Your occasional reminder that we need to bring back tram decorating competitions

Oh here's a thread!
Once, almost every city & major town in Britain had trams; but almost all were ripped up.
@Railmaponline has plotted their network maps in incredible detail.
[WARNING: clicking on link may cause desperate pangs of infrastructure loss] http://railmaponline.com/UKIEMap.php 

Trams often plied the main streets of cities, so were perfect for displaying campaign messages or being part of celebratory cavalcades. These in Bristol and Middlesbrough highlighted charitable fundraising campaigns... (3/)

Guernsey’s trams were decorated with many cut plants for their annual floral carnival - “Battle of Flowers”. Incidentally, Guernsey’s short line was the first proper street tramway in the British Isles to use an overhead wire to supply the power, in 1892... (4/11)

Blackpool has a long history of decorated trams, coinciding with the famous illuminations. They’ve included a paddle steamer, rocket, Fisherman’s-Friend-sponsored boat - and even a tram + trailer dressed up to look like a Wild West train + carriage. (5/11)

One of the most frequent reasons for decorating trams, or indeed holding city-wide civic celebrations, seems to hv been for royalty. Either to show pride in welcoming royalty to the municipality- or celebrating coronations. Bunting, flowers, paper, lights: trams went glam. (6/11)

Edinburgh’s old tramway did BRILLIANT decorated trams. This one used 7,500 flowers and lasted for just one day - for the visit to Edinburgh of King George V and Queen Mary in 1934. Source: http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/0_edin_t/0_edinburgh_transport_trams_decorated_waverley_market_raf.htm#photo_06 (7/11)

A mobile crown surfing Edinburgh streets!
This tram was decorated for the coronation of King George VI in 1937. Note the smoke from steam locomotives below from @NetworkRailEDB (8/11)

Trams weren’t always decorated for celebration. Hartlepool dressed up this tram as a submarine in WW1 - and Glasgow in full patriotic regalia to recruit men as troops. (9/11)

The saddest tram decorations of all were those - often decked in bunting and banners - to commemorate their own demise. This, at Oldham, is typical of the “farewell, old friend” type of tram decoration found in the period. Trams and tram decoration almost died out. (10/11)

But #trams & #tram decorating live on. Hurrah! Here’s Basel’s piggybank tram (sponsored, obv) & the great “Karachi” tram of Melbourne, done for the 2006 Commonwealth Games http://hawthorntramdepot.org.au/trams/yt81.htm . Here ends my thread: do contribute yr own pics of fave decorated trams! (11/11)