Clapham Common Transport Museum

I remember the Mallards journey from the old Nine elms goods/parcel yard in Nine Elms lane to the Clapham transport museum, Pickfords transported it at around mid-night, cant remember the exact date, but the amount of people there at midnight was amazing, it was a tight turn out of the old Nine elms yard and the weight of the loco on the low-loader made a right old mess of the pavement in Nine elms lane, I remember Pickfords had three tractor units on it when it got moving, two at the front and one at the back.

 

Don't forget the London Transport loco Sarah Siddons.

 

At that time Sarah Siddons was still in departmental use and continued for many years in this role before passing to the museum collection still as a working item. The other long term survivor of the class is John Hampden (number 5) which passed from service at Acton works as a shunter into the museum at Syon Park in 1973 (note on last page of link) and is now in Covent Garden. The museum notes suggest it went straight to Syon Park and was never at Clapham.

http://www.ltmcollection.org/museum...IXexpand=designservicejourneys#additionalinfo

 

I visited the Clapham museum about three months before closure, the exhibits were gradually being taken away and the day I visited Sarah Siddons was being prepared for the move to Acton works.

 

Very interesting reading over the movement to York.

http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1969/dec/02/clapham-transport-museum

 

I think you must be mistaken, or perhaps thinking of another loco that you saw at the time of your visit. All the sources I can find say Sarah Siddons was still in departmental service at that time. Both Sarah and the other surviving Metropolitan electric loco, John Hampden, were used on a brake van railtour in September 1972 celebrating the 50th anniversary of these locos.

 

Clapham was a former tram depot. Trams finished in London in 1952, I can remember my Dad taking me to New Cross on the last day, I was 5 years old. He was a driver at Camberwell Tram depot and when that went over to buses he converted to driving buses and moved to Catford which was a lot nearer home

 

My grandfather was invited back from retirement to help set up the Clapham museum, but I think I only visited it once and I have no memory of that visit.

 

Lord Montague agreed with me then.... at least someone did!

 

There is a British Transport Film on dvd which has jo brown in the museum which may be of interest

 

Short video filmed by British Pathe: Gives a good idea of how cramped it was.
Geoff Bannister took these photos: http://www.geoffbannister.com/tod/museums1.html [His copyright of course]
Item one on this site: http://www.loveclapham.com/10-clapham-facts-you-didnt-know/ gives a slightly more detailed history of the site's useage over the years.

 

The buses and other vehicles are in a hangar at Wroughton so not decaying:

https://andrewstransport.smugmug.com/Cars/Science-Museum-store-Wroughton-2015/i-mJd46Mn

Cheers

Andrew N

 

Yes, but those photos appear to have been taken that is laid out for public access to view on one of their occasional public open days. I went to one of those back in 2004 and there are lots of other storage buildings on the site that are not like that and which the public aren't admitted to. One particular vehicle that was at Clapham and went on display at another Museum before being retreived by the Science Museum is definitely in a terrible state, with the electrical/mechanical side of things dismantled the last time I saw it in the 1990's. If it was an item of railway rolling stock or loco you would have had reams of postings about its state on here long ago!
That one doesn't feature at all in those photos.......

 

What is it? AN

 

One of these - seen here in better days........



A 1930 Ransomes single deck trolleybus. No.44 was at Clapham and is now somewhere at Wroughton.........

 

I have checked the photos I took when I visited Wroughton in 2015 and I did not include Ipswich 44. It may well have been present but I was concentrating on the aircraft as buses are not my scene.

Rummaging on the net I came across this which may be of interest. (Ipswich 44 is five rows down.):

https://hiveminer.com/User/nickabbott_2000

Andrew N

 

I hadn't realised that Nick had seen it at Wroughton since it left Carlton Colville in the 1990's.
If anything it proves that nothing has actually been done to it to stop the rot, as can be seen by looking at his original on Flikr......
https://www.flickr.com/photos/46751187@N07/6235325433

When I last saw it in the 1990's, several parts were missing, there was bodywork damage, the entrance steps were "suspect" and the whole thing was rusting.
The chassis was supposedly restored by Ransomes in the early 1980's (though that was never confirmed), and then, from memory, it stood outside at their factory for some time before making its way back to Carlton Colville. The Estler trolleybase was borrowed whilst it was at Ransomes so a copy could be made for Ipswich Railless trolleybus No.2 at the ITM and this was never put back, so it is presumably still sitting in the passenger saloon!
An attempt was made in the 90's to get it for the Ipswich Transport Museum, but the Science Museum weren't interested, so they took it back to Wroughton and put it in store.

 

In case they are of interest here are photos of the York NRM taken in 1976, the year after it opened. I have indicated the locos which used to be at Clapham. (Most of the others had been in the old railway museum at York.)

https://andrewstransport.smugmug.com/BritishheritagerailwaysI/National-Railway-Museum-York-1976/

Photos of a visit to the London Transport museum in Covent Garden in 2012 are here:

https://andrewstransport.smugmug.com/BritishheritagerailwaysI/London-Transport-Museum-2012/

Photos of the aircraft at Wroughton in 2015 are here:

https://andrewstransport.smugmug.com/Aviation/Science-Museum-store-Wroughton/

Cheers

Andrew N

 

Whilst helping to move Ipswich Trolleybus 44 from Wroughton to its new home at the Ipswich Transport Museum yesterday, I did spot that one of the other items stored in the same hangar was the former Great Eastern Railway Stratford Works Dennis fire engine of 1912.....

 

It also contained a very fine display, including original artefacts and a superb (1:12) scale model of a double-track junction, explaining the finer points of the LCC/LT tramways conduit system.