Our postcard is number 1273 from publisher Gordon Smith of 15 Stroud Green Road, Finsbury Park and dates from 1908. It shows Metropolitan Electric Tramways (MET) car 65 standing in Green Lanes, Winchmore Hill at what was at that date the terminus of the latest section of MET tramway to be opened. The tram is waiting to depart to Finsbury Park.
The route from Finsbury Park to Winchmore Hill opened on 1st August 1908 and was extended to Enfield on 3rd July 1909. At this date the routes were unnumbered, but the blue circular symbol on the upper deck front with a white cross and a W indicates that the tram is going to Wood Green. From 1st August 1912 through running with London County Council to Euston Road began and later that year the route was designated as number 29. In 1933 ownership passed to London Transport who replaced the trams here on 8th May 1938 by trolleybuses on route 629 which in turn were replaced by motor buses in 1961.
Tram 65 in our view was MET type B/1, one of 35 cars (36-70) built in 1904 by the Brush Electrical Engineering Co. Ltd. of Loughborough. They had 24 seats on the lower deck and 38 on the upper. The livery was vermilion and ivory. They had Brush BB reverse maximum-traction bogies, two BTH GE58 28hp motors and BTH B18 controllers. Car 65 was withdrawn in September 1931 and then stored at Acton depot. In 1933 it passed to London Transport, who allocated it the number 2518, but it was never used by them and was scrapped at Fulwell Depot in June 1934.
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