Presenter Clement Fellows:
Our speaker was Clement Fellows with a talk on the Seaton Tramway, where he has been a member for many years and a volunteer tram driver. The tramway has been operating there since the 28/08/1970 and most of its current track bed apart from its terminus at Seaton is built on the former LSWR Branch closed on the 7/3/1966. The north part of the Branch from Seaton Jct to Colyton is not used as it has been ploughed back into the adjoining fields, so the northern terminus of the branch is at Colyton Station, which has retained most of its former railway station buildings, unlike the next station down at Colyford. These were the only two intermediate stations.However, the history of this tramway started its roots at St Leonards on Sea when Claude Lane of the Lancaster Electric Co in Barnet built what was a 15 inch tram system there in 1951. This was later closed and all the equipment moved to Rhyl in 1953 where the gauge remained 15 inches. A further move was made in in 1956 when the tramway moved again to Eastbourne, now with a 2-foot gauge. This operated between 1957 and 1969 and then was taken up to go to its current home being regauged to 2 foot 9 inches.
The site of the original Seaton Station could not be used as this had already started to be redeveloped into apartments but part of a station wall is incorporated into the side of their Tram depot. Their first tram terminus was replaced on the 20/6/2018 with a very modern new structure. Some of their historic trams have been re-gauged to 2 ft 9 inches, whilst new ones have been added to their fleet and all are bogie wheeled trams, with many incorporating parts from trams from former UK systems and from all around the world. The trolly poles are not all the same weights on the various tramcars. 30000 miles per year is the average mileage of a Seaton Tramcar. The line is prone to flooding by the River Axe from time to time.
After Clem finished the illustrated part of the talk, he went on to relate many of the amusing and sometimes hairy experiences he has had as a driver there. Finally, he answered many questions from the audience of 33 present that evening, which included several new faces.
