With the amount of tram track which keeps getting found under various road surfaces around the UK you could be mistaken for thinking there is enough metal there to relay the entire UK tram network! The latest place where some track has been found is Southend-On-Sea – a system which last saw a tram run in 1942.
Southend-on-Sea Corporation Tramways was a 3ft 6in gauge tramway which opened on 19th July 1901 and would continue operating until 8th April 1942. Totalling just short of 10 route miles the system had suffered from deteriorating track quality for a number of years which led to sections of the network gradually being abandoned in favour of both buses and trolleybuses before the final nail in the coffin came in April 1942 when the Leigh-Victoria Circus-Kursaal route saw its last trams run.
As with many towns across the country rather than lift the tracks the easier option of burying under the road surface was taken and various areas have seen these reappear over the years. The latest area where they have found old track has been in the Victoria Circus area (which was part of that final route in 1942) now known as London Road.
Images showing the discovered tram track on London Road, Southend-on-Sea. (All Photographs by Ian Banks)
This is ironic as the reason for closing the tramway in 1942 was to use the rails and scrapped vehicles in the war effort. Clearly that ruse to get rid of the trams was fraudulent.