddenly
finding maself writhing oan the platform being grabbed by an ever
watchful conductress and pulled tae
safety....a wisnae hoddin oan tae the seat handles ye see, ah wis trying tae be
gallus! They blew no smoke, gushed no effluent, spilled no oil.....and we all
loved them!
Glaswegians adored them as was demonstrated that sad day in 1962 when we
finally said goodbye to our beloved trams........almost a quarter of a million turned out that
day to attend the 'funeral' of our dear friends....and many were in tears.
Around the 1820s and 1830s the first form of public transport began
appearing with the use of horse-drawn coaches for hire, owned by striving entrepreneurs, two of the
most famous being Robert Frame and Andrew Menzies. In 1894 the Glasgow Corporation opted to
take over Menzie's company who were carrying 54 million passengers a year and owned 3,500
horses!
Acquiring the tramway service, to be titled Glasgow Corporation Tramways
made Glasgow the first authority in Britain to own and operate its own public transport
system on 1st July 1894....Another first for Glesga!
.Over 6 million passengers were carried in the first four weeks. By 1902
the changeover to electricity was complete - conductresses -
"Clippies" were introduced during the 1st World War. Glasgow was
the first city to do so and Tartan was seen again, this time in their long
uniform skirt. |
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Extract
from GP messageboard Feb.2003,
Marion McCaig ,
New York, USA
"I got really nostalgic looking through the auld
caurs. I remember
that last day so well.
We lived at the Dalmuir West terminus (#9 caur) and I decided to go for a
last run taking my 3 weans, so we all shuffled up the sterrs tae the front
seats and went all the way to Auchenshuggle and back. The kids loved it
and I loved it although rather sad at the same time.
Thanks for the memories webmaister. By the way I heard they were bringing the
caurs back tae Glesga"
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Dalmarnock Road
looking south
from the junction of Ruby Street / Dale Street
1st June1962
Ruby Street and the Dalmarnock Tramcar Depot
is the first
street on the left.
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Ruby Street,
Dalmarnock Tram Depot
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Ruby Street from Dalmarnock Road....see the Dalmarnock tramcar depot over
on the left.
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| This painting was done by GlescaPal 'Glesca
Artist' |
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Ruby Street looking towards Dalmarnock Road
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Dalmarnock Tram Depot. The Ruby Street tramcar depot was built in 1893 when all the city's trams were
horse-drawn
and could accommodate over 300 horses.
The first regular tram
from this Dalmarnock Depot {Ruby Street}
being destination Finneston, ran
on the 1st. July 1894 at 4.53 a.m.
It was adapted as a
car depot when the system was electrified a process completed in 1902.
The depot was demolished in 1967..... I remember playing in the depot
as wee boy. I stayed in the next street along, Fairbairn Street.
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July 2011, Extract from email,
Phyliss Neil ,
New York, USA
"I'm so glad I found this website I was born in
Whiteinch, moved to Househillwood and now live in New York usa. I was a
bus conductress back in the day (that was great times] I will be 70 this
year and have never forgot my Glesca Toon Thanks for now."
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