R.o.B Tramways

Croydon's Electric Tramways  

Croydon Corporation Tramways

British Electric Traction Company Ltd

South Metropolitan Tramways Co Ltd

The London Transport Years

 

As has been mentioned in the Croydon Horse Tramways article, the Corporation on purchasing the Croydon Tramways Company tramways promptly leased the tramways to the British Electric Traction Company Limited (BET) that company taking over on 22^nd January 1900. Bet had been formed in 1895 or 1896 with the intention of electrifying Britain's tramways and was to become a major operator not only of tramways but also bus and trolleybus services throughout the country with many subsidiary companies branching out in to other fields, for example BET purchased the North Metropolitan Electrical Power Distribution Company Limited in 1899 along with powers to supply a large part of North Middlesex, South East Hertfordshire and West Essex with domestic electricity carried out by purchasing electricity in bulk from a large power station in Brimsdown, owned by the North Metropolitan Electric supply Company, which also supplied power to the Middlesex Electric Tramways Ltd which was to become another BET operated tramway. BET's last tram ran in Gateshead on 4^th August 1951. To provide the services for Croydon, thirty five double deck cars able to hold 52 seated passengers each were delivered from the George F Milnes works, the cars running on Brill or Peckham trucks 4 wheeled trucks the trams finished in chocolate brown (Munich Lake) and ivory livery. The Corporations crest displayed under the lower saloon windows CROYDON CORPORATION TRAMWAYS emblazoned across the rocker panels above the lower frame. The electrified routes were to be:

• Norbury to Purley
• Thornton Heath Pond to Thornton Heath High Street via Brigstock Road
• Whitehorse Road to Northcote Road The Gloster
• West Croydon to South Norwood via Northcote Road
• George Street, Croydon to Addiscombe

Croydon's electric tramways including Tramlink

The London Road and Brighton Road section was the first to be completed the last horse tram operating on the evening of 25^th September 1901 the official opening and public service commencing the next day with a procession of 20 trams from Norbury to Thornton Heath depot. The electric tramway running north to south from Norbury to Purley reaching either end of the Croydon Borough Boundary, and covering an extra 4 1/2 miles more than the Red Deer to Thornton Heath Pond horse tramway. At Norbury a low railway bridge on approach to the railway station opened in 1878, sixteen years after the arrival of the railway between London Victoria and Croydon, necessitated the lowering of the road level to allow the passage of the open top double deck cars required for the route. The introduction of closed top cars in the 1920's once again saw the lowering of the road a feature that remains today. At the time Norbury was set in a semi rural area but from 1906 the London County Council started to build 500 new houses as one of the first 'Out County' estates, with the arrival of the tramway the area started to develop gradually blending in with Croydon. By 1902 the route was so popular fifteen more double deck cars were required, ten of which were purchased by the Corporation were bogie cars able to carry 69 passengers, numbered 46-55, the other five cars, numbers 56-60 were purchased by the BET to a similar design as the Corporation cars though built by Brush. Cars 36-45 were purchased by BET for use on the other Croydon Tramways earlier that year. The arrival at Norbury of the LCC tramway on 31^st July 1909 from Streatham stimulated further housing development northwards though there were not any through tram services from Croydon to the LCC system due to a 6 inch gap between the two separate tramways, passengers having to change trams at Norbury. This was remedied in February 1926 when the two tramway operators came to an agreement for a joint through service between Purley and Victoria Embankment, Westminster the track re-laid with the 6 inch gap closed, seeing LCC cars running in to Surrey and Croydon cars running in to Westminster. For this service the Corporation ordered 10 new double deck bogie cars from Hurst Nelson of Motherwell, to cover the service until these new cars arrived, the LCC loaned the Corporation 25 standard E1 cars. Arrival of the new cars saw a change in livery for the Corporation to Ivory and Port Wine (a dark red) in the same year eight of the 4 wheeler cars were sold to the SMET with two others scrapped, the remaining fleet seeing re-numbering and some re-colouring.

A view along North End Croydon

Annonymous

At Thornton Heath the former horse depot remained in use for the electric cars forming the headquarters of the Croydon Corporation Tramways Department. To cater for the increased number of vehicles the depot was extended a new work shop for maintenance also added. After WW1 much of the tramway system around Croydon required extensive track replacement as did many tramways around the country. In the Thornton Heath area in 1923 single line working took place with trams using the track which was not been worked for travel in both directions using temporary passing points which were laid on ballast beds along the road to return back to the correct line when past the works. Single line working was common on the Croydon Tramways due to the many single line sections on the routes. To maintain a flow of trams it was common for inspectors to send 3 or 4 cars through a single line at any one time in a fleeting move. The one mile long branch to Thornton Heath from Thornton Heath Pond followed the route of the former horse tramway by way of a single line spur from London Road in to Brigstock Road, a short section of double track at the beginning of the road used as a passing loop before the track became interlaced, the electric service Route code 2, commencing on 10^th January 1902, the horse services having ceased the day before. After climbing the 1 in 20 to the High street the cars would descend on a gentler gradient to Whitehorse Lane where there was a head shunt at the terminus. With the popularity of the Thornton Heath route it was decided in 1906 to re-lay the tramway from the Whitehorse Lane terminus down Whitehorse Road to join the West Croydon to Selhurst route at The Gloster, Public House, located at the junction of Windmill Rd, Northcote Rd and Whitehorse Rd. Due to a lack of patronage on the newly opened Thornton Heath loop the section along Whitehorse Road was once again closed from 1908 beyond the Whitehorse Lane road junction. Two years later, in 1910, the section was re-opened but that time only remained in use for a further three years finally closing for good in 1913 when trams to Thornton Heath once again terminated at the junction of the High street, Whitehorse Rd and Whitehorse Lane. To ease congestion caused by terminating trams the tramway a short spur was extended along Whitehorse Rd on the former alignment of the 1913 route.

Thornton Heath 1949

Courtesy of David Bradley

With the electrification it was decided that the Oakfield Road route which had been double track for the horse tramway would operate with electric trams towards Croydon only, trams for South Norwood running along Station Road (West Croydon) and Wellesley Road before joining the original horse tramway route at the junction of St James Road and Whitehorse Road from where the trams would continue towards Selhurst and South Norwood then passing along Northcote Road, Selhurst Road and Penge Road to a terminus at the junction of Penge Road (today's A213) and Selby Road on the boundary of Croydon and Penge Boroughs. Electric tram operation commenced initially between West Croydon and Selhurst on 23rd January 1902 but it was not until the March of that year that trams reached South Norwood in the intervening month's horse trams were used as a shuttle service. To allow the commencement of bi-directional operation along the single line Station Road and Wellesley Road section in Croydon from 1926, passing loops were installed allowing the closure of the Oakfield road route. At the same time the south facing points at West Croydon which allowed cars access to Station Road from the High Street direction were lifted the north facing points retained from Station Road to London Road retained for depot traffic. From 1906 South Norwood became the location of an end on connection with two tramways established by the BET. Croydon's neighbouring local authorities Penge, Crystal Palace, Sutton and Mitcham were very interested in the success of the Croydon Tramway system and wanted the tramways to be extended into their authorities with the opportunity for through running. As the BET was also very interested in expanding its influence and operating area it may have seemed beneficial to everyone, however for some reason Croydon Corporation was not overly happy about the idea. Between 1902 and 1903 the local authorities applied for permission to build tramways when this was granted in 1904 the lease was given to the BET to build and operate electric tramways in the above areas. The 'County of Surrey Electrical Power Distribution Co. Ltd' was purchased by the BET in 1904 to form the 'South Metropolitan Electric Tramways and Lighting Co Ltd' the companies aim not only to build the desired tramways but also branch out in to other fields. The power station was located at Sutton 4 1/2 miles south west of Croydon, providing domestic power to the area as well as power two tramways from Croydon to Sutton and Tooting. Where these tramways ran in the Croydon Borough power was then taken from the Corporation power supply, the tramway supply for two routes east of Croydon to Penge and Crystal Palace supplied by Beckenham Urban District Council. The lease for the operation of the Croydon Tramways was due to be renewed on 1^st June 1906 but the Corporation decided that it was going to take over operations, perhaps in a retaliatory way to the BET extending its operations to outside areas.

This resulted in the BET withdrawing the 15 trams they had purchased in 1902 for use on the Croydon system.

SMET Tramways:

• West Croydon (Tamworth Road) to Sutton via Stafford Road
• West Croydon (Tamworth Road) to Tooting via Mitcham
• South Norwood to Penge
• South Norwood to Crystal Palace via Anerley Hill
  

The new SMET routes to Penge and Crystal Palace which also came under the BET/Corporation lease were inspected on 10^th April 1906 and declared ready for public service, the trams on these routes fitted with magnetic track brakes to allow extra security when descending the steeply graded Anerley Hill. The main line formed an end on connection with the Corporation tramway from West Croydon to South Norwood at Selby Road, the boundary between the borough of Croydon and Beckenham Urban District Council, before continuing up Croydon Road to the junction with Anerley Road at 'Robin Hood' named after a local public house in Anerley. A triangular junction was located here allowing Route 5 trams for Crystal Palace to enter Anerley Road from Croydon or from Penge, the trams for Crystal Palace climbing Anerley Hill with its gradient of 1 in 9 between the former Crystal Palace Low level and High level railway stations, the steepest section of all of London Transport's tramways, with two compulsory stops on the downward gradient, trams terminating on Crystal Palace parade, opening as far as the low level station on 12^th April 1906 and to the Parade and high level station on28th May 1906. The Route 4 Penge route continued straight ahead at Robin Hood passing the tram depot on route before swinging left on to Penge High Street, the line passed under the London to Brighton Railway on approach to its terminus at the junction of Thicket Road, requiring the use of interlace track due to the narrow width of the bridge. Between 1906 and 1911 Croydon Corporation purchased 30 new four wheel open top double deck cars from Brush of Loughborough and similar in design to the earlier single truck cars built by Milnes, the first 15 cars replacing those removed by the BET. At the time the Corporation was experiencing a strained relationship with the BET after the ending of the operating lease in 1906 and from the June of that year until the June of 1907 SMET trams were not allowed to run over Corporation tramway seeing the Penge and Crystal Palace services terminating at Selby Road. The June of 1907 saw the Corporation and SMET sign a through running agreement for services to the east resulting in Croydon cars running to Penge and SMET cars running to Crystal palace from West Croydon, the Penge route closing in 1933.

Opposite the entrance to Station Road at West Croydon is the top of Tamworth Road former terminus for SMET cars to and from Mitcham and Sutton due to there being no physical connection at that location between the Western SMET tramways and the Corporation tramway. This meant SMET had to operate its tramways as two separate entities until a connection was formed in 1933 under LT, prior to which time if the company wanted to transfer tramcars from one system to another the car would have to be dragged over the road by a team of horses and then re-railed on the Corporation lines. The western routes were very much rural in nature the Tooting route running through Mitcham common and the Sutton route running along purpose built roads through areas where housing development had not yet started. After the tram had departed the head shunt at the top of Tamworth Road it followed the road down before turning left along Lower Church Street the Mitcham/Tooting route diverging from the Sutton route by means of a single track curve. Cars from Mitcham to Croydon ran over a crossover to get on to the correct track with colour light signals governing these movements. To allow access to Mitcham Road for the Tooting bound cars the tramway passed over the West Croydon to Epsom line by way of Pitlake Bridge today replaced by Jubilee Bridge the tramway passing Mitcham Road Barracks. With the tramways opening there had been little development along that section housing development soon taking place once the tramway had opened in the October of 1906. The depot for the route was located in what is now Aurelia Road at the time again a sparsely populated area, the depot opening with the tramway but was closed in 1926 when the SMET cars were transferred to Fulwell tram depot, Twickenham for storage with the LCC loaning SMET U type cars that were operated from Sutton depot. With the modernisation of London's transport system by LT in the 1930's the depot was used for a short time as a scrap yard for redundant trams before this work was focused at Purley depot. Beyond the junction on Mitcham Road in to the depot the tramway past through Mitcham Common before climbing over 'Blue House Bridge' that crosses the former Peckham Rye to Sutton Railway opened by the London Brighton & South Coast Railway (LBSCR). In 1936 the bridge was widened with a temporary closure of the running lines requiring a temporary single track section placed on the newly widened part of the bridge while works were carried out on the old bridge. At Fair green in Mitcham the tramway joined an intended route from Mitcham to Sutton the route was never completed terminating at Mitcham Cricket Green just short of Mitcham station, when the Mitcham fair was on the tram loadings reaching around 75,000 people. This spur from the main line was operated as a shuttle service until it was abandoned by the SMET in 1926 though later that year LCC trams operated an extended route 8 service from central London via Tooting Junction on to the spur. With the LCC now serving Mitcham SMET services terminated at Mitcham Fair green. The line through to Tooting Junction had been opened by the SMET with the rest of the tramway in 1906 the LCC extending their route to tooting to form an end on terminus though there was no physical connection between the two until 4^th November 1926. The junction was located outside the Tooting Junction Market. A change pit included for the LCC cars which used conduit power supply up to that point the SMET using overhead wire, the pit 100 yards before the actual end of the conduit system allowed cars for Mitcham to release their plough before changing to the overhead wire collection used by SMET, the wires having been extended 100 yards over the LCC system, though trams from London could still use the former terminus using the conduit system the scissors crossover remaining in place to allow this. On 26th September 1934 LCC tram route 6 was extended from Tooting Junction over the former SMET lines to Mitcham Fair Green though tram services ended on the Mitcham to Croydon route in 1935 replaced by Trolleybuses.

George Street

Annonymous

At the same time as the opening of the Tooting Tramway work on the Sutton route which was to have the route code of 7 was approaching completion though the first part to open had already done so between Waddon and Carshalton after the Board of Trade inspection on 11th August 1906. For the initial testing of the new tramway and the inspection of the completed section Car 25 a Corporation car was brought by road to the site as there was no other tramway connection. To construct the tramway a new road was laid between Waddon and Carshalton this 2 mile long road becoming known as Stafford Road the road laid in anticipation of housing development in the open fields bordering it.  The road joined Carshalton Road at the Windsor Castle, Public House, and Carshalton. The opening of the National Aircraft Factory n 1918 to the east of the tramway, along Stafford Road, saw a railway siding constructed from the West Croydon to Epsom line crossing the tramway on the level. A short siding was also provided by the tramway to ensure that workmen's service trams did not block the main line when dropping off and collecting workers. The large depot for the route was located in Westmead Road, Sutton 1/2 a mile from the terminus, and was able to hold up to 60 cars with the possibility of extension should it be necessary though the need never arose, the depot seeing trolleybuses arrive in 1935. The depot was also used for maintenance of the SMET cars until this was transferred to the Hendon depot of the Metropolitan Electric Tramways (MET) another BET operated Tramway. On race days at Epsom race course the tramway could be extremely busy despite being 4 miles away. With the London General Omnibus Company introducing buses to the SMET area BET introduced its own bus services in 1912 the company at that time being the only remaining independent tramway company, a move they had been encouraged to do in the MET area of north London by that company's then owner the Underground group, BET financing bus operation with its subsidiary Brush building 100 vehicles for this purpose. As both Brush and SMET were owned by BET it was natural for the tramway company to purchase its new stock from that company once the separation with the Corporation took place. This had seen SMET taking its 15 cars with it to operate its new system but new cars were also required the first sixteen of these 4 wheel open top double deckers able to carry 58 seated passengers. As Brush could not carry out the full order due to a long waiting list for trams from other tramway companies it ordered the bodies for the new cars from the United Electric Car Co. though all other equipment such as the frames and electrics were Brush products. These cars numbered 1-16 were delivered with a width of 6 feet whereas most other London tramways used cars with a 7 foot width, the difference being that the SMET anticipated having to convert its tramways to narrow gauge. Car numbers 17-26 were those that were brought over from the Corporation system in 1906. New cars were not much ordered for the tramways after 1906 the company using mostly second hand stock most of which came from other BET companies. In the south of the city the Underground group was offered a share in the SMET scheme with the company changing its name to the London and Suburban Traction Company Ltd seeing the former SMET come under the UndergrounD group umbrella with the former London United Tramways and Metropolitan Electric Tramways the circle and bar emblem, more commonly known today as the TfL symbol used by the group for all of their public transport services, tram, bus and underground railway. From 1921 all UndergrounD group trams were given standard classifications and liveries by the group.

Site of Aurelia Road Depot

Courtesy David Bradley

Back to West Croydon the trunk route of the Norbury to Purley line passed along North End the long single line section extending along the High Street to South End, the section seeing up to 38 trams an hour in either direction at peak periods in London Transport days, and was the only single line section of tramway between Purley and Victoria embankment. At the top of Crown hill is the junction with George Street which saw a connection made to the horse tramway in 1900 once the road at that location had been widened by the Corporation to allow cars for the Addiscombe tramway to access Thornton Heath depot, though passenger services never used the spur. When the Addiscombe route was electrified in January 1902 the route was still single throughout with 13 passing places along its 1 1/2 mile length suburban route, the line running along the length of George Street in an easterly direction before its arrival at East Croydon Station. From there the tramway swung north along Cherry Orchard Road before joining the Addiscombe Road and its terminus outside Addiscombe Railway station. By 1926 the railway and tramways had developed this area in to housing the country air that had surrounded the area when the railway arrived in the 1860's long gone. The single line nature of the tramway was not capable of handling the heavy demand put on it by the number of trams required to provide a high frequency service, delays caused by trams waiting in the passing loops to use single line sections.  When the track needed renewal by 1927 the Corporation decided that abandonment of the route was the best course of action as it would be too expensive to double the whole tramway which would also require the widening of some of the routes narrow roads, the last tram running on the route 28th March 1927, the cars that had worked the route presumably the 8 sold to the SMET that year. More new cars were purchased by the Corporation in 1928 with fifteen bogie cars numbered 41-55 introduced, these cars delivered from Hurst Nelson having a new livery of pearl grey instead of ivory this new colour scheme remaining as the standard livery of the Corporation fleet until LT took over. The ten bogie cars of 1902 vintage open top double deckers were modernised at the same time receiving the fleet numbers 21-30, top roof covers fitted, the addition of the new covered trams and the modernisation of the 1902 cars requiring the previously mentioned lowering of Norbury Road to allow the cars to pass under the railway bridge there.

Croydon high Street

 Annonymous

Continuing on the Purley route once past South End, Croydon he tramway took a relatively straight route along the Brighton Road, between the Swan & Sugar Loaf public house and the Red Deer public house, tram drivers letting there trams gain speed as it was the straightest section on the tramway the approach to Purley the tramway running in virtual countryside well in to the 1930's until it reached the Windsor Castle public house where it returned to an urban setting. The traction Poles holding the overhead wires were situated on the left hand side of the road with the tram lines running down the middle because the eastern side of the road was outside the County Borough of Croydon. When the tramway opened Purley terminus was provided with a scissors crossover though these were removed in 1933 by LT and replaced with a head shunt. The large depot at

Purley was enlarged in 1903 but remained little changed up to its closure in 1937 by which time it was mostly used for storage of excess and damaged trams. When Thornton Heath depot was rebuilt in 1949 to become a bus depot Purley depot was reopened for the final 15 months of tram operation in Croydon.

 

At 00.01 on 30th June 1933 the London Passenger Transport Board (LPTB) came in to being the Croydon Corporation and SMET routes absorbed along with other public transport concerns in London. The LPTB soon started its rationalisation plan which was to see the closure of most of London's tramways and replacement with trolleybuses, this form of traction introduced to London in 1931 by the London United Tramways Co. which received its authorisation to convert its tram routes under the London United Tramways Act 1930 seeing the phasing out of its tram routes around South West London including Twickenham and Kingston. The reason given by the LPTB being for the conversion to trolleybus was because they were 'of considerable assistance in relieving traffic congestion and attaining safer and more efficient operation'. To do this the LPTB also cut and changed tram routes and on 6th December 1933 one of the longest tram routes in London was formed when the former route 30 of the LCC was joined with the former SMET route 6 (Tooting) seeing trams run from West Croydon 14 miles to Harrow Road, Willesden Junction the route maintaining its route 30 code. The route was operated by the former Croydon Corporation E/1 cars of 1930 working from Hammersmith and Thornton Heath depots.

 

Royal assent for the LPTB Act of 1934 received royal assent allowing the abandonment of the former LUT, SMET, Erith, Bexley, and Dartford tramways as well as some of the former MET routes all to be replaced by trolleybuses. This affected Croydon's tram routes by renumbering on 3^rd October of that year:

 

• Croydon route 2 to Thornton Heath becoming route 42
• SMET routes 5 & 7 not re-numbered, due to close with the winter timetables
• Purley to Embankment route 18
  

To ease congestion for Route 42 services towards Coombe Road a crossover known as Greyhound Crossover was provided outside the Davis Theatre in Croydon High Street the crossover name stemming from a nearby pub, the services were extended to use the Coombe Road crossover in 1944, though it was known for them to use the Greyhound crossover when necessary. Croydon area allocated cars were given 'E' prefixes to denote their home depot while SMET cars were given an 'S' suffix. Croydon Cars were some of the first to carry the LPTB red and cream livery from the end of 1933 the former SMET Sutton area cars still remaining were numbered 1S-16S. As the LPTB continued to minimalise its tram fleet and tramways some depot's were used as scrap yards, one of which was the former SMET depot at Aurelia Road despite having closed to traffic it was re-opened especially for this purpose. On Sunday 8th December 1935 ex SMET route 7 was taken over by trolleybus route 654, the original intention having been to run this through to Crystal Palace along the former Route 5 but due to the works for the trolleybuses not being completed by the beginning of 1936 trams continued to operate route 5 until 9th February 1936 when Sutton depot was closed as a tram depot with the cars scrapped at Brixton Hill tram depot, though 6 ex-LUT U type cars which were re-allocated to Stonebridge Park depot. The depot did remain open on the operational front line as it took on trolleybuses instead unlike Penge depot which was closed with the end of the tram services its cars broken up on site. Closure of these routes saw the withdrawal of 30 cars, 27 ex SMET J type and M cars and 3 of the former Corporation class W/1 which were the last open top cars to operate in London. The route 30 from Willesden Junction to West Croydon was withdrawn on 12th September 1937 replaced by trolley route 630 Thornton Heath Depot taking on Purley's allocation of 21 tramcars used on routes 16 and 18 to Westminster, now that there was available space, the depot at Purley was closed as an operational base though it did remain in use for the purpose of scrapping trams and from 1945 was used for the storage of bomb damaged cars either awaiting renovation or scrapping. The introduction of trolley route 630 saw the closure of the last of the SMET routes the main line from Purley to Norbury the only remaining tramway serving the town along with the line to Thornton Heath operated as route 46 With Croydon local route 46 extended over existing lines to Coombe road, South Croydon from 16th August 1946. Had WW2 not intervened the tramway to Thornton Heath would have been closed and converted to trolleybuses though it continued in use until 7th April 1951 when motor buses took over. Though the LPTB was aiming to remove all its tramways from London's streets it also made improvements to those that it intended to keep until the last these including new track and trams and rationalized routes. This saw passenger loadings rise dramatically with 11 million EXTRA passenger journeys made on 2,473 cars, 87 cars less than the previous year the route mileage operated decreasing from 466,183-101,576, the total cost of track renewal being in the region of 488,400 pounds.

 

March 1949 saw the LPTB lease 3 acres of wasteland on Phenal Road, Charlton for use as a scrap yard to speed up the total withdrawal of all London's trams, the site rapidly prepared with track laid in sidings with a traverser installed. The aim was for the remainder of London's Tramways closed and converted to trolleybus or motor bus operation in three months intervals until all tramways were gone and depots converted to operation of trolleybuses or motorbuses.  Former tram depots saw traversers' removed, fuel tanks installed work starting in the west of London and finishing in the east seeing Clapham and Wandsworth depots closing first under the new push. Three depots which were totally closed were Brixton Hill, Norwood and Purley while Thornton Heath, though to be a bus garage, had to be knocked down and re-built due to its 'inadequacy' for bus operation, closing on 31st December 1949 with its allocation of 35 tramcars sent to Purley depot, which once again became an operational depot, having been used since 1948 as a satellite of Charlton London Transport works carrying out car renovation and repairs. Norwood and Brixton Hill depots also provided cars for routes 16 and 18 with Purley and Norbury also operating 16 & 18EX services all of which ceased on 6th April 1951 along with Croydon local route 42 which was operated by Purley depot. Saturday 30th September 1950 saw the LPTB publish its plans for the closure of all of its tramways, at the same time amalgamating the Tram and Trolleybus departments in to one with the Central bus department. To avoid confusion with depot names the tram and trolley depots were re-named when there was a nearby bus depot, all depots allocated a specific running code letter. Fulwell was given FW while Thornton Heath was allocated TH the present Tramlink depot is TE, meaning Tramlink and then the letter for the former Croydon Trams E. By the summer of 1950 Penhall site was ready for scrapping trams, No.1322 of the E/1 class the first to arrive for disposal by fire the car set alight and burnt with 4 cars forming a wall along a long siding to act as a fire screen to protect local property. The site was able to hold 150 cars at a time 32 tracks on the north side of the traverser used for scrapping with 7 reception sidings on the south side. The project to be rid of all the tramways was crudely named 'Operation Tramway' the intention to withdraw all cars over the next few years in 9 stages 16 cars to be disposed of per week though it was mainly between 5 and 10 that were actually destroyed. As newer cars were moved to a depot from one that had closed or was converted to trolley or motor bus operation the older trams would be withdrawn and sent for scrap. Many of the newer cars were sold to other tram systems such as Leeds which purchased many of the Feltham cars.

 

The last trams to run in Croydon were former Croydon Corporation E/1's 839 and 947 which were to be withdrawn the next day and followed the last service car ex Corporation car 384 as it made its way to Thornton Heath Pond. Croydon and Purley chamber of commerce hired one of the cars for the journey while the other was hired by Streatham rate payers-association the 5/- (25p) fare for each passenger being donated to charity. Hundreds of people lined the route from Purley as the last trams in South London passed by, the trams replaced by bus routes 109, Purley to Embankment Loop and 190 South Croydon to Thornton Heath High Street the following day.

 

An extract from the Croydon Advertiser 13th April 1951 Croydon's Last Tram day:

'The trams, which had been such a familiar feature of Croydon and Purley for so many years, went off the road at midnight on Saturday in a blaze of glory. Crowds of people lined the road between Purley depot and Thornton Heath Pond as the last of the trams, proudly defiant and dressed over all in coloured bunting with wreaths fore and aft, rumbled along the track. The crowds cheered and waved - older people as a grateful gesture for over 70 years of unflagging and unfailing service, younger people to herald another spoke in the wheel of progress. The drivers of the latest limousines sounded their hooters in farewell: crews of passing oil buses waved their tributes. Above it all could be heard the sound of a post horn. The horse-drawn trams, forerunners of the electrically driven vehicles were not forgotten. At South End two horses were `harnessed' to the tram by means of tapes passed from the top deck to the riders, and they `drew' it through the centre of the town to West Croydon station. It was not an uneventful journey for the passengers who had paid 5s. For the privilege of travelling on this last run. Apart from the sight of cheering crowds standing in the rain to wave to them, they were frequently jolted when the tram came to a sudden stop. It was not that the crowds were getting in the way, but that the Mayor of Croydon (Ald. M.R. Stacey) and the MP for Croydon North (Mr. Fred Harris), were finding that driving a tram is not the simple operation it would seem. The Mayor got better as the run progressed and he brought it along the last stretch to Thornton Heath Pond like a veteran. It was fitting that he should be in control of this last tram because he is one of those who remember them when they were drawn by horses.

 

At the Pond the crowd was denser than it had been anywhere along the route. As the tram pulled up in Brigstock Road, sightseers clambered aboard searching for souvenirs and some obliging passengers handed seats out to them from the top deck. Somebody cut the rope attached to the trolley arm, with the result that there was considerable delay before the tram could start on its trip to the scrap yard at Woolwich....

 

NEW BUSES ARE COPING WELL

Judging by their first week of operation, the new buses that have replaced the trams appear to be coping satisfactorily with rush-hour traffic. It was feared at first that the buses' smaller carrying capacity might leave travellers waiting at the stops, but there have been few complaints....Motorists report that progress is now much easier in the main thoroughfares.'

 

Though Croydon had lost its trams in 1951, by 2001 a new modern tramway had been in operation for just over a year in the form of Croydon Tramlink which today carries between 55,000 and 60,000 people per day on four routes, some of which cover former Corporation and SMET routes.