From the Tram to the Diddler to the Diesel Bus.
In the early 1900s the London United Tramways Company had big plans for Fulwell: it was to be the centre of a vast and great tramway network. Before 1901 all public transport had been horse drawn and each horse drawn bus had needed 11 horses to run a 60 miles per day service. That’s a lot of horse poo. Trams running on rails and powered by electricity were modern, clean, efficient and glamorous. The plan was for Twickenham’s Fulwell Depot to accommodate rolling stock for the lines to Hampton Court, Kingston and Wimbledon, together with proposed lines across Hampton Court Bridge taking in a second loop through Thames Ditton and back to Kingston via Surbiton. Other more ambitious plans to reach Maidenhead and Reading failed to materialise.
Tracks with a gauge of 4ft 8.5in were laid along the planned routes. Harking back to an earlier cycling post on David Garrick, it was necessary to widen the road in front of his villa by the river in Hampton to make way for them, and the house was bought by the London United Tramway Company in 1902 for demolition. Post 49 explains what happened. The wall on the Hampton Court side had to be set back to where it is today, with the only other alteration made by the company being the provision of a siding for the Company's CEO's Clifton private tram so that he could be driven directly to and from work. His tenure of Garrick's Villa was marked by great social activity, hosting flower shows and fetes there, as well as great garden parties for company employees, sometimes involving up to two thousand people being brought in relays by seventeen special tramcars stopping outside the door.
Back to Fulwell garage, where the five and a half acre site off South Road was secured after lengthy negotiations with the owners, Freake Estate Trustees. A 99 year lease at £200 a year was agreed in April 1902, and building work started without delay. The freehold was eventually bought by the London Passenger Transport Board in 1937.
The depot was one of the largest in Greater London, the car shed measuring 400’ x 258’, with separate frontages to, and access from, the east and west. Of eighteen tracks in total, fifteen accommodated 165 tram cars, while the remaining three were used for maintenance for up to 24 tram cars. In 1929 Fulwell received a tram car washing machine. Surplus, open-top trams were broken up in the east yard, known as the 'boneyard'. The depot also housed tram cars for Shepherds Bush, Hammersmith and Hampton Court Termini.
In 1930-31 the newly built 'Feltham' type trams were fitted out and painted at the Fulwell Depot. These contrasted favourably at the time with the antique appearance of the earlier trams. Each one was delivered in shell form from the Union Construction Finance Company's works in Feltham, on a road trailer hauled by a steam engine hired from Pickford & Co.
The trams continued to run until October 27th 1935.
The first trolleybuses in the London area ran from Fulwell depot which became the operating base for these services. Trolley bus capacity was for 120 vehicles. On May 16th 1931 Ronald Hadland was chosen to be the conductor of the very first trolleybus, a No.4, which opened the service between Teddington and Twickenham. He was selected for his smart turn-out. "I used to be a shining example in those days" he commented. "I spent two hours every day cleaning my uniform and had cuffs gleaming like patent leather and buttons twinkling like stars".
First he took a "show" bus into Twickenham for an official opening of the service by the mayor; then he was the conductor of the leading vehicle on the six-mile round trip from Fulwell through Twickenham Junction to Teddington. As this first trolleybus moved out of the depot, District Inspector Charles Gilbert jumped aboard and paid a penny for the first ticket.
It seems Ron Hadland was also the conductor on "Diddler" No.1 when it was resurrected for a ceremonial run from Twickenham to Kingston and back on the afternoon of May 8th 1962, the last day of trolleybus operation in London. Trolleybuses were called “Diddlers” after the ‘diddle, diddle, diddle’ noise they made, apparently, as they went along. Some say it was the vacuum pumps recharging the brakes, others suggest it came from the electric motors driving the bus.
John Betjeman described the noise in one of his poems as… “the constant click and kissing of the trolley buses hissing”.
In the 1950s, operating electric trolley buses was no cheaper than using diesel buses and regrettably their environmental benefits were not fully appreciated. London Transport perfected its new diesel bus, the Routemaster, and the entire trolleybus network - once the largest in the world - was scrapped. Fulwell garage was converted in 1962 to a bus garage.
What a shame. The stench of diesel from some of those buses in use today is disgusting, and enough to make you gag. Bring back trams and / or trolleybuses ... or better still, hurry up with the electric and / or hydrogen buses.
In the meantime, in stark contrast to the view expressed by the transport press soon after the opening of Fulwell garage in 1902: "A spacious car shed has been constructed at Fulwell. In every way admirably appointed and with subsidiary buildings and spacious yards adjoining, this forms one of the finest plants in the country", local railway worker, Arthur Brazier, opined: "The ruination of Twickenham was when the trams came. All the big people in Twickenham that used to go out with their horses and their grooms moved (away)".

A couple of “Diddlers”

Back to the past - an early tram

A decorated Feltham tram

Fulwell garage today, east entrance

And up-to-date
I think it's called progress. Past industry boasts about the value of clean transport, achieved by travelling by tram instead of the old-fashioned dirty horse drawn carriage, were omitted from their list of so-called merits. Well, we're steadily going electric in this part of the world; with that and ULEZ hopefully these dreadful diesel buses will be a thing of the past sooner than later.
March 2024 update: In September 2021, TfL announced that all new buses entering service would be zero emission. By March 2022 over 700 electric buses were in service. In October 2022 rapid charging using a pantograph was introduced for battery electric buses on route 132, the first use of this technology in London. TfL aim to complete conversion of their entire fleet of buses to electric by 2034. So, things are improving in London, and hopefully throughout the UK. And worldwide?!

Red arrow: Fulwell garage entrance
The Feltham trams did not operate regularly from Fulwell. LUT's Felthams worked Route 7 from Uxbridge to Shepherd's Bush, from Hanwell depot. They were transferred to South London in 1936. They were oversize for working Fulwell's tram routes, and only worked over the local lines when visiting Fulwell works or when being delivered from Fulwell when they were brand new. Here is a frame from a newsreel showing one at Fulwell in May, 1931 behind trolleybus No. 2.
Sunderland Feltham No.100
The tram shown above is not a Feltham. It is a standard Sunderland tram The only Feltham tram with a centre entrance was sold to Sunderland and ran there as 100 until 1954, when it was preserved.
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