About
An archive film show from Ray Johnson celebrating the trains, trams and buses of bygone Newcastle.
About the film
This screening looks at the coming of the various forms of public transport to Newcastle.
The nation's developing main railway system somehow by-passed Staffordshire in its main routes North: the London and North Western route and the London and North Eastern Railway route. The County established a railway of its own in 1846 - The North Staffordshire Railway - which was known popularly as "The Knotty" as it's main symbol was the Stafford Knot. With its centre at Stoke, it linked in each direction to the larger railway companies around it. It responded to public needs, creating a Loop Line through the Potteries and linking to Newcastle and adding stations as the suburbs of towns developed. The film show features filmed rail trips from Stoke through to Newcastle and going through the Borough to Keele and Market Drayton - also out to Sandbach - and the mineral lines serving the local collieries at Silverdale and Apedale. There is running commentary from Hugh Brown, who worked as a guard on the trains and took the films himself.
The British tram had its origins on Merseyside in 1860, when the American George Francis Train opened the first tramway at Birkenhead. He also installed the first tramways in North Staffordshire. The public house "There American" on Waterloo Road in Cobridge is a tribute to him, as the first 2 miles of tramway ran from Hanley to Burslem. The first trams were horse-drawn, then steam trams were introduced in the 1890s. The first electric tram service to reach Newcastle was opened in 1900 and ran to Burslem, Hanley, Silverdale and Wolstanton. All local trams were single-deck because of our hilly terrain. They ran until 1928 when they were superseded by the bus service. We see archive films of horse, steam and electric trams from the 1890s onwards.
The first buses were introduced in the 1820s in France - these "omnibuses" (from the Latin meaning "for all") were horse-drawn carriages that could carry up to 16 passengers. The first London bus system began in 1880 using double-decker horse-drawn buses carrying 28 people - at 8 miles per hour. These were followed by steam buses and finally the familiar-looking buses powered by the internal combustion engine. Again: archive films show these developments.
