LONDON'S TRAM LINES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 7, 23 September 1942, Page 5

LONDON'S TRAM LINES

WRENCHED UP TO BUILD TANKS AND BATTLESHIPS Britain's old, tram rails, tons of which are going into the melting pot every -day, will soon roll out of war factories all over the country in the shape of tanks, guns and other arms. The eighty miles of tram rails abandoned in London since trolleybuses have taiken' the place of trams are made of high grade steel.: AIL over London they are being wrenched up from the roads and more than half the work has been completed. Since it began 'last year, some 16,000 tons of metal have been recovered,; and one London borough alone has taken up more than 2% miles of track and sent i;t off to the scrap metal depots. Other materials taken up are being used to restore the roads. Old granite paving, for example, is broken up to make asphalt. ,

Apart from tram lines, railings and iron gates >all over Britain are yielding a steady flow of. metal for arms production. More than 200yOOO tons of metal have been recovered, the equivalent in weight of about 12,500 Valentine tanks;, or enough for the steel of thirteen 35,000-ton battleships. Just under one half of the total is from London.