Transport Histories

Celebrated in song, the cable cars of San Francisco are a unique and endearing form of public transport.  This is their story, and that of the city which created them.

The story of an electrical pioneer and the amazing railways he built, particularly Volk's Electric Railway which still runs along Brighton seafront and is the oldest working electric railway in the world.

Nearly every travel poster you see of Lisbon features one of the city's diminutive yellow tramcars.  They are survivors of a bygone age and have become an icon of this most charming of European capitals.  

A general history of the once ubiquitous tramcar, which transformed our cities at the beginning of the 20th century by providing cheap transport available to all. 

 A history of the transport that once served Brighton (but not Hove!).  Brighton was the last town in the world still to be building open topped trams, as late as 1937.   

From trains on the pier to miniature railways and cliff lifts, the seaside has always provided various interesting and delightful forms of transport to amuse holiday makers.  This talk tells the story of those that survive today, and some weird and wonderful ones that don't!