Lyr Add: My Old Tram Bridge

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Old Tram Bridge
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Oct 23 - 12:48 PM

It wasn't actually 'Tramway' it was a metalled plateway I have this on the authority of Preston Historian - the late Stephen Sartin. The bridge was designed by a chap named "Outram" therefore it was an "Otram Bridge" but Prestoners bastardised this and it became "Owd Tram"
The existence of "Outram House" & Outram Way" on the line of the route, between the two canals,substantiates this fact.
Click for more info

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Old Tram Bridge
From: Paul Burke
Date: 31 Oct 23 - 03:46 PM

Terminology- a tramway was (in this context) a line used industrially as distinct for a passenger line. They could be either plateways (where the rail is flanged, fashionable, and bad engineering, for about 40 years from the later 18th century) or edge railed- where the wheels are flanged and run on the raised surface of the rails. Edge rails had been used from the early 17th century (wooden then), and again came to prominence from the early 19th century in first cast, then wrought iron as engineers realised the design flaws of the plateways. They had never really gone out of use, on Tyneside in particular.

The Peak Forest Tramrway (1796 ish) was a plateway; the Avon and Gloucester Railway (1830 or so) was edge railed and was known locally as the Dramway.

The "tram" in Outram was a complete coincidence (or nominative determinism?), being derived from a word meaning a beam and in use long before the Outrams were around.


This monstrosity ran on the Penydarren Tramroad (a plateway) in South Walses in the 1830s. An apt image for Halloween.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Old Tram Bridge
From: DaveRo
Date: 01 Nov 23 - 04:02 AM

Paul Burke wrote: This monstrosity ran on the Penydarren Tramroad (a plateway) in South Wales in the 1830s.

I wondered about the double chimney, and the painting itself. The chimneys could be lowered to lie alongside the boiler.

Based on drawings published in Industrial Railway Record 59 (April 1975), the painting omits, because details are not known, the winch that lowered and raised the chimneys and also the overall casing originally fitted to avoid the locomotive’s frightening animals.

From an entry in Roger Farnworth's blog. (Feb 2019, postscript.)

(There is a famous 'Penydarren locomotive' but that's not it.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Old Tram Bridge
From: GerryM
Date: 01 Nov 23 - 02:02 AM

**The bridge was designed by a chap named "Outram" therefore it was an "Otram Bridge" but Prestoners bastardised this and it became "Owd Tram"**

**The "tram" in Outram was a complete coincidence (or nominative determinism?), being derived from a word meaning a beam and in use long before the Outrams were around.**

Something similar happened in New York City. There's a bridge from Staten Island to New Jersey that people call The Outerbridge. Makes sense, since, of all the bridges into New York City, this one is the farthest out. But in fact its official name is The Outerbridge Crossing, and it's named after Eugenius Harvey Outerbridge. You could look it up!

Subject: Lyr Add: My Old Tram Bridge
From: GUEST,Graham Dixon
Date: 16 Oct 23 - 05:25 AM

MY OLD TRAM BRIDGE

Words & Music – Graham & Bernadette Dixon (Trouble at’ Mill)

Intro G – C(capo 3)
   F
My Old Tram Bridge
   C
I thought you there forever
             Dm                                                         G
Now it seems your days will soon be at an end
            C
I look back upon the many times
          Dm
You carried me o’er that river
G                                                 C
Never will I cross your span again

C
For seven generations
Dm
You carried us safely o’er the waters
             G                                                 C
Of the river to the south of Preston town

For all those years you proudly stood
Dm
Spite Winter freeze and Springtime flood
                   G                                                       C
Now they say it’s time to finally tear you down

You survived the constant battering
Of our boots and wheels and horseshoes
You stood the tests of torrent and of time
You brightened up my path to work
And showed my children to that park
To roll their chocolate eggs at Eastertide

I would stop right in the middle
To watch the heron fishing
As the Mallard and Goosander drifted by
And gaze down into the gentle flowing waters of The Ribble
Shimmering in reflections of the sky

Song can be heard here https://youtu.be/Fo3iaUBrKyY?si=ITQZkUJdfplTVsGn

The “Owd Tram Bridge” Straddles the River Ribble in the Centre of Preston, Lancashire. It has been condemned but still stands (at time of writing) Rendered unpassable.

GD

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Old Tram Bridge
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Oct 23 - 12:55 PM

That's the lot anyway

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Old Tram Bridge
From: Paul Burke
Date: 17 Oct 23 - 06:08 AM

In case anyone's wondering, the original tram bridge was actually built in the 1790s and was the result of the Lancaster Canal failing to raise enough finance to build all its line. There was also a big problem with sourcing enough water to feed the 180 foot flight of locks from the Leeds and Liverpool canal to the main line of the Lancaster Canal. So the canal was built in two parts, a level branch off the Leeds and Liverpool, then a tramway down to Preston to join the rest of the line to Lancaster and Kendal.

The tramway was disused by the 1860s, and became a footpath, with the original wooden bridge over the Ribble getting gradually more hazardous, till it was replaced by a concrete bridge in the 1930s. So the loss of the bridge is more a loss of a right-of-way than of a historical monument.

I slept under it once, in the company of a small group of very friendly and civilised homeless people. I had a girlfriend near Preston, and I'd delayed leaving too long so I missed the last bus to Manchester. Fortunately it wasn't wet or too cold.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: My Old Tram Bridge
From: cnd
Date: 16 Oct 23 - 08:18 AM

Graham, I have enjoyed seeing your music come across the pages here, but I think we would be better served by all your songs being posted in one thread, rather than having a dozen made at a time.