Sunday, November 14, 2010

Streetcar Sunday - York, England

Bootham Bar is the one of the famous gateways through the city walls of York. There has been a gate of one kind or another here since 71 AD when the city was founded by the Romans. At that time, the city was known as Eboracum. When the Angles took over in 451 AD, the city became known as Eoforwic, which has a certain ring to it if you can pronounce it. It didn't become known as York until the 13th century.

York started out with horse-drawn carriages or buses as public transportation (i.e. no rails). They also used steam-powered trams briefly before changing over to electric trams in 1909. If you look closely, you can see that this one has two decks, and the barrier on the top one is quite low. Sit down, gentlemen or you may be knocked off the tram when we pass through one of those gates.

As buses gained in popularity over the next few decades, the decision was made to stop running the trams. The last one ran in 1935.

Here's the back of the card, showing that it was printed by E.T.W. Dennis & Sons.  I don't encounter  their cards very often.

6 comments:

  1. We live less than 40 miles from York and visit it regularly. Since the advent of the railways York has become a major station on the East Coast Main Line with links all over Yorkshire and across the Pennines to Manchester and its airport.

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  2. The perspective of this PC is unusual and awesome!

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  3. Streetcars continued to run in some areas of Detroit into the late 1940's and early 50's. Buses are so boring in comparison. No stopping to reconnect with the wires, no tracks to bump over and no musical ding-ding.

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  4. Bob, I wish I could visit it just once. Maybe some day. It's good to know that if we fly into Manchester we could travel there by train.

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  5. Does anyone else notice the scene alone, without identification, appears uniquely English? Or is my brain playing tricks on me? Jack/Youngstown

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  6. My favorite UK city, and that includes London. Have taken the train here a few times, and as the top poster wrote it is a major hub and easy to get your connections. Too bad the trams are gone, for they looked to have charm.

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