Our Reporter/Photographer Tony Taft writes:
Today we had an attendance of 21 with 6 apologies
Our speaker today was John Polley and the title of his presentation was The Seaton Tramway.
This is the second time for John to give a presentation for us, his previous talk which I must have missed proved to be a great success, so I was looking forward to his presentation today.
John who is one of the drivers at Seaton gave us an excellent visual representation and told us about Claud Lane constructing a 15 inch gauge tram based on ex- Darwin car 23 then running on the Llandudno & Colette bay system ( see diagram and photo below
This tiny tram proved a hit with the public but did not hold many passengers Claud would take the tram around on a truck to different venues where track would be laid out for the public to ride in it.
John started talking about the life of Claud Lane whose dream it was to build his own tram.
Born 1908 in Totteridge Middlesex Claud developed a fascination for trams from early days.
Seaton Tramway originated at the Lancaster Electrical Company in Barnet north London, which built the battery electric vehicles such as milk floats. The tram line gauge at the Seaton Tramway is 2’9” and operates on 120 volts DC
Seaton Tramway has a fleet of fourteen trams running, John spoke about special events such as the Christmas tram, a bit like the Dartmouth steam railway train, and a bird watching tram which stops by the river for people to look at the wildlife.
We were told about the running of the tram system and about the hand gestures that enabled the drivers to indicate that the single track behind them was clear and safe for the next tram to proceed safely, using special hand signals meant they did not need to shout at each other.
The journey from Seaton to Colyton is twenty seven minutes and is enjoyed by 100.000 visitors each year.
At the end of John’s presentation many questions were asked always a good indication that all our members enjoyed the talk and we hope that John will return again in the future.
Click on the picture below to open the Seaton Tramway website then follow the links to see full information including the live webcams.
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