Trams

I was brought up in Ninewells and am now 63 years old. It is amazing how much this place has changed in a fairly short time. Gone is Bill Davidson's wee shop, Joe Johnstone's smiddy, Lauries's nursery and the greenhouses behind it. Ninewell's garage is still there, albeit much changed and no longer a petrol station. There was also another petrol station close to where the railway bridge crossed over the Perth Road by Johnny Callaghan's scrapyard. Read more......

I think my grandad drove the last tramcar his name was Peter Malone. He lived at 13 Tofthill Place, across from Cox's stack. He originally came from Lochee. He was a second generation Irish immigrant. His wife was Isabel Malone. I'm his grandson kevin Malone. I now live in Minniesota, USA.

I remember the burning of the last trams at the Marchbanks depot in 1956. I was 13 years old then and the night before they were burned the trams we sneaked in and "purloined" some of the copper wire which was otherwise going to be burned.

We took it down to Frank Kelbies (the local scrap merchant) and I think we got about 14/6 (about 75p in todays money) and which seemed like a fortune then.

It was December 1951. I had just been discharged from hospital where I had undergone an arthrodesis of my right knee which rendered it unable to bend; locking it in a straight position. I was sitting on a tram on the lower deck where there was a long seat on either side; the passengers facing one another. It was leading up to Christmas and a lady boarded the tram laden with parcels up to eye-level. She did not see my leg stretched across the alleyway and before I could move she had tripped over my leg, her parcels scattering everywhere. Read more......

In yonder years of long ago
We found a tram went to and fro
The horse-drawn tram a feature
Was a tram pulled with creatures Read more......

I read with interest the reminiscence made by Derek M with regard to the old Dundee tram which was transported to the City Road allotments and was used as a greenhouse. There was not one but two trams on this site, the other was transported by my Father. I was there to assist in them being slid down from Pentland Avenue using batons and rollers. Derek's Grandfather was also our neighbour living in Kincardine Street at that time, and those trams were a great success and provided an extension to the gardening skills as the allotments were the means of providing much need vegetables during the war. Read more......

A butcher at the bottom of the Wellgate sold nothing but horse meat. In the pendy opposite, the blacksmith shod the town's cart horses. We nicked the horseshoe nails and nipped up round the back and crossed Charles Street. Running up narrow stairways, through dilapidated tenements we came out onto Victoria Road next to the fish shop selling whale meat. We dropped our horseshoe nails into the tram lines and waited until a tram came rattling down. Then we'd jump forward and pick out the hot nails. They were transformed into fiery little silver swords. Read more......

I came back from America aged about seven and lay in bed, barely containing myself, for the decorated tram which would come along Perth Road. An open topped tram with Santa Claus driving it, decorated with holly. It was magical. I had remembered it from before I went away aged about four and here it was again? A decorated tram on the single track outside our house in Springfield. It was part of the joy of Christmas and Santa Claus. There were no trams in America.

In 1955, having just left school and starting a college course, I was employed as a temporary tram conductor during the summer of that year. It was one of the happiest summers I ever experience and I have many happy memories. Read more......

Seeing all these stories about Dundee trams, etc. Around 1946/47 (when I was about 8) I was knocked down by a tram close to the Blackness School. I was unconscious to start but awoke to find a naval officer carrying me into the school. Mother was called and took me home and put me to bed, but shortly after, the polis arrived and carted me off to the D.R.I. (hospital) in a Wolseley police car. I had a large bump on my head where I had hit the cobbles. Read more......