The Modern Tramway Journal in February 1957 carried an article about the tramways of Leeds. The data for the article was collated by A.K. Terry and the article was written by J.H. Price. [1] Please note that the copyright of the featured image above is owned by the National Tramway Museum at Crich. The museum are content for it to be shared in this way provided that their copyright is acknowledged.

The Suez crisis brought a temporary halt to a number of things within the UK economy. One of these was the planned scrapping of the tram routes and tramcars in Leeds. That pause provided the opportunity for the Light Railway Transport League to compile a map, fleet list and list of services for the city. Everything included in the February 1957 article was correct as of 31st December 1956.

In 1953, Leeds City Council decided to substitute buses for trams over a period of ten years. This meant tha by the end of 1956, ten nineteen of the city’s tram routes had been abandoned and the 1953 roster of 417 tramcars reduced to 170.

Those changes were recorded by the article as follows:

“The first conversion was the service from the Corn Exchange to Half Mile Lane (No. 14) on 4th October 1953, followed on 4th April 1954, by Kirkstall Abbey (No. 4) and Compton Road (No. 10). The latter abandonment saw the withdrawal of the last ex-Manchester and ex-Southampton cars and the Pivotal-truck Chamberlain cars, while Headingley depot was closed to trams at the same time. No further abandonments took place in 1954, but 1955 and 1956 have witnessed six closures and the concentration of all tramway operations on the large central depot at Swinegate.

Chapeltown Depot was closed as a running shed on 24th April 1955 … and the Gipton tram service (No. 11) was replaced by buses on the same day, followed by Meanwood (No. 6) and Elland Road (No. 8) from 26th June. But as a result of the oil crisis, trams are now running to Elland Road again, after an absence of over seventeen months! The explanation is that this line remained intact to serve Low Fields Road scrapyard, and with the oil shortage special trams now run again on certain Saturday afternoons in connection with football matches at the Leeds United ground.

The replacement by buses of the Beeston service (No. 5) on 20th November 1955, enabled the depart- ment to cease using Torre Road depot (except to store some cars awaiting scrap) and this building is being converted to a bus garage, unlike Chapeltown depot which is to be sold. The 1956 abandonments – Lawnswood (No. 1) from 4th March, followed by Whingate (No. 15) and New Inn (No. 16) from 22nd July have removed trams from the city’s busiest thoroughfare (Boar Lane) and have eliminated the last of the Chamberlain cars. These vehicles were former Pivotal cars of 1925-26 remounted on new P.35 type trucks built at Kirkstall Road Works from 1944 onwards, mostly after the patent had been purchased in 1948 from the Brush company. Save for works journeys, trams no longer run through City Square, another notable traffic centre which provided one of the few British examples of the familiar Continental technique of using the centre of a square or roundabout as a full-scale tramway station.

The abandonment of the routes on the west side of Leeds has left the works at Kirkstall Road rather unfavourably placed. At present, tracks are maintained from Swinegate through City Square and Wellington Street to the works, but the Chairman of Transport Committee … stated some time ago that the Department was considering moving trams to and from the works on a special road vehicle. This has not materialised, and it is thought that when the fleet has been further reduced, the rear tracks of Swinegate Depot will be fitted with lifting gear and equipped to carry our body repairs, the trucks, motors and controllers then being taken by road to and from Kirkstall Road Works for attention.

Although no definite indication of policy has been given, it seems likely that after the completion of the present scheme to convert all lines laid entirely in streets (of which three remain Hunslet, Dewsbury Road and Moortown), the routes with reserved tracks may remain for several years. Track renewals have been taking place on all routes, notably on York Road where some of the former wooden sleepers have given way to a concrete base as already used on the Belle Isle reservation. The Roundhay reserved track has also received attention.

Since the Leeds Transport Committee seem to consider the sub-ject solely from the financial angle, the retention (or otherwise) of the reserved-track routes will presumably depend on the Department’s ability to keep the cost of tramway operation down to a figure comparable with that of the buses. The Chairman has admitted that reserved tracks are much cheaper to maintain than street tracks, and the concentration of all the cars at one large depot is evidently another step in this direction, as is the elimination of non-standard cars and equipments from the tram fleet. The diversity of types in the Leeds tram fleet will be seen from the accompanying table, and it is significant that only Horsfield and Feltham cars are now receiving major overhauls; these two classes between them would be more than sufficient to work the reserved-track routes.

Of the other types, the Headingley streamlined and Chamberlain cars have already departed from passenger service, and one of the three ex-London H.R.2 cars (No. 277) has been withdrawn following a collision, while London’s famous No. 1 (Leeds 301) will soon find its way back to its birthplace at Charlton as a prized exhibit in the B.T.C. collection of historic vehicles. The most unfortunate demise in Leeds is that of the Middleton bogie cars, of which only one (No. 268) now remains in service. Whatever the virtues of standardisation and maintenance-simplification, one cannot but regret the passing of what were some of the smoothest-riding double-deck cars ever built; so far as can be judged from personal observation, their withdrawal is due to body defects and the need to retyre the wheels at very frequent intervals lest the swing links of the trucks fail to clear the road surface. The extra cost of four-motor maintenance, as also experienced in Liverpool, may have been a factor. Enquiries were made as to the possibility of preserving one of these cars, but the scrap value and consequent purchase price would be in the region of £145. Nevertheless, anyone willing to help is invited to contact Mr. C. Routh, 17, Wynford Rise, West Park, Leeds 17, so that the potential financial support for such a scheme may be assessed.

The former preserve of these cars, the No. 12 route to Middleton, is now linked with the Belle Isle and York Road services and served mainly by Horsfields and Felthams. Both classes acquit themselves surprisingly well on the reserved track, but on such a route as this the 4-wheeled double-decker must inevitably proceed more cautiously than an equal-wheel bogie car, and the exhilarating dash down through the woods by the last few cars at night is now almost a thing of the past. Various minor improvements are being made to the Horsfield cars, including the replacement of air bells by electric bells, smaller destination boxes which no longer occupy the entire end window space, and fixed upper-deck windows with sliding ventilators to replace the winding type made famous elsewhere by the twin notices “Do not spit on the car. The conductor will adjust the win- dows on request.”

Since Leeds does not intend to buy or to build any more trams, the life of the reserved track lines may in the end be determined by the life of the cars, most of which are already 26 years old. Yet the Middleton route with its private express track has a wonderful potential advantage in time and distance over the shortest route to Middleton by road, and if the private track were extended into the city along the colliery railway, and modern coupled single-deckers introduced to run at railway speeds, the earning power of the trams would certainly be superior to that of buses using the increasingly congested streets. Birmingham is considering using its former tramway reservations, linked by subways, to form a rapid-transit system, but Leeds is even more fortunately placed, for the modern substations and suburban reserved tracks already exist, and present slum-clearance and road-widening schemes could bring the York Road reserved track almost to the city centre. It would be a short step to link this with the Middleton route by a subway, a new road, or even a private surface line laid partly over the river. These are real possibilities, and should be examined now, while the chance exists, so that they can be taken into account in town planning schemes. The opportunity is far too good to miss. [1: p23-24 & 27]

The article included a plan of Leeds City Tramways as they existed on 31st December 1956.

The article also provides a table showing tram services in Leeds as at 31st December 1956

The next two images show the table of rolling stock still in use on the tramway network at the end of 1956. The first image tabulates the rolling stock, the second provides explanatory notes and details of manufacturers.

A separate numbering system was used for ‘Works Cars’ – snowplough cars, rail grinders, stores cars, water cars and rail Derrick’s. All of the Works Cars apart from the snow brooms and rail derrick No 1 were converted from passenger cars.

The article also included photographs of some of the Leeds tramcars.

References

1. J.H. Price & A.K. Terry; Leeds City Tramways, 1956; in The Modern Tramway, The Light Railway Transport League, Volume 20, No. 230, p22-32.