London Feltham on Leeds tram route 20 at Halton Terminus.

[Phill_dvsn]

London Feltham on Leeds tram route 20 at Halton Terminus.Some good old nostalgia, and memories can be seen on this web page herehttp://www.trolleybus.net/subhtml/picture210.htm            

[BLAKEY]

[quotenick="Phill_dvsn"]London Feltham on Leeds tram route 20 at Halton Terminus.Some good old nostalgia, and memories can be seen on this web page herehttp://www.trolleybus.net/subhtml/picture210.htm    Many thanks for this pointer Phil - I found out all sorts of new things from it.    As World President of the Feltham Appreciation Society I can tell you that I loved those magnificent trams right from being a child, when I had relations in Streatham, South London and we made frequent visits there. As mentioned in the memorabilia it was quite a coincidence that the Felthams spent the bulk of their South London days on routes 16/18/20 and others between Croydon, Purley, Brixton and various complex routes to the North Embankment and Victoria etc. When I worked for LCT I heard many tales of fear from elderly chaps who had driven the Felthams in Leeds - I don't know the technical details, but seemingly although they would slow to walking pace without any trouble they had a nasty habit of refusing to pull up completely, and "nudges" and other minor collisions were evidently commonplace. Other than that though, and considering that they were designed in 1930, they were majestic and smooth riding in the extreme and a delight to behold and to ride on. Does anyone else remember, as I do, that they didn't have the normal "ding ding" bells but instead had something akin to domestic doorbells which "burred" continuously as long as the button was pressed - what a field day the present day little pests would have had by repeated and constant bell ringing !!

[Phill_dvsn]

Glad you found it of interest Blakey. I found the Leeds routes, and reason behind them an interesting feature. The Felthams did appear to be well before their time. Very modern in appearence, and comfort levels. I do believe there aren't many preserved? Also not all the ex London trams bought by Leeds went into service. That seemed a real waste of money to let them just collect dust inside Kirkstall depot.    

[BLAKEY]

Just a few more details Phil which may be of interest. Of the one hundred London Felthams, the original negotiations specified that Leeds would purchase 92 at £500 each, an extremely modest sum guaranteeing "plenty of good tram for your brass." In the following times progressively leading up to the total withdrawal of the class in London two were burnt out. The final arrangement therefore saw Leeds buying the unique (correct usage of that much abused word for once) London number 1 - a car slightly less spectacular than the Felthams but of superb specification nevertheless - for £500 also. It required rather more extensive overhaul than the others, work which cost £300, but even so was a very worthwhile purchase - a most splendid car which became Leeds 301 and is now preserved and running at the National Tramway Museum at Crich, again as London Transport 1.A total of seven of the ninety Felthams purchased did not enter service in Leeds - wasteful this may seem but perhaps not too bad in reality as they no doubt donated useful spares, otherwise difficult to source, for the others. Far worse a few years earlier was the purchase of the strange little Southampton "Bar Gate" cars, around half of which were carted all the way up here and were never used at all. I use the term "Bar Gate" because they were little, low and had deeply domed roofs to operate through a monument somewhat similar to the Beverley Bar which dictated the shape of East Yorkshire buses for so many years.