Corporation Tramways Water car No 1 on Brook Bridge 1930, now that's a zippy title

You won’t see one of these on the roads of Chorlton, and yes once they would have been a fairly common sight.

It is a water car and this one was Corporation Tramways Water car No.1 on the Brook Bridge on Barlow Moor Road sometime around 1930.

Now they seem to come in all sorts of designs, size and shape, but they all did the same job which was to clean the tracks.

I have a picture of one from South Shields in front of me as I write and water is cascading from the bottom of the car.  I guess ours worked in the same way. 

And I bet there will be someone out there who either corrects me or supplies further information which I am always happy to have.  

I must admit I have wondered on how many there were in the fleet, how regularly they came round and whether we would have seen more of them in the autumn when the leaves were falling or in the hot summer months when the tracks might have needed cooing down, which just goes to show how little I know.

What I also like about the picture is the hint of other things.  So just to the left of the car and behind the fence can just be made out Oak Farm which was there by the beginning of the 19^th century and may be even older.

Location; Chorlton-cum-Hardy

Picture; from the Lloyd collection