It’s the last of our photos from Kolkata for now in this “Around the World in Trams” or is it the first “Trams & Goats”?!
Just on the city side of Watgunge Junction the tramway, here shared by routes 31, 35 and 36, crosses a girder bridge over Tolly’s Nala, a drainage channel which flows into the Hooghly nearby. By Kolakata standards, traffic on Kidderpore Road is very light, though the small group of goats on the bridge and their young goatherds possibly have the potential to cause disruption. Another rickshaw is making its way up the gradient towards the bridge, parallel with the lorry and tram.
The tram itself is 1930s six-axle articulated K class car 331, from a series of 183, almost all of which were built by local firms in Bengal. The three prototypes from 1931 were constructed by English Electric in Preston, with EE maximum-traction trucks at the outer ends. 331 has come from Esplanade on route 35 and after crossing the bridge will turn left to run due south along Diamond Harbour Road to its Behala terminus.
Photograph by Donald Brooks, 22nd November 1978