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64 years ago, on this day in 1956, at around 720PM, the last of the old trams in Edinburgh set off on their final journeys https://www.flickr.com/photos/127340508@N05/50589822397/
A specially painted and illuminated car had been touring the network for the previous week in an odd celebration of the future
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127340508@N05/31685991143/ Here is a colour photo of that car
And a photo of it going down The Mound https://www.flickr.com/photos/127340508@N05/21575777998/
As covered in recent threads, the network had gone through a politically motivated crash course in running down in the 3 years from 1953-56. The last service to run was no. 23, from the Braids to Shrubhill depot via. Morningside Station
Here is a gloomily atmospheric photo of one of the last scheduled services on route 23, leaving Granton Square in the fog of a cold November evening https://www.flickr.com/photos/127340508@N05/38687900281/
In the 3 years to 1956, Edinburgh's tram network was cut back from 28 routes to just 2 after the Council's decision in 1951 to abandon the trams. The peak year was 1948, when 330 cars worked from 5 depots
The system was deliberately run into the ground and shut down at the peak of its efficiency and popularity. Maintenance during the war was good, new rolling stock had been built and 1948 was a record year for passengers.
Buses took over and initially enjoyed a surge in use; but they were never as popular and people quickly abandoned them for personal cars. Despite the heroic efforts of Lothian Buses to run a quality bus service, they have never recovered their share of the market
Over that short period, hundreds of trams were driven unceremoniously to Maybury to be hauled onto low loaders and taken by road to Connel's in Coatbridge to be cut up (pic = a still from NLS Moving Picture archive)
When the line to Corstorphine was lifted, they were loaded in north Leith, and when that too was cut back they directly left the gates of Shrubhill depot on the lorry.
As soon as the routes were cancelled, the cutters came in to pull down the overhead wires for scrap. Shortly after they would come and lift the rails, or even just tarmac directly over them in some cases https://www.flickr.com/photos/36844288@N00/5154058022/
The trams very nearly got a temporary stay of execution due to the Suez Crisis (Glasgow did get a deferral in their run down for this reason), but the Council's mind was set and not for changing. 16th November was to be the day
Special yellow ticket rolls were used in the final week with "LAST TRAM" printed on the back (pic = Heart Radio). The trams flew pennants from their current poles. Everyone and their dog took a final ride and requests were taken for invites on the last run
On the final day, a restored horse bus (not a horse tram) appeared, hauled by two horses from the St. Cuthbert's Co-op delivery stable. (Pic = Lothian Buses). Special tours were given and the crew wore vintage uniforms.
Servives 23 and 28 were all that remained, and ran as usual that day, and people patronised them as usual, as if it was all a bad dream and they would wake up and get the tram again tomorrow as they always had done.
At 8 minutes past 6, an ominous figure appeared at Granton Road Station. It was a bus, running the first bus-replacement service 23. Trams continued to run as usual for the next hour and 21 minutes though. At 7:29PM the last service tram ran only as far as the Mound.
The remaining cars on the network and at Tollcross depot then turned out their lights and rolled out their route numbers and headed quietly to Shrubhill depot for the last time. A pool of cars headed the other way to Braids terminus to start the special final runs
10 cars made the run up to Braids, including that in the special "last week" livery. A further car, no. 217, left from Morningside Station "carrying town councillors and their invited guests"
Huge crowds lined the route, and people came from far and wide to the Mound to see the convoy go down the hill. Buses had to be diverted and the trams were halted as the crowds were managed. The horse bus lead the way, pulled by a pair of white horses. The BBC were present.
A brief ceremony was conducted at the foot of the Mound, when the Lady Provost handed over specially inscribed control keys to the crew of tram 217 carrying the councillors. They then ran onto Shurbhill, unceremoniously ejected their passengers, and on into the depot by Dryden St
The crowds are reported to have been well behaved and there was no surge of souvenir hunters, but many people put pennies down on the tracks in order that they were flattened by the last trams.
The switch was pulled in Shrubhill at 940PM and the traction current was turned off for the last time. The Scotsman ran an evening editorial wondering if "electric traction might not return again in time"
And out into the night went the gangs of workmen, and pulled down the cables on Princes Street, dug up the loading islands. Early the following morning they started loading the final cars onto the scrappies' lorries. Only one, No., 35, would survive. (pic = British Trams Online)
So why was the system run down with quite such enthusiasm? There are a number of factors, a big one of which was money. The Ministry of Transport would not give or lend or allow the Corporation to borrow for required capital works.
But another was will. The General Manager, W. M. Little, despite having cut his teeth on the Edinburgh trams, had gone to St. Helens in 1941 and returned to Edinburgh in 1948 chomping at the bit of a bus future.
It was Little, the man in charge of the trams, who put forward a proposal in 1950 recommending that no further extension be considered and 25% of the route and services be replaced by buses.
And Little had an ally in the form of Councillor George Learmonth Harkess, newly elected in 1949 to the Liberton ward for the "Progressives" (the small-c anti-Labour coalition who dominated Edinburgh politics into the 1970s)
Let's be clear here that the Progressives were a municipal party and do not have a straight lineage with the Tories or Liberals (who formed much of their core). It would be wrong and simplistic to lay the blame at the foot of the current parties in that space
Anyway, despite being a funeral director by trade, Harkess found himself propelled into the chair of the Transport Convenor. Despite immense popular and press opposition, Harkess and Little between them conspired to carry the dominant Progressives with them and vote for scrapping
If one of the authoritative sources on the subject is to be believed, the tactics of the "antis" delved deep into "alternative facts" and steadfastly refusing to countenance any alternatives.
In a 1952 local election, the councillor for Dalry stood on an anti-tram ticket and lost his seat. Harkess, his job done, stepped down from the Transport committee. His unfortunate successor lost his seat at the 1955 election.
With the Ministry of Transport financially strangling the Corporation though, they didn't realistically have an alternative. They simultaneously had fares capped at a below-cost level and were unable to borrow or get funding.
Once the initial round of cutbacks were completed, total closure was inevitable as every time it was cut back, the financial position would just get worse and not better...
I will leave this with a link to a wonderful 10 min home movie called "Into the Mists", a colour record of the final few days of the network, preserved by @nlskelvinhall . You can watch it and mull over a great public folly committed all those years ago https://movingimage.nls.uk/film/0004
Actually, one more word, not just Edinburgh, this happened all over Scotland (and wider UK of course).
