January 2005

Stanley King
Bradford Tramcar 104
Report - J.S.King

As it is now S5years since trams last ran in the streets of Bradford, it is probably a good time to remember what happened to the trams, and how one (or one and a half!) managed to survive to the present day.

When the closure of the last route, City to Odsal and Horsfall Playing Fields (15) was arranged for Saturday, May 6tf,, 1950, the Corporation Transport Department announced that there were no plans to preserve any of the trams. At that time, tramoar preservation was virtually unknown and certainly unfashionable. The National Tramway Museum at Crich did not exist; Industrial Museums had not been invented, and Bradford Corporation Museums regretted that as they had nowhere suitable to store a tram, they were unable to help.

However, Mr. Harry Hornby of Bradford Speedway fame (stock car racing at Odsal Stadium) nobly offered to buy the last tram plus a short length of track with overhead, so that on match nights he could display it brilliantly lighted as a tram should be. His offer was accepted, but communications must have been poor, as when the official last car, no. 104, took its turn to be removed from Bankfoot depot on July 12k”, the demolition contractors (Cohen’s of Stannlngley) removed and dismantled all its electrical and mechanical equipment before loading the remains — the body — on to a low-loader. Not only that, but they mistakenly delivered the body to a site on Baiidon Moor — not an easy mistake to make, one would have thought — before rectifying the error and transporting it to Odsal Stadium a few weeks later. No longer the showpiece that Mr. Hornby had been hoping for, it was soon painted all-over cream and used as a scoreboard.

EIght years previously, ten English Electric trams made redundant by the closure of the Stanningley route had been sold to Sheffield, where they were still running. However, the arrival of 35 new Roberts-bodied trams brought about their gradual withdrawal, and although as late as 1951 two were glimpsed In Holme Lane Depot, before long the only survivor was S.C.T. 330, ex-Bradford 251, reduced to sIngle- deck and used as a rallgrinder.

On February 7th, 1951, a new Bradford general manager was appointed — Mr. C.T Humpidge, know to be an advocate of trarns and trolleybuses. Seven months later
was called up into the R.A.F., but during my spells of leave was pleased to notice signs of a trolleybus revival.

Ambitions for a “museum tram” were still not dead, and during the course of a social evening with John Pitts on March the l, 1953, the following conversation occurred:

Stanley: "I wonder if it would be possible to buy 104 from Odsal Stadium, get hold of a truck from Sheffield or somewhere else, and persuade Mr. Humpidge to stora ft at Thornbury.”

John: "Hey, that’s not a bad idea, lad! It might be worth a tty I’ll drop a ilne to Mr. Humpidge and see if we can get him interested!”

The letter was successful. On my next leave, April 17th, the body of no. 104 was available for Inspection in Thornbury Works, mounted on the paintshop truck. Quick work indeed!

The task of restoration was much slower, as we had to accumulate enough mechanical and electrical parts to make the tram mobile again. Trolley boom, motors and a controller were available In the Works; a second controller was boughtfrom Sunderland and the trolley base from Liverpool, and finally Sheffield agreed to sell and regauge a truck All the parts were renovated and reassembled by BCT craftsmen In their spare time, and the completed tram made its first outing on July 23, 1958, the Transport Department’s Diamond Jubilee. Bradford trams had returned from the dead.