Leeds Trams

[kenneth]

So many memories of these. Like you could stand on the sand pedal which used to ring a bell. Very daring when you are 6. My late Dad used to relate a tale that was quite amusing. During the last war he was excused active service on health reasons but being a keen motor cyclist he volunteered as a dispatch rider for the Fire Service. Whenever the sirens went he would hop on a tram to go down to the fire station on Sweet Street to pick up his Fire Service motor bike. On one occasion he told the story about getting his tin helmet which was attached to his gas mask caught between the slats in the tram seat and he had to go through to Swinegate before he could extricate himself

[BLAKEY]

What a lovely tale Kenneth. I have one similar which is a gem. At one time I had lodgings in Headingley with some family friends and the man had similarly been excused military service - he was a frail little chap rather like the comic actor Charles Hawtrey and was an accounts clerk - an energetic pursuit that was about all he could manage. Well, in the War he had been directed into tram driving out of Headingley Depot - you would think he was scarcely able to board one let alone drive it !! One lunchtime he related this wonderful episode :-"I went to take over the Hunslet tram at the top of Cardigan Road, and it was a tram which had suffered from poor brakes for weeks. I said to the Inspector who was there that I didn't want to take it for that reason but he told me to stop arguing and get moving. I took it very steady all the way to Town and then, on Hunslet Road, a lorry stopped dead on the track in front of me and I knew the tram would never stop."We all paused with knives and forks in mid air and I asked him not to keep us in suspense but to tell us what happened next. This was the immortal reply :-"HEE HEE - I SIMPLY SLID T' DOOR OPEN AND GOT INT' BACK WI' THEM 'N OF COURSE IT RAN STRAIGHT INTO THE LORRY."