Leicester Trams

We bought over 100ft of hose pipe to be able to reach the car and then gave it a good soaking. No hopes of the tram growing as we water it but it did put a new spin on the term water-car!

Once soaking wet we fitted sheets of plastic to trap the moisture in and stop the car from drying out.

A bit more fencing that looks distinctly tramcar! I wish we knew which car it was off - it'll certainly be re-used.

You couldn't plan this kind of co-incidence but as we were clearing up we were visited by a couple who came to visit the farmer. They just happened to be visiting but it turned out that this lady is the daughter of the driver of Leicester's 'Last Tram'!! Sadly we only had time for one quick photograph and we never caught her name! We will confirm this on a later visit though. Who would of thought that would happen whilst working on the tramcar?!

The mound in front of the saloon was hiding the rocker panel and it also revealed a pleasing sight... the saloon is resting on bricks, and the surrounding land turned out to be concrete! This would have been great if we had gone down the original route of using a crane to lift the saloon. As it turned out the wooden framed chassis was so badly decompsed that a crane is out of the question. We don't want to slice our car in two like a cheeswire!!

No spades this time! A JCB makes all the difference and makes light work of a big job.

The No.1 end platform is exposed from the rubble. Ok.. it's not pretty but it gives us a good template. We also discover brass fixtures and brackets still in situ which will come in useful.

The extreme right hand beam should be horizontal like the rest. Elderflower has caused real damage here and just shows how strong the foliage can be when left to its own devices. Over the years the Elderflower has grown upwards and forced the beam up to about 45 degrees! We used a chainsaw to removed the trunk section from the middle.

Some of the items we found in the rubble. A headlamp, 2 x dashboard support poles and the remains of the destination blind box.

We also took the opportunity to remove the last surviving window that wasn't broken. This was located adjacent to the sliding door on the bulkhead. When we removed the beading we found the car number stamped on the reverse of each piece and the colour of the wood.

We number the exposed roof blocks so when we strip the pieces we know where they all go back. We also have the use of roof sections from other two other Leicester trams that we discovered being used as fencing so if any of the support blocks are beyond re-use there are some others available to us. We can only number the blocks we can see at this stage but we'll do the rest as we expose them.

An angle we hadn't seen until the clearing was complete!

The faded remains of the legal lettering: "Leicester City Transport, Charles Stafford - General Manager"

Adrian and Mike make headway on clearing the roof.

Adrian, Paul, Barrie and Steve - A smile before we realise how heavy the upper deck side section really is!!

A bell push - still wired in.

With the upper deck side panel now removed Paul gets stuck in to sweeping all the soil and dust away. Various treadboards are revealed still in situ and it becomes clear where the seats were all fixed.

A detail view of the interior makes an interesting comparison to the interior shot featured on the Car 31 page when new.

The lower saloon breathes a sigh of relief as the weight has been removed.

There was about 10 inches of compacted hay and straw to move (and a concrete feeder) before we finally see floorboards. The square hole would have had a removable hatch that could be lifted to expose the truck and traction motors.

"Tickets Please!" A good handful was to be found in the area that would have been the gap between backrest and seat. Obviously a good place to slide a ticket into to save taking it home!

A close up of a ticket and the reversed side carrying an advert for Allsopps 'John Bull' - A beer that was a product of nearby Burton Upon Trent.

At the south end of the car the absence of floorboards reveals part of the brake gear.

Buried in the hay was this brass fitting. It looks to be a bracket that used to hold a grab rail of leather straps and a cord for the bell.

... and here's a leather strap from the grab rail!

The first of several Half-Penny coins - this ones dated 1938. A ticket to travel would have been 1 and a 1/2d.

A notice requesting standing passengers to move towards the front platform still legible on the sliding door.

Located in the hay, these are not what you think they are!! They are actually the protective coverings that would have been fitted over an electrical join. A bit like insulation tape today! The wires have rotted away but the join is still there!