Nottingham Corporation Tramways No. 166

By the early 1920s, Britain’s tramway operators were facing much greater challenges than they had in the years preceding the First World War. One problem was that the overall condition of tramcars, track and overhead equipment had deteriorated markedly during a period when all available resources had been diverted to the war effort.

Economic disruption continued even after the war was over, which hampered the task of reconstruction and investment. The period of austerity that ensued also contributed to an increase in industrial unrest as soldiers who returned to peacetime occupations found that their expectations of a better life were not being met.

In addition, the ending of hostilities resulted in a sudden decommissioning of hundreds of buses that had been used as troop carriers. Many of these were snapped up and returned to civilian passenger service by private operators in competition with existing tramways.

And, finally, as the era of mass motor vehicle production got under way – in factories such as the Ford plant at Trafford Park – it contributed to a dramatic increase in the number of private cars that began competing with trams in earnest for available road space.

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This was the challenging backdrop facing Nottingham Corporation Tramways as it sought to adjust from the privations of war to a resumption of peacetime operations. At first it looked as if things might revert to the way they had been before the war as 25 new tramcars (including 166) were ordered from English Electric in 1919 and extensions to existing routes were still being proposed. The new trams were four-wheeled top-covered vehicles with enclosed drivers’ vestibules but open balconies.

Progress was halting, however, as the delivery of the new tramcars was delayed as a result of industrial action and, even when the first ten cars – which included 166 – were eventually delivered in May 1920, none of them were equipped with brakes as a result of strikes at the brake manufacturers.  The new trams finally entered service in the summer of 1920 and continued to be heavily used for the next fourteen years.

Not long after their introduction, however, there were indications of a change in the direction of transport policy, partly as a result of increased competition from rival bus operators; but also following a decision, in 1924, to introduce trolleybuses in Nottingham, initially on all single-line tramways.

1927 marked a turning point for Nottingham as the first tram route was abandoned in April, shortly after the maximum route mileage of 25.9 miles was achieved and the size of the tramcar fleet had reached its maximum strength of 200 tramcars.

At the national level, a Royal Commission on Transport Policy was set up in 1929 which, two years later, proposed that no further tramways should be constructed and that, largely as a result of increased traffic congestion, existing tramways should be replaced over time by alternative forms of transport.

By this stage Nottingham had already resolved, in 1929, to convert the rest of its tramways to trolleybus operation, though a further change of policy in 1934 resulted in a switch to diesel buses for future conversions.

These developments had implications for Nottingham 166 which was clearly destined not to grow old gracefully. Although the tramway itself closed on 6^th September 1936, the end of the line for this particular tramcar came at the end of 1934, just fourteen years after it had first arrived. The lower saloon was sold to a former tramway conductress, who arranged to have it transferred to her family farm and converted into living accommodation with a kitchen occupying one vestibule and a bathroom the other.

For the next 70 years the well protected tramcar body provided comfortable living accommodation in a secluded idyllic rural location, a role which continued until the lady who lived there died, aged 93.  Shortly afterwards, the Log Cabin, as it was by then known, was put up for sale and, in 2004, its new owner offered to donate the saloon – complete with platform ends – to the museum, provided he could obtain planning consent for a new bungalow on the site.  Three years later, approval having finally been given, the museum was invited to remove the tramcar body from the site.

The removal took place on 31^st March 2007 and, after spending five months in temporary storage, it was then placed in the museum’s off-site storage facility at the end of August 2007.  The extraction of the tramcar’s remains attracted a good deal of welcome additional publicity for the museum and boosted the Easter attendance figures for that year.

The body is in extremely good condition, and would be an excellent candidate for a future restoration project provided funding could be secured for such an ambitious undertaking.

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