Trams in Gillingham

[castle261]

i may have been on a tram age 3 I remember the seats on the top deck had a bar across the seats,
which were reversed by pulling the bar forward - making that bar where you rested your back, on
the return journey - May have been M&D bus with no centre corridor - on top deck ?

[MartinR]

Dave, the reason I asked about links is so that I check the facts and get the WP article corrected for you.  Obviously you must have had the links at some time, but if you would care to share them with the forum on this thread then it might be helpful.

[Dave Smith]

Stewie. Thinking about it, I have no actual knowledge of the situation, I wonder whether the trams were on an out & back with the one driver to & from Rainham? How long would that leg have taken? I'm sure the schedule wouldn't have been every 10/15 minutes? As you say, & I remember, fog was quite usual, especially in the evenings. Maybe the passing loops were there in case one broke down? More questions than answers I'm afraid!

[Dave Smith]

MartinR. I did at one point, hence my comments.

[Stewie]

Thanks for that memory Dave, the only trams  have ever been on are those on the Blackpool and Croydon networks and I guess these are a world away from the Medway trams which look like real 'boneshakers'!  Being a retired railway signalling engineer, I am interested to know how the long section to Rainham was worked. This section was a single reversible line with regularly spaced passing loops. There was no 'signalling' provided so presumably to prevent two trams coming to a face off mid section, the operation relied on the driver using 'line of sight' to determine if their route to the next passing loop was clear. This must have been more difficult in foggy or dark conditions and I wondered if this is why the Medway trams had their headlamp on the upper level for better visibility when on other networks it tends to be below the driver's position.
Presumably to stop two impetuous tram drivers both going for the single line simultaneously, the traffic in one direction must always have had priority perhaps? The operation could have been by timetable but this method fails when an 'expected' tram fails to run.

[MartinR]

Do you have links to the wikipedia article and to the Rochester article?

[Dave Smith]

I notice on Wikepeda? they say the last trams were in 1930, although the Rochester site says 1932. Well, I can remember travelling with my Dad on the top deck in the front of an open top tram, along Gillingham High Street, from Canterbury Street toward the train station. It was very noisy, windy & rattley but I had a sense of euphoria that I well remember- I'm pretty sure I was standing holding on to the front handrail. I was born in April, 1930 so W. is wrong & my memory as a 2 + ( it was daylight but nights were drawing in, so probably Autumn/early Winter) year old just about fits the Rochester Archive. I can also see in my minds eye, the conductor with a long pole, switching the overhead arms from one set of cables to another set. That is definitely my earliest memory.