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Trams and
Trains
Edinburgh
"I
was born in Edinburgh, but we moved to North Wales when I was one
year old. Between 1996 and 2000, I commuted weekly from
Suffolk to Edinburgh."
Summer Holidays (1950s-60s)
"Through the 1950s and 1960s I spent time in the Summer Holidays
each year:
- with my grandmother who lived in Bruntsfield Place, or
-
with my aunts, uncles and cousins who lived around Edinburgh.
Even when I was quite small, my brothers and I used to go on our own
to Bruntsfield Links and across to the Meadows to play. I also
remember walking past the King’s Theatre to the Tollcross and on to
see my aunt and uncle in Lauriston Place. Kids were much more
independent in those days."
Trams
"I remember, fondly, the trams which I could watch from the windows
of Grandma’s flat.
Although I was only 10 in the summer of 1956 (the last year that the
trams ran) I remember:
- the Edinburgh Standard cars (flat roofs)
- the ‘New’ Standard cars (domed roofs).
- the non-standard cars, which we looked out for.
Some of these could only be recognised from the curved glass in the
‘corner’ windows."
Tram Routes
"The tram routes which ran along Bruntsfield Place included the 11,
15, 16, 23, 27, and also the Church Hill Circulars (routes 13 and
14, clockwise and anti-clockwise) which we could see by running down
Whitehouse Loan to Strathearn Place."
Oxgangs
"Still on our own, I can remember taking the tram (15 or 16) to the
Braids and then walking down the Braidburn Valley with my cousin,
who lived then in a prefab in Oxgangs.
In the 1950s Oxgangs must have been one of the biggest estates of
prefabs anywhere. I remember it as a walk in the countryside,
but then I also remember later the whole area being covered in high
rise blocks of flats."
Trains
"Like most boys, I was also keen to see the trains. When I was
taken to Princes Street Gardens I always ran to the footbridge over
the railway to watch the East Coast expresses, Flying Scotsman,
Elizabethan and the rest*
which were all new to me, and caused great excitement.
I also remember walking to Blackford Hill and watching the local
trains on the southern loop line to Craiglockhart."
Robyn Lloyd Hughes, Preston St
Mary, Suffolk, England: 11 January 2017 |