From: "Laurence White" <e-line63@bigpond.net.au>

My grandfather worked on the Sheffield trams before acquiring Glaucoma 'over night' in his fifties. He must have bee employed at a good guess between c1902 [on coming 'out of service' from Ireland for Duke of Connaught] and the mid twenties.

Are there any lists of workers, retirees or anecdotal tales? From where could such records be obtained?

My mother recalled some delightful tales that Charles Frederick Drake [Fred] related. Any help would be appreciated.

From: "Howard R Gray" <dalgray@rcn.com>

Nice to see these photographs. I remember riding on these trams as a kid.

I lived in Renshaw Road near Eccleshall back then. I now live in the US where there are still a number of tramways in existence.

Do you know of any publications that set out the route in diagram or map form for Sheffield trams from those days?

Great site.

From: "Trevor" <Penderleath@aol.com>

This site is the best on the net! I was driving buses in Sheffield for two years before the trams where gone, and twenty after.

The old trams held us up whenever they could, and the tram crews would not have us in there canteen, but having said that, I for one would love to be back, as we where. I remember when on 69 Rotherham, we passed the tram coming the other way, and at salmon pastures where the tram line was frequently flooded, and if it was, the driver went upstairs, did not matter the tram was doing 30MPH, but his controls got wet.

I have spent hours on the gallery page, remembering some of the trams - 189 was my favourite as that was my house number, glad to see it has survived, and now to be found at Crich Tramway Museum.

I am now retired and living in St Ives, Cornwall. Good luck and Thank you.

From: "Jeff Bratby" <brat@intekom.co.za>

Thank you for your interesting web site, the pics are very good and bring back memories for me, I emigrated to South Africa in 1969, but before that just a brief history of me.

I left Hartley Brook School in 1958 and started my electrical apprenticeship with the Sheffield Transport Department, I signed my 6 year contract agreement at Sheffield Town Hall. I was based at Queens Road Works where I learnt to straighten booms, change controllers and the 500 volt DC motors and even go on the test runs up Queens Road. I was 17 when the last Trams went off the road, and assisted the Artisans who all had nick names, like Mad Sam, Black Harry, Doc Block, [mine was Jeff Duke] with the festoon light decorations.

I remember when the Artisans retired after about 50 years service, after the presentation at the bench, the old guy would walk to the clock and everybody, could have been more than 200, fitters, painters electricians, carpenters etc. would clang something on the vice, what an atmosphere, causing tears in the eyes. There would also be an auction of their tools.

I worked at all the other depots with artisans and went to Granville Road College where I got my City and Guilds, having completed my apprenticeship at 21, I stayed with the S.T.D. for another 5 years and moved to a crane hire company as an auto Electrician. The conditions there did not come up to the working conditions of the old firm and somehow decided to emigrate.

The wife and I have started building a model railroad [she loves to paint the scenery] and looking through magazines I came across an article on the Sheffield Super Tram which sparked memories and that is how I came upon your web site. We were in Sheffield last Year to visit my Sister, but not enough time to do everything as I have family in Kent and Cornwall also, the world is small now with the Internet.

Once again thank you.

From: "Audrey" <audrey@mynan.fsnet.co.uk>

Looking at Sheffield web sites, I found a letter about tram sheds. The one referred to at Albert Road was a Horse-drawn tram shed. I heard recently that it is intended to demolish it but I feel that the frontage should be preserved. The other tram sheds on Queen's Road were, I believe where Netto is now.

I wish the Supertram could go all over the city as the old trams did. They ran through all the bad weather up all the hills of Sheffield, so reliable, especially during the war. What a waste it was when they were finished. I wonder if there is anything on the web about the drivers and conductors of those days. It will soon be too late to hear about them.

From: "Alan Roebuck" <roebucks@supanet.com>

Just enjoyed looking at the picture gallery. It brought back many happy memories. I too, attended Firth Park Grammar School but didn't arrive until 1963.

From: "Alan Evans" <alanevans@telefonica.net>

A very nostalgic site, I used to travel from Carbrook to school at Sheffield City Grammar, our line was the last one running and the night of the 'Last Tram' was a great if sad occasion. I was 12 and there was a party atmosphere which was a celebration of the trams rather than a glad to get rid of them feeling. We put pennies on the rails and the trams flattened them when they ran over them, they were quite a trading item at school for a while.

It was always a young boys nightmare that your bicycle wheels could get stuck in the tramlines, but I never heard of anybody that did, maybe we were all too careful.

The trams on our route were always the most modern, I remember my delight when I went to Woodseats one day and the tram really did have wooden seats, the only one like it I ever travelled on.

From: "Peter Brook" <Peter@peter10.wanadoo.co.uk>

Excellent site and pictures, came across it by accident. I am a Bradford lad but used to deliver around all the Sheffield areas way back in the 50s, Wadsley Bridge Working Mens Club was my first call, and then on to Penistone Road near to Bassetts. I remember parking at the side of the road to deliver to various shops, you daren't stay for too long if a tram was following and you were straggling the lines, then on to Neepsend Lane, Parsons Cross, Firth Park, happy bygone days. I think Firth Park Creamery was a first in coffee bars of the day 1958, delightful times. Thanks again for those wonderful shots of Sheffield as I remember it .... Peter ....

From: "John S McAvoy" <JohnSMcAvoy@aol.com>

Thank you for bringing back some old forgotten memories. I grew up in Walkley, and used to take the tram in the 50's. I went to school at De La Salle and used to ride the Pittsmoor tram every day until it was replaced by buses. Many happy memories of speeding down Pittsmoor road sitting in the upstairs round seats at the front being rocked back and forth.

In 1959, I think, I took up tram spotting [then later bus spotting] and you used to be able to get a spotters book with all the vehicle numbers [trams and busses - not only for Sheffield] printed in it. Many happy hours spent in FitzAllen Square logging the numbers in my spotters book.

Thank you for preserving a history that will not be repeated, and when gone is gone forever!

From: "J.B.Jarratt" <jbjarratt@tiscali.co.uk>

I have been looking at your wonderful colour photographs of the Sheffield Tramway taken in the 1950s/1960s. How evocative the pictures are. When I study them, I am struck by the thought that the trams, the cars, the vans, the people and the clothes they are wearing are almost certainly all BRITISH. Also, I can picture the enormous number of factories throughout Sheffield, all busy producing the worlds best quality steel, tools, knives etcetera.

Fifty years later, how things have declined for this once great manufacturing city, and indeed for the country as a whole. The government seems not to care about British manufacturing, or in fact for anything else British! The company I work for, JCT600, owns the Porsche dealership near to the Tinsley Tram Depot. I often stop to gaze up at the building's proud facade, and try to imagine what it was like in the days when it was used for its intended purpose. The huge chimney stack is very impressive. Do you know what it was for? Did the depot generate electricity? Is there still a boiler of some kind at the base of the stack? Why did Sheffield Tramways cease operations in 1960? Is there a book on the subject you can recommend?

Thank you very much for your time, and for taking the trouble to set up such a splendid website. It has given me a lot of enjoyment, tempered by a longing for things as they once were.

PS. I was born in Leeds in 1956, and have dim memories of the trams which passed our house at regular intervals.