The Last Tram Procession, 1962 RH Wylie Oil on hardboard Temp.2709
Courtesy of Culture and Sport Glasgow (Museums)“We took our two-year-old son. We wanted him to be there for the momentous day – even though he wouldn’t remember.”
Jean and Kenneth Morton
I’d love to see the trams back in Glasgow. There weren’t as many hold-ups as you get now with all the buses and congestion. You also knew when they were coming. They worked well even in icy weather. They were electric so no horrible fumes off them, plus they were quiet and as comfy as buses are today.
There’s nothing quite like going for a trip on a tram when we’re on holiday, say in Krakow or Amsterdam. So why not have them when you’re at home –it’d make life so much more interesting!
It is hard to compare tram travel with other forms of transport as most people tended to use the most convenient for themselves. In the city centre trams and buses tended to use different streets so most people did not have the choice of bus or tram at the same point. In the suburbs trams were generally more frequent and there were more tram stops than bus stops over common stretches...After the decommissioning of the trams, newspapers reported a few years later that it took longer to travel across the city centre by bus than it had by horse drawn tram!
A lot of the captions on your tram photos mix up Coronations & Cunarders.
I think we should have some form of tram or light rail back in Glasgow especially using many of glasgow's bridges and disused rail lines and tunnels,any city would die for what Glasgow has,
Did you watch the last tram procession? Would you like to bring back the trams?
Ah lived in Fairbairn Street jist aroon the corner frae the Tram Caur Depot in Ruby Street, so the trams were very much part of my childhood. I remember as an 8 year old in September 1962 standing at Brigton Cross opposite the Savings Bank, with my Mammy, Granny and wee sister Linda, watching the last trams wynd their way 'roon the toll. Folk were putting pennies oan the tramline for the trams to run over them – and create their own souvenirs. It was a great spectacle and very emotional – aye the skies wept that day.
I was 18 when the Last Tram Procession took place. We’d read about other final tram processions but Glasgow’s seemed really big with 20 vehicles. We knew a lot of the trams had been repainted especially for it. There was a mixed atmosphere. I wasn’t aware of any great sad emotions. I did know a couple of conductresses who were quite upset though. But generally there was more excitement as to what was going to happen.
I was on a tram reserved for the Scottish Tramway Museum Society. I was on the upper deck and it was completely full. You had to apply for tickets – it cost all of 2 and 6.
Crowds lined the streets standing watching, taking photos, getting coins flattened. I had mixed feelings about being on the tram because it would’ve been good to actually see the trams going by. But the benefit of being undercover was protection from the deluge at Jamaica Street – the newspapers said the heavens wept for the last trams!
When I was four years old my mother and grandmother took me along to the Last Tram Procession. I can remember standing at the Larkfield garage depot among the crowd as, no doubt, trams were passing by. However, being so young I can remember looking towards two huge gaswork constructions in the distance, approx a quarter of a mile away, as I genuinely believed that the trams were going to run around these! In the distance they resembled huge train sets!
I've since wondered if this was a figment of my imagination as there is no sign of the gasworks today, however a recent search on Google Earth shows two large circular markings on the site they had been situated on. So, I was there on 1962, but the have my own version of events as seen through a child's eyes.
