Venetian Finds

'Let's go to Venice, you'll love it. Canals, old buildings, history, boats. It's got everything'.

'Mmmm. Except anything rail related', I replied.

So we went.

Now I assumed Venice WAS all canals, old buildings, history and boats, so wasn't that disappointed when we got there. We were right over on the eastern side of the island, near St Mark's Square. I just wrote off rails and started taking all the obvious pictures, helped by a mist on the second day.

To get around Venice you walk, or take the water taxis. (Or, apparently, if you're made of money and romantic, whatever that is, a gondola).

We jumped on a water taxi that second morning, in the mist and biting cold. I noticed a stop 'Ferrovia'. My Italian's good enough to know that means railway station, so that's where we went! The western side of Venice is a little atypical as it does have a few cars and a cruise terminal (and some great shops and restaurants) and from the boat I spotted something I really wasn't expecting - rail!! Okay, it was a monorail, but that's a train too. Seconds later we were on land. Jumping off I spotted what looked like tram wires on a bridge. I had to explore. A minute later I was standing in front of a tramway!! A weird sort of tramway mind, with just a single rail, but a tramway nethertheless.

I later discovered the tramway only opened in 2015 and links Venice with the mainland, with two lines from Mestre further into the hinterland.

My wife then said, as I relayed news of my discovery to her, 'I told you there was a tramway in Venice'. True, she had, but I didn't believe her!

After that we went to the railway station, which I also didn't realise was there, always assumed Venice's railway station was on the mainland, a big 20-odd platform affair with trains in just about every platform. I took photos of all of them whilst she bought baby clothes from a nice shop on the station concourse.

The next day we took a trip on the strange tramway over the bridge and to Mestre, which was a strange experience. The tram runs on rubber tyres so felt a bit 'bussy' at first, but soon slipped into normal tram mode - fast acceleration, quiet running etc.

All in all Venice had plenty of rail interest and is well worth a visit in any case. Go there whilst it's still all there! 

The People Mover.

The monorail tramway at Venice.

Variety at Venice station.

The trip to Mestre.

All pics copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing 2019)

FACEBOOK - RAIL THING ITALY

FACEBOOK - MONORAILS

The Wolverton and Stony Stratford Tramway

(All pics sourced via Google)

FACEBOOK - WOLVERTON AND STONY STRATFORD TRAMWAY

The Wolverton and Stony Stratford Tramway opened in 1887 and was 2.7 miles (4.3 km) long, with an extension to Deanshanger (2 miles/3.2 km) opened the following year. The company was bankrupt by 1889!

The line was saved by a group of Bedfordshire businessmen and the original section was reopened in 1891. The section to Deanshanger never reopened, making this a very early tramway closure, the tracks remaining in place for many years after.

The line was taken over by the LNWR in the early 1920s, and became part of the LMS in 1923. This rare circumstance of a steam tramway becoming part of one of the Big Four only lasted 3 years, as the tramway closed completely in 1926. For nearly forty years the tramway operated the largest tramcars ever to run through the streets of a British town, particularly impressive as the line ran on 3'6" gauge tracks. The main traffic was rail workers travelling from their homes along the route to the huge railway works at Wolverton, and the trams were busy thanks to this traffic. The line ran through open countryside between the two towns.

On closure the line was the last street tramway worked by steam in Great Britain. 

Wikipedia 

Hong Kong Tramways

Joining the main route from the Happy Valley loop.

North Point route.

North Point.

North Point.

North Point.

(All pics March 2018 copyright Steve Sainsbury/Rail Thing)

FACEBOOK - THE TRAM THING GATEWAY 

Back from my first ever trip to Asia, a week in Hong Kong. Going eastwards means you get the jet lag ON the holiday, rather than when you get back, and it took a couple of days to regain normality!

There are of course many attractions in Hong Kong, not all rail based, and we visited Disneyland (tiny compared to Orlando) and made a few other touristy trips.

The tramway was just one block away from our hotel. The tramway runs on Hong Kong Island, across the water from Kowloon. It's 3 feet 6 inch gauge and the entire route survives. There's one long main route, double track throughout, together with a one way single track route via Happy Valley, a one block 'branch' to North Point, really a reversing loop, but through one of the more interesting streets in Hong Kong, and an even smaller reversing loop at Western Market.

The entire route is urban, with high rise buildings on either side. All the trams are double deckers, very British in appearance and atmosphere, and they rumble along old school style! It's not a quick way of getting around, but it's a lot less crowded than the Metro and any journey is just HK$2.3 (23p in March 2018!)

There are only three tram systems in the world that still use double deckers, the other two being Alexandria in Egypt and Blackpool.

The one development I'd like to see is a new route linking the Star Ferries terminal and the bottom station of the Peak Tramway. Hong Kong has invested heavily in a new light rail system in it's north west corner on the mainland, which carries nearly a million people daily, so it's not an impossibility.

Brighton tramways

(Pics sourced via Internet)

FACEBOOK - THE TRAM THING

The Brighton Tramway network was run by Brighton Corporation, the first line opening on 25 November 1901 and the last route closing on 1 September 1939. The gauge of the network was 3 feet 6 inches. All lines were electrified from the start.

There were 8 routes at the network's peak. Routes had letters rather than the usual numbers.

Route B ran from the Aquarium to Beaconsfield Road with trams every 4 minutes. Route C ran from Seven Dials to Lower Rock Gardens every 5 minutes. Route D from Aquarium to Ditchling Road ran every 4 minutes. Route E ran from Aquarium to Race Hill every 10 minutes. Route L ran from Aquarium to Lewes Road every 4 minutes. Route N ran from Aquarium to Dyke Road every 5 minutes. Route Q ran from Aquarium to Queen's Park every 10 minutes and Route S ran from Aquzrium to Brighton Station every 5 minutes.

There was a tram depot at Lewes Road, just short of the tram terminus, this building is now used by Brighton and Hove buses as its central depot.

The last routes were replaced by either buses or trolleybuses.

The total route length at its greatest extent was 9.48 miles.

Some infrastructure survives from the tramways, including shelters at Ditchling Road (Florence Place), Queen's Park Road (Pepperpot) and Dyke Road (Reservoir). One found a new home on the Volk's Electric Railway. Three others survive elsewhere, two at the Amberley Museum and one at Stanmer Rural Museum.

One tramcar also survives, number 53, and a society exists to restore this.

A tramway also operated between Hove and Shoreham. This was always steam worked and operated between 1884 and 1913. This had no connection with the Brighton Tramway system.

Kinver Light Railway

The iconic run along the canal.

Above 3 Kinver station

Surviving trolley pole on the route

Outside the Stewpony Inn, 1901

(Pics sourced via Google)

FACEBOOK - THE TRAM THING

Before Beeching was much more than a lumbering toddler looking for nice things that weren't his to break there were occasional closures of railways and tramways in the UK.

An early - and rather tragic - victim was the Kinver Light Railway, which took hordes of Black Country folk out to the country on a route that took in street running and a lovely run along the canal and through the woods to a light railway style station in the picturesque village of Kinver.

It didn't close because it was losing stacks of money but because the tramway network that connected with it closed three weeks later. It would have been stranded had it survived.

What a fantastic asset this would be today! It many ways it was a continental style light railway/tramway on British soil, quote rare over here. It carried milk traffic as well as millions of passengers. It was a line decades ahead of its time really - and hopefully will be rebuilt in the future.

More info (from Wikipedia)

The Kinver Light Railway operated a passenger and freight tramway service between Amblecote and Kinver, in the Midlands of England, between 1901 and 1930.

History

The Kinver Light Railway was a subsidiary of British Electric Traction. They acquired the Dudley and Stourbridge Steam Tramways Company in April 1898 and applied for permission to build a tramway from Amblecote to Kinver.

The route ran from outside the Fish Inn at Amblecote where it had a connection with the Dudley, Stourbridge and District Electric Traction Company tracks. After passing Wollaston and Stourton, it arrived in Kinver.

Passenger service started on 4 April 1901. Although parcels were carried on passenger services from the outset, from September 1903, goods trailer vehicles were attached behind service cars for freight.

The company was taken over by the Dudley, Stourbridge and District Electric Traction Company in 1902 for the sum of £60,000 (£5,817,612 in 2016).

The company made significant money from its freight operation. Substantial quantities of milk were carried, such that occasionally passenger vehicles were commandeered for freight use.

In film

The Sheffield Photo Company produced a film in 1904 entitled A Ride on the Kinver Light Railway. It was directed by Frank Mottershaw, a pioneer film maker.

Closure

The services finished on 8 February 1930, a victim of competition from motorbus traffic, and the final closure took place on 1 March 1930.

Excellent article on the line.