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<DIV>Last Monday we pointlessly caught the 10.15 at Laxey up Snaefell; ½ hour
journey ea. way, £11 return. Pointless, because of the cloud cover at the
top, and pretty chilly to boot. So we got the same tram/train/thing
back:</DIV>
<DIV><A title=http://www.iomguide.com/mountainrailway.php
href="http://www.iomguide.com/mountainrailway.php">http://www.iomguide.com/mountainrailway.php</A></DIV>
<DIV>Anyway, the seats go backwards and forwards (as they still do on most
Japanese trains). And on the horse trams on the IoM:</DIV>
<DIV><A title=http://www.iomguide.com/horsetram.php
href="http://www.iomguide.com/horsetram.php">http://www.iomguide.com/horsetram.php</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Two hot days:</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>(1) During the school hols, I and 2 friends bought Green Rovers (for
country buses), and at one of our changes of bus we clubbed together and bought
a large bottle of Tizer from a newsagent/sweet shop. But: my “friends”
wouldn’t let me drink it in the street. No, we all had to wait until we
got onto the top deck of another bus. How times have changed: now we’re
not supposed to eat or drink on buses.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>(2) My parents and I were, I think, coming back from the coast on a train
with compartments and a corridor down the side. All the smokers were full,
so we went into a non-smoker, where there was a couple. My mother asked if
they could smoke. “Well, actually, we did come in here to avoid the
smoke.” My mother was *furious* – “Well, we did ask politely.” How
times have changed . . . </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I remember smoking only upstairs on the buses. And “ladies only”
compartments on the trains. And clouds of smoke at the pictures; you could
look up and see the projector light shining through the wreaths of smoke.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>When I was in Edinburgh in 1962, I ‘phoned up some tourist office in
Glasgow, and asked if the trams had stopped. “Yes, madam” was the
reply. Wrong on both counts. Still, I have been on the old Blackpool
trams a number of times, and you could see why people had wanted the trams to go
– rattling, slow, uncomfortable.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><A title=http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/car_fs1.html
href="http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/car_fs1.html">http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/bluebell/car_fs1.html</A></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">‘Second class was abolished in the early years
of the 20th century, with the exception of trains to the channel ports for ferry
services which still retained second class. Thus most railways had only first
and third classes, until 1956 when third was re-named second (now
"standard").’</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Stuart</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
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<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5">
<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=jeremy.hawthorn@ntnu.no
href="mailto:jeremy.hawthorn@ntnu.no">Jeremy Hawthorn</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, September 14, 2013 12:45 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=stuart.n.clarke@btinternet.com
href="mailto:stuart.n.clarke@btinternet.com">Stuart N. Clarke</A> ; <A
title=vwoolf@lists.service.ohio-state.edu
href="mailto:vwoolf@lists.service.ohio-state.edu">vwoolf@lists.service.ohio-state.edu</A>
</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> RE: [Vwoolf] More omnibuses</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV>
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style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: tahoma; COLOR: #000000; DIRECTION: ltr">In
my youth smokers had to sit upstairs on buses, and downstairs was non-smoking
(which would make good sense if there was no roof). But this must have been
different at a time when the middle classes sat upstairs - must it not?<BR><BR>I
also have a very early memory of a tram - late 1940s early 1950s, in Croydon I
think - which had no turning circle so went backwards and forwards on its route
without turning. To cope with this, the backs of seats could be pushed backwards
or forwards, so that passengers could always sit facing forwards.<BR><BR>Even in
the late 1950s there were 1st and 3rd class compartments in trains, along with
smoking and non-smoking compartments, and ladies-only compartments, in both
classes. 2nd class had been abolished (when?), but with a wonderful British
logic the other two classes remained 1st and 3rd.<BR><BR>Jeremy
H<BR></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>