A tram ride

On a lovely sunny Saturday in June, a party from my church circuit took a ride on a tram from Seaton to Colyton up the Axe estuary. Here I share the adventure with you. It was a superb trip on a superb day and much enjoyed by all the age groups involved, from 8 to 80.

All the photos in this hub are mine.

We were booked in as a party so didn't need to go to the ticket office.

We all arrived at Seaton in cars. It was a beautiful day, sunny and hot but there was a cool breeze also. Everyone arrived early so there was no panic. Soon our tram arrived and we boarded. We were mostly OAPs but we had three children with us and a lad of 15. We had to wait for another tram to come into the terminus, a blue one.

Then we were off. The seats were wooden and slatted. We all sat on the open, top deck. We all applied plenty of sunscreen. I was poised camera at the ready, after all here was another chance to make a lens.

The track is only double at certain points so we had to wait for this tram to come through before we could begin our journey to Colyton.

Seaton is on the edge of the Jurassic coastline. A good place from which to explore this area.

Notice the electric cable which powers the tram. Lovely fluffy white clouds in the distance.It was a peaceful ride with a light breeze. Perfect.

Sheep were contently grazing in the fields.

This area is a reservation for the wildlife. There are reedbeds for them to shelter in.

There were also heron and little egrets but they seem to have evaded my camera.Something has to be left to the imagination. The tide was low.

More reed beds in view with farm land behind and a few dwellings in sight.

Colyford is one of the places the Seaton tram passes through. It is featured in this clip.

In 1965 a man called Dr Beeching decided to "rationalize" the railways in Britain. Consequently many little side lines in picturesqe places were axed. One of these was the line from Seaton to Seaton Junction. Claude Lane who operated trams in Eastbourne heard of this closure and bought the line from the railway in 1966. At first the trams were battery operated from batteries towed in a wagon behind them. Later came the overhead electric cables. Unfortunately Claude Lane had a heart attack and died before seeing the trams in operation. In September 1973 the first tram to operate with the overhead cable ran. The tram has given pleasure to many through the years.

There were problems here with a flash flood during the 70's which washed away the track.

There was a hedge full of these dead trees.

The church is quite an unusual design.

Just time for an ice cream in the town before returning to the station for a cream tea. After all we are Methodist's and we love our food.

All stations in Britain used to have gardens like this.

Just outside the restaurant where we had a cup of tea and two scones with jam and cream. In our part of the world there is always a debate as to whether you should put the cream on first or the jam.

The speed of the tram blurs the image of the birds. You can see the tide is coming in.

One little lad found the sea irressistable and had to be given dry clothes which his resourceful Nan had brought. We sat viewing the sea and eating our fish and chips. We had all had a thoroughly good time.

Little did we know that the day of the tram ride was one of the best weather wise we would see all summer. After that the grey days and the wet days came, so it was nice to think back to the pleasant afternoon we spent riding the tram in the sunny weather as we expect summer to be giving us.