Edinburgh’s tram system has created a lot of interest in other parts of Scotland, who are keen to see a once-common mode of transport restored in a modern way.
With talks of extending the route throughout the capital, author Kenneth G Williamson has celebrated his love of trams with a book, Old Edinburgh Trams.
The work, which is an obvious labour of love, charts the arrival of the mode of transport in the city in 1871, its switch in the early 1920s that saw Edinburgh’s cable-operated routes switched to electric traction, when the Corporation took over from the Edinburgh and District Tramway Company, and its following growth.
As the plans to extend the current tram system to Leith are pursued, it’s fascinating to read that the first electric trams started there in 1910, and at its height, there were around 360 trams on the move throughout Edinburgh.
Edinburgh had plans to expand the system further, but the arrival of World War II curtailed this, and then, in 1952, the Edinburgh Corporation took the decision to rip up the tram routes and replace everything with buses.
Just four years later, on November 16, 1956, the final tram ran in the city – the last until the new system was created in 2014.
The book contains fascinating images, and as with all books with pictures of recognisable places, it’s fascinating to contrast the then and the now, as buildings remain the same, but their surroundings differ.
There are fascinating pictures to behold – a tram festooned with flowers, buildings with painted adverts which have long since faded away in the rain, to a colour photo of a tram on its very last day.
Williamson’s work is an evident labour of love, and his website www.trainbuff.net is testament to this.
Old Edinburgh Trams, by Kenneth G Williamson, published by Amberley Publishing, £14.99.
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