Thursday 3 October 2013

Tram depot and Boothferry Park

Recently, sladen added some tram lines close to Wheeler Street off Anlaby Road in Hull. I was surprised to see railway=tram appearing in Hull as I hadn't heard the city was joining the enlightened ones adding smart new public transport options for the commuters. It turns out that that was the site of the old tram network depot. Trams were progressively phased out by mid 1940's in favour of trolleybuses, using the same overhead infrastructure but without the rails. They ran until 1964. After a short conversation on IRC with sladen I set out to see if I could find any signs of track at the site and any other clues about the depot.

I arrived at the Wheeler Street depot tram entrance on Anlaby Road. The tracks were clearly visible in the old cobblestone roadway. It is now a private yard of some kind. I walked a little way down the roadway before being stopped by a large chap who wanted to know what I wanted. I explained about it having been a tram depot and asked if I could see the rest of the tram lines, he said no, and told me to f*** off where I'd come from. I left.

I suppose the camera round my neck and the GPS in my hand might have been intimidating, but I was polite. It is quite unusual in my experience to get a response like that when out mapping - it just made me wonder just what was going on on the site.

I tried to see into the yard from Wheeler Street but the site has buildings and high walls around it, so I couldn't see any more details.
Overall I could only confirm what sladen had seen elsewhere already, there are a few tram lines left, but not the extent of them. Judging by recent aerial images the building had gone. Older aerial images showed the shell of a building with no roof on it. I'm not able to add to that at all.

I checked the restored oneway section of Wheeler street near Wheeler primary school, confirmed that the opposite cycleway has been restored after being removed during some building work. I then moved along Anlaby road to where Boothferry Park, the football ground of Hull City, used to be. It is in the process of being turning into a housing estate. The first houses are occupied now but there is still a lot more to build. The main drag is called Legends Way with the first side road to the east called Boothferry Park Halt. Boothferry Park was unusual because it had its own railway station, only used for match days and only used until the mid 1980's. I'll need to check the site some more in a few months to catch up with the new developments.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the railway=tram tags are incorrect - it appears to be disused at the least.

Chris Hill said...

I agree Andy. I'd like sladen choose a tagging scheme that he can use on all the disused tram lines he's adding. It can stay as is for now.