thegorbals

Is it really almost 51 years since the last Caur ran??

(Please note link will not work from here and embedding has been disabled -
Copy and Paste link and remove the space between you and tube
http://www.you tube.com/watch?v=FuIVabDdbWU )
Edit: I tried it and it does work

[Thegorbalsadmin:
Try just copy and pasting the full url/link into your browser.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuIVabDdbWU

I'm sure there is a work round and when I get the chance I'll have a look at it again.]

'nother Edit: Yep that does work, trouble is, most folks are going to see a blue link and just click on it!!

Hi Jimbo,
I went to YouTube direct [as I always make a mess of pasting/copy, I know I'm useless] and yes Jimbo it was 51 years ago. I remember coming out of Holyrood school after night / homework class and standing in Pollokshaws rd to go home to south Nitshill [we were moved out to there from the soo-side] and it was raining that night. There was something magic about the auld caurs with them shoogling along the rails, the clippie with all her patter, the honesty box on the platform and the seats getting turned round when the tram reached its end of journey but it was done in the name of progress and so ended another piece of Glasgow history. For all of us who remember travelling on the trams it was a great experience but I'm glad that these YouTube videos are available for a generation who didn't have the happy experience of using them.
Regards.
Danny

Danny, I know what you mean about "Copy and Paste" but it really is dead simple,
Put your cursor at the beginning OR end of the text you want to copy, left click and keeping the mouse clicked
move forward OR backward until all the text you want to copy is highlighted, then right click and click on Copy from the dropdown menu. then just go to where you want to paste the text, put your cursor there and right click to show the dropdown menu and click on Paste - that's it!

Hi Jimbo,
Done it mate, thanks very much and yes the caurs going round Georges square and at the Central station. Ah brings back memories Jimbo, thanks again for showing me how to copy and paste Jimbo.
Regards
Danny

Hi Gang,
Can anyone remember on the "caurs" when the clippie gave you your ticket was it a wee hard card that she punched a hole in with a ticket puncher [attached to the ticket machine] ?, there's something at the back of my mind that tells me this is what happened. Later on when the "caurs" had gone we had the diesel buses and trolley buses where the conductors gave you a paper ticket [was it green or red in colour ?]. Also another point what year was it that smoking was banned on the buses ?, I remember going to work in the early 1960's and upstairs was reeking with smoke so maybe smoking was banned downstairs first ?, can anyone remember.
Regards.
Danny

I remember the Tram tickets because they were so different from the small cards that you got on buses.
The ones I remember resembled the one on the right in the link (the orange one) they looked and felt like a Supermarket receipt. > http://www.semple.biz/glasgow/machine.shtml

Hi Gang,
Can anyone remember what happened when/if the" conductor arm " came off of the wires overhead [where the caurs got there power] was it like the Trolly bus and the conductor had to get the long pole out from under the Trolly and try to reach up with it try and lift the "arm" back onto the overhead wires or was there a different method used or just didn't this happen for some reasons. Another point is in the 50's when we had terrible smog in Glasgow what happened when the smog got too thick for the driver to see ? anyone know.
Regards.
Danny

Hi Jimbo ,Danny & gang,

I used to get the No. 9 Tram from Yoker to pretty close to the "Barras" and the "Clippie" used to
wind a handle at the side of her machine I think a three halfpenny half got me a long way to the
Barrowlands and there was some characters there in the late fifties. Firstly there was an African guy who
who was selling all sort of potions made from snakes and reptiles and he would demonstrate by inhaling
the fumes from the potion and he would scream and shout and almost go into a trance.

Then there was a guy selling tea sets and crockery off the back of a lorry.???
Also there was DANNY'S Delicious doughnuts and I loved them.
My brother and I were so impressed the way everyone was selling stuff that we cycled from Yoker the following week and the plan was to sell our bike for a fiver which was a lot of money between us .
I sat on the saddle and my 13 year old pedalled all the way along the bumpy cobblestones and we
dodged a few "Trams" along the way . When we got there we had a plan not to accept less than 3
Pounds ten shillings however we stood there for ages and the only offer we got was from a dealer who I think was Jewish and he reminded us of Steptoe & son and he was happy to pay One pound ten shillings which we thought was a cheek so sadly we did'nt sell it and had to cycle all the way back .

There was two other characters worth a mention one was wee Irish guy who was stripped to the waist and he would swallow about 100 razor blades and a sword and lay down on broken glass and
he would crack a whip to keep everyone back and pass round the hat at the end and finally there was
a horseracing tipster selling little brown envelopes for what at the time was The Ebor Handicap in
Doncaster I think . What amazing Characters and of course you always heard the No.1 pop song of
the day and Ithink Jim Reeves was No 1 at the time but cant remember the song . Any ideas ?

Best regards reg

DannyGill wrote:Hi Gang,
Can anyone remember what happened when/if the" conductor arm " came off of the wires overhead [where the caurs got there power] was it like the Trolly bus and the conductor had to get the long pole out from under the Trolly and try to reach up with it try and lift the "arm" back onto the overhead wires or was there a different method used or just didn't this happen for some reasons. Another point is in the 50's when we had terrible smog in Glasgow what happened when the smog got too thick for the driver to see ? anyone know.
Regards.
Danny

From memory, the tram used a totally different collector from the Trolley buses which had two poles with hooks which hooked over the overhead wires and were prone to jump off, trams had collectors which looked like inverted wire coat hangers which I don't think could be accidentally dislodged.

Zooming the picture will show the collector on the Coronation car on the left.

Oh, I remember that Irish guy at "The Barras." My dad used to take us over there on a Sunday afternoon and we would stop to see this character...AS well as the other things already talked about, I remember he used to require so much money in his bunnet on the ground before he did any of his feats...two things he did that I recall were: He had this big slab of old concrete that he would put on his bare chest and someone would sling a big sledge hammer and break it on him and then another one was....he would swallow a big iron chain and then pull it up out of this throat and it would be full of blood...talk about a "scunner." What a way to earn a living...He was around for a long time so he must have not died too young...