Focusing on Yorkshire and the North-
East of England, this book provides an
overview of the history of tramways in
the region from the 1860s, when one of
the pioneering horse trams that predated
the Tramways Act of 1870 operated for a
brief period in Darlington, through to the
closures of the last traditional tramways –
Leeds and Sheffield – in 1959 and 1960,
respectively. Concentrating on the
systems that survived into 1945 –
Bradford, Gateshead, Hull, Leeds,
Newcastle, Rotherham, Sheffield, South
Shields and Sunderland – the book
provides a comprehensive narrative,
detailing the history of these operations
from 1945 onwards, with full fleet lists,
maps and details of route openings and
closures.
Author Peter Waller has brought
together some 200 illustrations, both
colour and black and white, many of
which have never been published before,
that portray the trams that operated in
these towns and cities and the routes on
which they operated. Bringing the story
up-to-date, the book also examines the
two second-generation tramways built in
the region – the Tyne & Wear Metro and
Sheffield Supertram – as well as
informing readers where it is still
possible to see surviving first-generation
trams from the region in preservation.

Village Publications

The books highlight is the photographs, which are almost all of high quality and are quite likely to be generally unknown to present-day enthusiasts. The reason for that is almost all come from the collection of the Online Transport Archive which, because of cost, is likely to be a closed book to most readers. The book is extremely readable and visually interesting. Recommended.

Tramway Review September 2016

Overall this is a lovely publication and one that I can heartily recommend, especially to those of us over 60 who do actually remember trams.

Leeds Transport Historical Society

The author, Peter Waller, is a director and secretary of the Online Transport Archive and that is the source of the majority of the pictures. The books are best considered as falling into the “photo collections with captions” type rather than detailed tramway histories, although they are certainly more than just picture books.

The Yorkshire and North East of England
book has chapters on Bradford, Gateshead, Hull,
Leeds, Newcastle, Rotherham, Sheffield, South
Shields, and Sunderland, with a couple of pages
each on South Yorkshire Supertram and Tyne &
Wear Metro. There is even a nod to the TLRS
with a picture taken by John Meredith on 11
June 1950 during our tour of Leeds. It shows
London Feltham 2099 (below), still with its original number and livery, but with the Leeds crest. It soon became Leeds 501 and is now preserved in MET livery in the London Transport Museum collection at Acton.

Tramfare Magazine

As featured in

Sheffield Star