When I received a parcel recently I thought I had time warped back to the 1980s as I looked at the stamps. It was too wide to go through my letter box so collected it from the main post office in town , the post assistant was equally fascinated by the number of stamps on one envelope.
The two commemorative stamps are the 1983 British Army Uniforms (Paratroopers) but my theme today is
Trams.
This is the Europa stamp for 1988 whose theme was Transport and Mail Services in the 1930s, designed by Mike Dempsey.
The 31 pence stamp shows - Glasgow Tram No 1173 and a Pillar Box. Somebody is portrayed happily posting a letter in the days when there were lots of collections and deliveries each day.
Glasgow had one of the largest urban tramways in Europe.
Many cities and towns of this time had tramways, but in 1932 the tramway shown here in Barrow in Furness was closed to make way for motor buses. We have gone full circle now for many cities are now reintroducing tramways. The first tramway opened on this route in 1885 with steam trams. They had a bit of a problem when the tram depot caught fire and destroyed parts of the building and the trams, but in 1903 that would not happen again, because electrification was started by the British Electric Traction Company, who electrified many tramways in towns and cities all over the UK and also in Australia and New Zealand. The first electric trams ran in 1904 down the route pictured. I hope the weather was better then for it appears to be an open topped tram.
If you like factoids then the system ran on a 4 foot gauge and Christmas Day 1929 was the first time they operated on that day.
Standing in the same place as this today, apart from the tram, nothing much has changed, the introduction of traffic lights alter the scene, but all the buildings still stand. The one on the left was the first Working Men's Club and Institute in the town, being built in 1871, and ironically know locally as the House of Lords.
Postcard Friendship Friday is hosted by The Best Heats are Crunchy.
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