The  Tramways

There have been two separate generations of trams in London, from 1860 to 1952 and from 2000. There were no trams at all in London between 1952 and 2000

After the slow start,  in 1901  the new electric trams rapidly became very popular; by 1903, there were 300 electric tramcars in London, which carried 800,000 passengers over Whitsun weekend in 1903. The London County Council Tramways first electric line opened in May 1903 between Westminster Bridge and Tooting and the LCC sold 3.3 million tickets in its third year of business or five times the traffic carried by its horse trams. The LCC saw the electric trams as a way of driving social change, as its cheap, fast service could encourage workers to move out of the crowded inner city and live healthier lives in the suburbs. Although the City of London and the West End of London never gave permission for tram lines to be built, soon other London boroughs introduced their own electric services, including West Ham, Leyton, Dartford and Bexley.

By 1914, the London tram operators formed the largest tram network in Europe but the onset of the Great War saw a halt in the expansion of the trams and thousands of staff left to join the armed forces to be replaced by "substitute" women conductors and drivers.
Several different companies and municipalities operated London's electric tramways. The largest was the LCC, with lines equipped with an unusual form of electricity supply via an underground conduit located between the running rails. Other operators mainly used the more conventional overhead electric wires. Many of London's trams had to be equipped with both systems of electricity supply, with routes being equipped with change points.

There were plans to run an underground tram line between South Kensington and the Albert Hall but it was withdrawn in 1891 and a pedestrian only route, the South Kensington subway, was built instead. The Kingsway tramway subway did go ahead - this started in 1902 going from Theobalds Road to the Victoria Embankment In the 1930s, the arched tunnels were removed to accommodate double decker trams. The last tram using the subway system was 5 April 1952. 

 

 

 

 

Drawing a Tram

I decided at the very beginning that London trams would play a part in my network. However to purchase trams at HO scale was not easy.

So if I was to build my tram I would need a drawing .

Searching the internet I found a children cut out of the Blackpool Double  Decker but  the detail was poor, however this gave me a good starting point.

Using Microsoft art I was able to change the colour from green to red  as my network would be red like the buses. I pasted on the drawing the new logo, tram lights and modern advertisement .

The original tram windows look too fake so I pasted photos of the windows of a real London bus  

Building  a Tram

Now I have a drawing next is to make it 3D.

First  I cut out the plans and  used balsa wood as the backing. Once the backing was dry.  I joint both side and add a roof painting it black

Stage 2

For my  next upgrade I wanted to add a driver so  I changed my plan by cutting out the doorway and painting the inside black

Next I was going to need tracks, at first I was going to use HO but decided to do printed ones instead.

 

 assemble I add the driver