A few notes on Newcastle Corporation Transport…
Here are a couple of items that should be of interest to those who study Newcastle Corporation Transport and its vehicles and routes…
Below: I recently came across and purchased this postcard showing a tramcar on Westgate Road, dating from 1908. It is interesting as it is quite a subtle colouring, and can be assumed to be pretty much contemporary with the date the scene was captured. What really caught my eye was the livery on the tram – as many followers of the blog will be aware, I have given a fair but of thought to the question of the early Newcastle tramcar livery, supporting an idea that the scheme that appears in some photos may not be quite as it seems – for more on this see the article ‘Is Newcastle 114 the right colour?’ in the downloads section of this site. What appears to be shown in this postcard is the waist panels in a yellowier shade than the roker panels – supporting the theory that we have turned into action with the repainting of our own Newcastle 114 along these lines. The tram shown here appears to be one of the single deck class built by Hurst Nelson and numbered 1 – 20. They seated 30 passengers and were based on Brill 21E trucks. They were late rebuilt into double deck cars, part of the H class cars 1 – 28 and 192. These trams were very much contemporaries of and similar in construction to the A class trams, our 114 being the sole surviving example. Route 4 traversed Westgate Road and the tram would appear to be descending down towards the city centre.
Below: Another acquisition was this 1949 NCT route map and timetable – the map has been scanned and added to the downloads section on this site for readers to study (you can zoom in and navigate your way around using the zoomify function).
Below: With restoration work gaining momentum on L&W8/N&G49, a photo from the archives of N&G49 as it arrived at Beamish may be timely – as seen here, parked on the depot fan, it was in very poor condition when recovered, though enough information has survived to the present to confirm its identity and also the N&G horse tramway livery (operated privately by Busby & Turton, the livery carried is quite different from the later corporation colours). We also have a large tin of brass fittings as well as the route boards, a brake stanchion and a coupling assembly. Assistance has also been offered from the team who restored Leeds 107, so I hope to convene a meeting to discuss the way ahead for 49 in the early new year.
Paul, Unfortunately early coloured postcards, whilst accurate in depicting a particular scene are not reliable in the coloring. As was often the case the original negative was dispatched to Saxony for printing and hand colouring, which could lead to differences in the colouring on the postcards and that which exists in reality. The colourers often worked with a sample card coloured correctly, and occasionally strayed or changed the colours, whilst others worked blindly to add colouring. I have 4 coloured postcards to hand in which the Newcastle Tramcars are painted cream lower skirt, brown band, cream window surrounds (2 cards dating from c1904 & 1883 (negative date)), cream window surrounds, brown body (c1904), whilst a card from 1934 shows the trams painted Blue!
Another comparison to use is the NER Electric Units – I have four coloured postcards all from 1904 – two cards show them painted in Red/Cream, whist two cards show them painted Brown/Cream.
I think to sum up, contemporary postcards cannot be relied upon to give 100% true picture of colouring. This can only be done by accurate contemporary descriptions, or by paint layer archaeology.
Best Wishes Alex Betteney
I’ve got a Postcard dated 1905 with what appears to be a similar Livery on an early ‘C’ Class Car…but whether its genuine or ‘artistic license’ on behalf of the photographic Processer is hard to tell..Stu.
Paul already knows my views on what I am sure are the various Newcastle tram liveries, and turn of the century pseudo colour postcards do little to confirm the livery currently depicted on 114. I too have over the years seen north east commercial postcards that show no accuracy, including Newcastle. There are plenty of images taken in the early 1900’s that clearly show long established colours on cars during building at Byker. Many were photographs no doubt produced for NCT&EU and posed specifically. As a consequence well established evolution of the colour schemes cannot really be refuted.