Birmingham's steam trams

[Peter Walker]

1 — Origin of the steam tram
For over twenty years, Birmingham played surprisingly little part in its development — a brief two-part story that follows this general introduction.
The advantage of propelling a vehicle on smooth tracks of timber, stone or iron was recognised centuries ago, and such were frequently used in early mines and quarries, using human or animal power. The first regular horse-drawn passenger tramway was from Swansea to Oystermouth, opened in March 1807. Urban horse buses date back to 1828 in Paris, followed by George Shillibeer in London in 1829 (see model, 1.1). It is claimed that the earliest urban street tramway ran in Baltimore in 1828, but the New York and Haerlem [sic] Railroad, a street railway or tramway opened in 1832 is better documented (see engraving, 1.2).
Europe’s first urban street tramway opened in 1853 in Paris. Excluding an unsuccessful attempt to use interchangeable flanged wheels to run horse buses on the freight tracks of the Liverpool dock freight railways by Joseph Curtis in 1859, Britain’s first street railway was on the other side of the Mersey, introduced by the American, George Francis Train, who opened a horse tramway in Birkenhead on 30 August 1860 (see engraving 1.3). Train promoted other urban tramways in West Derby (Liverpool), Bayswater Road, Victoria Street (see photograph, 1. 4) and Kennington Road in London and even in Birmingham in 1861, Darlington and the Potteries in 1862, using a step rail projecting above the road surface. The rail proved potentially hazardous, and the last named tramway was converted to grooved rail in 1864. By the time the Birmingham authorities had responded he was out of the country. In Europe, similar trams started in Copenhagen in 1863, Berlin in 1865 in 1865, Hamburg in 1866 and Brussels in 1866.
In the late 1860s, several street tramways were promoted in Parliament, with the active support of the President of the Board of Trade, John Bright. The Tramways Act of 1870 simplified the legal procedure and gave the Board of Trade powers to authorise the building and operation of horse tramways. There were problems over the use of horse power: the work proved particularly taxing on the horses, and their life expectancy was short, while their working conditions were hard if not cruel. Mechanical traction was soon recognised as a better if dearer alternative.
Meanwhile the Locomotive Acts of 1861 and 1865 severely limited the scope for using steam engines on the road in this country. In 1864 an experimental steam locomotive on the Ryde Pier Tramway proved unsuccessful, and tram engines with enclosed wheels and coupling roads were first built by Henry Hughes for Pernambuco, Brazil in 1867 and 1870. After a small steam locomotive had been designed by Loftus Perkins and built for Brussels, which was found to be too light, a larger version was built in 1878 and tested on the Leeds horse tramway. Experiments were also made with integral steam motor cars, with little success. In 1875, Merryweather and Sons obtained a concession to operate a 41/2-mile route in Paris and supplied 36 engines in 1876/7, and other locos were built by Fox Walker. Owing to the condition of the track, horse traction was reintroduced in 1878 and the best of the locomotives were transferred to Rouen. British-built steam tram engines were also supplied to Barcelona, The Hague, Kassel, and Wellington (New Zealand) in the later 1870s. These were the first successful steam tram locomotives in Europe, and influenced later designs in many countries. Among the leading continental steam tram builders was Krauss of Munich, one of whose engines is still in regular service on the Chiemseebahn tourist line in Bavaria (see photo, 1.5). Progress was greater on the development of steam railcars, a notable success in France and Germany being the Rowan articulated car, with the body saddled on the locomotive unit, consisting of boiler, cylinders and driving wheels.
In 1874 The Tramways (Ireland) Act of 1871 provided for a tramway worked by ‘a locomotive engine or other mechanical power’, but the first did not open until 1881 between Dublin and Lucan. By then the rural Wantage Tramway in Oxfordshire had obtained its own powers to operate by steam power along the roadside under regulations authorised in 1875. The Guernsey Steam Tramway Co. Ltd. obtained powers from the States of Guernsey for a steam tramway in 1877, and opened in 1879. During 1878 there were 25 applications to Parliament for Tramways Orders, and a Select Committee was set up, which reported in 1879. The result was the Tramways Orders Confirmation Act which, subject to specified conditions, legalised steam tramways. After experiments under licence since 1878 steam traction on a permanent basis commenced in Dewsbury in April 1880.
The Soho Road experiment
Back to Birmingham, the first horse tramway opened in 1872 from Hockley Brook to Great Bridge and Hill Top, extended into Birmingham to Monmouth Street (Colmore Row) on 1 January 1873.
In 1875, Mr John Downes, licensee of the ‘Red Lion’, Soho Road, Handsworth, (also listed in Kelly’s Directory for 1879 as an Iron Merchant) took out a patent for ‘Improvements in locomotive and stationary steam engines’, claiming a cure for the ‘waste steam and smoke nuisance, and obviating all noise from the engine, thus making it particularly suitable for use on underground railways, tramways etc.’ He had a prototype engine built by Henry Hughes and Company, of the Falcon Works, Loughborough for £600. It was displayed in the forecourt of the ‘Red Lion’ in December 1875, and on 7 January it was put on to the horse tram tracks on Soho Road, and taken to the depot at Tildasley Street, West Bromwich. The next day the engine, coupled to an ordinary horse car, was driven to the ‘Red Lion’ and an official party of invited guests was taken to the ‘New Inns’, where luncheon was served. West Bromwich council became hostile to the locomotive and gave notice to Downes to cease his experiments by 27 January 1876. On 26 January the engine was driven into Birmingham at an early hour in the morning to test its hill-climbing capabilities. It climbed Hockley Hill without difficulty but lost adhesion at the top of Snow Hill, opposite the Great Western Hotel owing to the slippery state of the rails, but is was noted that the flange profile of the wheels was in any case too deep for proper adhesion.
The driver of the engine on these trials incidentally was Mr John Inshaw of ‘The Steam Clock’, Morville Street, Ladywood. Although not the publican there, he may have had some other connection, for he had designed and built a novel steam clock after which the hostelry was named. He had also assisted Dr Church in his experiments with steam road carriages. He also developed steam-hauled canal ‘fly-boats’, and was well-known as an engineer.
The original horse tram route ran through from Birmingham via West Bromwich and Carters Green to Hill Top, but traffic on parts of the line was too light to pay for itself. As a result, passenger services to Hill Top had ceased in September 1875, running only as far as West Bromwich Market Hall on weekdays and through to Carter’s Green on Sundays. There was local pressure to reopen a service using the Downes engine, and the tramway company appears to have been willing to cooperate, but the council was firmly opposed and nothing came of the idea. Downes, incidentally, had another connection with the tramway company, as he leased stables next to the ‘Red Lion’ to them.
Meanwhile the locomotive builders, Henry Hughes, took out a patent for a steam tram engine, and carried out a public trial at Leicester on 27 March 1876. Downes contested infringement of his patent without success.
That year, the struggling tramway company was bought out by a new firm, which paid £22,150 for the system, which had originally cost up to £115,000, together with the principal competing bus company. Work was in hand on building a second line along the Bristol Road, which opened on 5 June 1876.
The Bristol Road experiment
On 2 July 1880 a second steam loco trial was held, this time on the Bristol Road line, using a steam tram engine also built by Hughes of Loughborough, which had already been demonstrated at Glasgow, Wantage, Paris and Lille. The trial started in Colmore Row outside the tramway company’s offices, with representatives of the Public Works Committee and the company, travelling in a brand new horse car behind the locomotive. It proceeded across Victoria Square to Paradise where there was a brief derailment. It took the bend into Suffolk Street ‘well’, where brake tests were carried out on the downhill gradient. The car then continued to Bournbrook terminus, where a break was made at the ‘Bournbrook Hotel’. This demonstration also came to nothing.
No more was reported about the event. The horse tramway company was already in dire financial difficulties and, in an attempt to extricate itself, re-emerged as the Birmingham and Suburban Tramways Company in 1881, having powers to operate tramways in many parts of Birmingham. But it avoided committing itself to expense as long as possible.

 

[Peter Walker]

Part 2 — Birmingham’s steam trams — a brief description
The principles of steam tramcar design were well established by the time they finally came to Birmingham, and a range of rolling stock was available from various builders. While railcars were being used abroad, in Britain the steam locomotive and trailer were the norm. Because of the many narrow streets in Birmingham and the Black Country, the standard gauge of 4ft 81/2in (1435 mm) and the width of the cars, about 7 feet (2130 mm), had been found inconveniently wide. The Board of Trade favoured the narrow gauge of 3ft 6in (1067 mm), for future tramways in Birmingham and the Black Country. Surprisingly, the overall car width was restricted to only 5ft 8in (1717mm), which proved an advantage in negotiating crowded and narrow streets, but a discomfort for passengers. When overhead electric cars came on the road twenty years later, the maximum width was increased to 6ft 3in (1905 mm), which was a distinct improvement for passengers.
Photograph 2.1 shows the first engine and a typical trailer on the Birmingham and Aston Tramways. The engine (drawing 2.2) had four driving wheels, 2ft 41/4in (717.5 mm) diameter outside the frame, and two cylinders with Joy’s valve gear, all enclosed in a housing to protect pedestrians and other road users. The horizontal boiler was heated by a firebox at one end, into which the driver loaded coke from a hopper as required. The smokebox at the other end discharged into a long chimney which projected through the roof sheltering the driver, to extend to the top of the double-deck passenger trailers. The tram engines were required by law to condense steam leaving the cylinders, and condensers were generally placed above the canopy. They were also required to have a governor to restrict the top speed to 10 miles/h, but it is recorded that these were not usually fully effective in later days. Water was generally stored in tanks either side of the boiler, although some models had well tanks beneath the footplate.
In theory the engines could be driven either way, but different designs were more suitable for one particular direction. Many outer termini had this arrangement, the tram turning into a coke yard with an ash pit over which the firebox could be raked out, water tanks and coke bunkers filled. It was also necessary to drain off the condensate, which was not fed back into the storage tanks, and any necessary oiling would be carried out.
It was more practical to reverse the whole train rather than uncouple and run the engine round the trailer car. This could be done by providing a turning loop, but it was became common practice at outer termini to form a reversing triangle with an off-street coke and servicing yard. The tram would be driven into the yard for servicing, and then reverse out in the opposite direction, ready for the return journey. While the main purpose of the yards was for loading coke, it was also necessary to fill tanks with water, to rake out the firebox, for which a pit was provided between the rails, and carry out lubrication and any adjustments as required. It would also be necessary to drain the condensers, as the water was not fully recycled. According to C Gilbert, coke was delivered to he yards by tram at first, but later by contractor using horse-drawn wagons.
The passenger cars (drawing 2.3 and photo 2.4) were generally double-deck, with an enclosed lower saloon, and an open sided upper deck with a canopy to catch soot and cinders, as well as protection from bad weather. The first cars were double-ended, but some later examples were single ended, for use on routes with loops or reversing wyes. A single staircase made it possible to increase seating capacity within a given length of car. There was a vertically mounted handwheel on the right hand side of each platform, operating brake shoes on the wheels. In later years there was an additional horizontal wheel on the left side of the platform working a drum brake on the axle, which would be applied automatically if a loco separated from the car — a thin chain connection between the two winding on the brake, which would be locked in position by the time the chain broke. Normal service braking was worked from the engine steam brake, by means of a rod and chain. Engines and cars were coupled by means of the Nicholson automatic coupling — a combined centre-buffer and automatic coupling, with the safety chain in case of a breakaway.
The daily routine would commence with raking out and stoking up the fire which had been left to smoulder overnight, the excess ash and soot being dropped into a pit between the rails. Water would be topped up, and bearings and valve gear would be lubricated, after which the engine would be ready for the road. During the day, water would have to be taken frequently (there was an economic limit to the capacity of the tanks), and coke would have to be loaded from time to time. At the end of the shift, the loco would be driven back into the depot yard, the tank filled, the firebox raked out, and left to smoulder overnight.
The engines were supposed to carry a full kit of tools and lifting jack; but C Gilbert recalled that this was not always so, as proved on the Stratford Road one night in 1904. A boy of about five ran in front of an engine and was pinned under the engine for about half an hour before he could be extricated. There was no spanner to remove the protective skirts, and they could not find a jack to left the engine. The drivers also carried two short bars of iron, about a foot long, 11/2in wide and 3/4in thick. They were used if the rear bogie of a trailer took the wrong track, and also for reversing over trailing points, which had no moving blades.
The steam tram was to serve Birmingham from 1882 until the last day of 1906. Their contribution to animal welfare was in itself considerable, but the fact that they continued for so long demonstrates their reliability, although failures were not unknown (see press report, 2.5). They may have had few admirers: a long lugubrious dirge appeared on one postcard commemorating their demise, which did them scant justice.
The rest of these notes describe Birmingham’s steam trams in greater detail. A concise history of the tramway companies and lists of their rolling stock are expertly given by Peter Gould on a series of websites listed at the end of this series. The purpose of the present contribution is to add illustrations, maps and local detail. Dates quoted in the original sources are sometimes contradictory, and specific dates are quoted only where they do not conflict with any other record.

 

[Peter Walker]

Part 3 — The Birmingham and Aston Tramways
The attached Map 3.1 shows the Birmingham steam tramway network at its peak in 1904. The first steam tramway in the Birmingham area was opened in 1882 by an independent local group, the Birmingham & Aston Tramway Company, between Witton and the Old Square (Map 3.2).
Within Birmingham the original route ran from the Old Square, off the almost completed Corporation Street down to Aston Street, Gosta Green and then along Aston Road to the boundary at Aston Brook. The line continued to Aston Cross, then bearing left into Park Road to Aston Church and thence via Witton Lane to Witton. On the return journey the track diverged at Aston Church and followed Church Lane to Lichfield Road, thence to Aston Cross where it rejoined the other track. As shown in Map 2, other routes were authorised, but not all were built. The loop round Witton Road, Bevington Road and Trinity Road was added in 1884, the branch along Lichfield Road to Salford Bridge was opened in 1885, and the lines in Wheeler Street and Witton Road in 1886, as will be mentioned later. The other authorised lines in Coleshill Street and Woodcock Street were not built.
The attached early photo 3.3 shows an engine coupled to two horse trailers, an arrangement which was not approved by the Board of Trade, and was never put into public service. Photo 3.4 shows Kitson engine No. 14 with trailer 22 in Witton Lane, apparently just having traversed the loop via Trinity Road, Bevington Road and Witton Road. The side boards show the route ASTON PARK AND LOWER GROUNDS. Photo 3.5 shows a later version of Kitson engine with five side bays, adding to its weight, but providing extra space for coke and water tanks.

Map 3.1 is entitled Birmingham trams in 1904 — sorry about the confusion
Peter

 

[Peter Walker]

Part 4 — Old Square to Witton and Gravelly Hill
According to the 1890 OS map there was originally a reversing triangle at the Old Square (see map 4.1), but a turning loop was installed, probably when the terminus was shared with routes operated by the Birmingham Central Tramways (see map 4.2), which can be seen in photograph 4.3.
At Witton the exact track layout was more complicated. The 1890 OS map (4.4) shows a complex layout: the road on the left is Witton Road leading down towards Bevington Road and Six Ways, and that on the right is Witton Lane leading down to Aston Church and Aston Cross. We can only guess at the original 1882 arrangement: it seems most likely that the reversing triangle in Witton Lane on the site of the later electric car sheds is original, with an open coke yard. The single connection off Witton Lane led into the adjoining car and engine sheds. The extension round the corner into Witton Road was the Bevington Road loop added in 1884 and the stub end on the north side of Witton Road may have been added in 1886 when a new route was opened via Six Ways Aston to Witton, which will be mentioned later.
The branch to ‘Gravelly Hill’ was opened in early 1885, along Lichfield Road from Aston Cross to a terminus 100 yards short of Salford Bridge, originally a simple stub terminus with a standpipe for the locos, which was soon replaced at the insistence of Aston council by a coke yard with two-way connection, permitting reversal of the tram and servicing of the loco off the public highway. (see map 4.5).

 

[Peter Walker]

Part 5 — To Perry Barr
The Birmingham Central Tramways Company was registered in 1883 to take over the original horse tramway and its powers to build and operate steam trams to Nechells, Perry Barr, Lozells, Moseley and Sparkbrook, The first of these to be opened ran from Albert Street to Nechells, opened in 1884, but using horse traction, as consent to use steam was refused, because of the narrowness of the streets. That year, the same company opened a new steam line to Perry Barr, via Lancaster Street, Corporation Street, sharing the B&AT terminus at Old Square. A depot and coke yard were provided at Perry Barr (see map 5.1), beyond which was a lengthy stub line extending to Perry Barr railway station (as shown on map 5.2). Presumably the trams reversed to this point to load. The tinted postcard view 5.3 shows a steam tram outside Perry Barr tram shed; Photo 5.4 shows a car at Six Ways, being driven from Perry Barr to Old Square before working on the Saltley route. and postcard 5.5 shows a tram in Aston High Street, by the ‘Barton’s Arms’.

 

[Peter Walker]

Part 6 — To Moseley, Nechells, Saltley and Sparkbrook
Shortly after the Perry Barr route, the Birmingham Central Tramways opened the first of its routes in the south of Biringham, from Bradford Street to Moseley Village via Moseley Road, with a depot off the Stratford Road at Kyotts Lake Road (see map 6.1). A substantial depot was built initially for the Moseley route at Kyotts Lake Road, off the Stratford Road. The site was large, and it had it generous engine and car sheds, later with extensive workshop facilities for maintaining and overhauling all the rolling stock operated by the company. Several electric trams were built there before it was taken over by the Corporation in 1907 and used as the main tramway repair works.
It is believed that the original terminal arrangement at Bradford Street was a pair of trailing crossovers, the loco having to run round the passenger car without reversing. The inset in Map 8 shows the layout with the connecting track to the Nechells horse line. In an article by C Gilbert in Modern Tramway, April 1965, the author recalled recalled that a coke truck would be parked on the connecting line, together with a gas tank wagon for lighting the passenger car; water would be taken from a standpipe as necessary. At Moseley Village a turning loop originally ran round the village green, and all servicing would had to be done on the public highway. Within a year the line was extended a few yards to a coke yard, with the usual two-way connection to permit triangular reversing and off-street servicing (shown on OS map 6.2).
In early 1885, the Birmingham Central Tramways Company opened its route to Saltley, which again terminated at the Old Square, running over Birmingham and Aston tracks as far as Gosta Green. There were no coke yards along this line, and rolling stock was based at Perry Barr, so there was a great deal of dead running (see Fig 15), and the trams would have to be serviced in the street, presumably at the Saltley terminus, shown on the 1890 OS map (6.3). A loop was provided later at the junction with Nechells Place, as shown on the later OS map (6.4).
Later in 1885 the Company opened another route from Bradford Street to St. John’s Road, Sparkbrook, where there was a coke yard with two-way access, shown on the 1890 OS map(6.5). The route shared the Kyotts Lake Road depot with the Moseley route. As the junction between Bradford Street and Moseley Road was on a slight gradient, it was found necessary to provide a pointsman with a hut to work the facing point, ensuring that the driver could remain in control of the engine.

 

[Peter Walker]

Part 7 — City extensions and to Dudley
Also in 1885, the Moseley route was extended at the city endvia Bromsgrove Street to Hurst Street and John Bright Street, with a sharp turn into Hill Street. The map already attached (6.1) shows the development of the layout in detail, while the OS map (7.1) shows the final layout before electrification. The photograph (7.2) shows a steam tram loading in Hill Street. This arrangement was modified over the years to include tracks in Dudley Street, Pershore Street and Station Street.
It was at this time that the Birmingham and Midland Tramways Company opened its long route from Summer Row, Lionel Street, through Smethwick and Oldbury to Dudley. The original arrangement at the Summer Row terminus was two trailing crossovers, but in 1888 a spur into Lionel Street was built with a triangular connection, as shown on the OS map (7.3). A building was acquired here, which later served as a parcels express depot for the electric trams. The large main depot was at West Smethwick, and a reversing triangle was provided at Aberdeen Street for short working and parking cripples, as shown on the OS map (7.4). Another coke yard with two-way connections was built rather later, just outside the city boundary near Hume Street, Smethwick, shown on the later OS map (7.5).

 

[Peter Walker]

Part 8 — To Small Heath and Balsall Heath
In early 1886 the Birmingham Central Tramways Company opened a route from to Small Heath via Deritend and Coventry Road. The terminus was at Dora Road, some way past the coke yard illustrated in the photo (8.1), opposite the main entrance to Small Heath Park near St Oswald’s Road, with the usual triangular reversing facility, as shown on map (8.2). It looks probable that Kyotts Lake Road was used as the depot for this line at first, but a depot was built later behind the Small Heath coke yard, but possibly not until the coming of the electric cars.
In mid-1886, a new line was opened from Hurst Street via Gooch Street and Balsall Heath to connect with the Moseley route at Park Road. Some streets were so narrow that some single tracks were laid in parallel streets, an arrangement that persisted in electric tramway days. There were some short workings to Balsall Heath.
Some photographs remain of service vehicles on the steam tramways. View (8.3) shows gas cylinder wagons used to light the passenger cars entering Bradford Street from the connecting line from Smithfield Street (above) and in the Kyotts lake Road yard (below). Photo (8.4) shows a Kitson engine with a steam-powered rail grinding trailer. A more general view (8.5) shows a later single ended trailer on the Stratford Road, possibly on the last day of steam operation, as overhead wires can be seen.

 

[Peter Walker]

Part 9 — To Witton Road, Kings Heath, and Sparkbrook and Villa Cross
In about late 1886 two minor sections of steam tramway were added, which had little strategic importance. Since 1882 the Birmingham and Aston Tramways had powers to build lines in Wheeler Street and Witton Road to permit a new route to Witton via Lozells and Six Ways Aston. When the Birmingham Central Tramways refused to allow Aston’s steam trams on its future 3ft 6in gauge cable tracks in Snow Hill, and after lengthy negotiation the Aston company built the lines and then sold them to the Birmingham Central Tramways, which at first operated only a skeleton service, but a full service started later. The route ran from the corner of Great Hampton Street and Great Hampton Row, along Wheeler Street, turning into Lozells Road towards Six Ways, where it turned into Witton Road. A coke yard and small depot were provided off Witton Road above Bevington Road, shown on the 1890 OS map (9.1). It may be recalled that another part of the same map (4.4) also shows the spur into the northern end of Witton Road, past Aston Lane (4.4) — it is assumed that this was added at that time to enable BCT trams to reverse quite independently of Aston trams.
In early 1887, the Moseley route was extended to Silver Street, Kings Heath, where a depot and coke yard was built at first, shown on the 1890 OS map (9.2), but a depot was soon added, as shown on the plan (9.3) and illustrated in the photo (9.4). It seems that trams from Kings Heath ran through via Balsall Heath, while Moseley Road cars continued to reverse at Moseley.
The date that Birmingham Central Tramways Company opened its service to Lozells (Villa Cross) from the Old Square via Six Ways has been quoted as late 1885, but a surviving press notice advises of the service starting on 1 October 1887. There were no off-street facilities on this line, but the Lozells terminus was outside the old horse bus and tram depot, where coke and other stores could at least be stored off the public highway.
The heyday of steam
In the space of three years, the Birmingham Central Tramways Company had opened all its proposed tramway lines, and with the conversion of the old Hockley route to cable operation in 1888 had only the Bristol Road horse route remaining. Profits from the new system proved inadequate to justify another conversion to cable operation, and the Corporation would not allow any more steam traction. So a compromise was adopted, with cars driven from electric accumulators, begun in 1890 with provisional consent from the council. With that, the company’s work programme was completed, and its finances were exhausted. In successive years the company blamed the Council for charging too high a rental, but every request for a reduction was refused. In 1894 the company suggested converting the Stratford Road route to cable operation, and granting a 25-year operating lease, which the council also turned down.
Meanwhile a new electric service was opened on the South Staffordshire Tramways between Wednesbury, Darlaston and Bloxwich in 1893, taking current from an overhead wire. This proved a technical and commercial success. Birmingham sent a delegation in 1894 to inspect it, but the overhead wires were considered unsightly. However the system was adopted on a large scale in Dublin, Bristol, Leeds, and other towns by the time a proposal was made to electrify the Nechells route in 1895. After another trip to Walsall and months of debate, the resistance to overhead wires was grudgingly withdrawn, but something quite unexpected happened.
In 1896 William Mackenzie and James Ross, president and vice-president of the Toronto and Montreal Street Railways Companies respectively, came to Birmingham, in their own words, ‘to wake things up’. They offered to buy out the Birmingham Central Tramways Company and its leases, which they would surrender to the council in exchange for a new lease to operate a larger and improved electric system for a fresh term of 21 years. The council decided in favour of the proposal, after an amendment in favour of municipalising the tramways was rejected by 33 to 23 in late 1896. As a result the City of Birmingham Tramways Company was formed, and proceeded with a private Bill to extend its powers. The council was not happy about the use of overhead wires throughout the city, and made some reservations in the agreement. Another delegation was sent to make a 3-week tour of new installations at home and on the Continent, as a result of which the stud contact system favoured in Wolverhampton and elsewhere was rejected on technical grounds. The conduit system, as used in Blackpool and Budapest, was seen to give an equally efficient service to overhead wires, and did not disfigure the streets. It was also held that the costs of both systems were comparable, and these views were supported by their independent consultant, Dr Hopkinson of Manchester. Relations with the company worsened negotiations closed in 1898, leaving the new company with a run-down tram system and no prospect of electrifying it.
It was in this unhappy context that the company opened its last steam tram extension, from St. John’s Road in Sparkbrook to a new coke yard near College Road in May 1899, shown on a later OS map (9.5).
By this time municipal tramway systems had been formed in Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Nottingham, Sheffield and partly in Bradford, leaving ‘The best governed city’ far behind. Matters were brought to a head in April when the City of Birmingham Tramways Company offered to replace the long-unsatisfactory accumulator cars and install overhead wires and provide new rolling stock on the Bristol Road tram route. After rescinding the ban on negotiations with the company (after a motion to proceed to the next business was defeated by 60 to 5 votes, and the loss of an amendment to prohibit overhead wires by 40 votes to 20), and the company’s proposals were finally accepted on 1 May. Within a year, electric cars were running on the Bristol Road, and the battle of the overhead wires had been unconditionally won, bringing the end of the hated steam tram closer.

 

[Peter Walker]

Part 10 — The end of the steam trams
Another event affecting the future of the steam trams was the setting up in 1896 of the British Electric Traction Company to acquire bus and tram systems and — with the agreement of the local authority — replace them by an electric tramway operated by a subsidiary company. The BET operated partly in negotiating with local authorities, and partly in dealing with the tramway operating companies. Under its Chairman, the wily Emil Garcke, the BET was a powerful negotiator, with many tricks up its sleeve, for which few of the local authorities were a match. Similarly horse and steam tramwaymen were out of their depth on electrical matters.
In the first year of activity the BET turned its attention to the straggling tramways in the Black Country. It took over, among the others, the South Staffordshire Tramways Company (whose steam trams ran from West Bromwich and beyond to the cable tram terminus at New Inns, Handsworth) in 1897, and the Birmingham and Midland Tramways Company in 1900 (whose steam trams ran into Lionel Street in the city centre).
In 1899 it bought out the bankrupt Birmingham General Omnibus Company, and in January 1902 it finally got its hands on the City of Birmingham Tramways Company, and grouped it with the Black Country tramway companies. In September 1902, Mr Garcke held a conference of the authorities of the districts outside Birmingham (most steam tram routes ran beyond the city boundary), gaining their support to seek running powers BET trams into the centre of Birmingham, as opposed to municipal operation proposed by the city. He also sought the support of the local population by distributing handbills,
End of the Aston routes
Under the terms of the Tramways Act 1870, local councils had power to build tram tracks and lease them to the operating company. In the case of the Birmingham and Aston Tramways, Birmingham built the tracks within its area itself and leased them to the company, while Aston let the company build them, retaining power to purchase the concern after twenty-one years. The Aston company did well, and became one of the most profitable in the country. As its 21-year lease was due to expire in late December 1903, Birmingham set up a municipal tramway undertaking to take over its portion, while Aston Manor (with the encouragement of the British Electric Traction Company) purchased its tramways and electrified them, building new lines, and granting a new lease to the company to operate them on the council’s behalf. By agreement, the Birmingham and Aston Tramways company was absorbed into the CoBT, so that it became part of the BET empire.
According to C Gilbert, when steam tram tracks were rebuilt for electric operation, temporary tracks for the steam trams were laid on one side of the road or even on the footway if necessary, and the old track was removed. He also gave a graphic eye-witness description of the track reconstruction:
“Men with bars loosened the setts, which were carried away in horse-drawn carts. The rails were taken out by hand, and then came the hammer men, four men per gang with sledge hammers and a chisel. There would be about six of these gangs working together. They used to bring their hammers down on those chisels in rotation in perfect time: I never saw a man miss the tool, all hammers being kept constantly moving in a circle. Broken concrete was then cleared out and the bed leveled for the new concrete, the old material being carted away as fast as it was removed, by means of horses and carts. These carts brought in new materials on the return journey. Of the course, the quantity carried by each cart was only a ‘teaspoonful’ by comparison with present methods.
The next job was the laying out of the new concrete bed, and on which the flat bottoms of the rails rested. Across the excavation a series of shutters were laid, each about nine feet long and four feet wide, to form the platform on which he concrete was mixed. They were rather hefty, as they had to stand up to some rough usage. On these shutters a box with no bottom was placed. It was about four feet square and one foot deep, the two sides being extended each way to form handles. Into this box would be measured a fixed quantity of broken stone, followed by a measured amount of sand and cement. The box was lifted away, leaving a heap of material behind. Then along came the gang, who shovelled it over into a heap on to the right hand side of the boards, then back and forth twice more. This was all done while the material was dry. Then it was shoveled back into its first position, but this time the mixture was watered with outsize watering cans through roses (a fixed number of cans of water) while it was being moved. After this, the concrete mixture was shoveled into the hole prepared for it and then leveled up to the height required, The platform was the moved along ready for the next mix.”
The lease was due to expire on 1 September 1903, but it was agreed that it should be extended to 31 December 1903. It was later agreed to postpone the start of the new electric service until 4 January owing to a major football match at the Lower Grounds (now called Villa Park). On that date, a joint service of electric trams took over between a new terminus in Steelhouse Lane and the Aston boundary in Aston Road. Steam trams continued the service to Gravelly Hill and Witton. It is not known how the steam trams were reversed at the temporary terminus, but the two-way connection to Miller Street depot would have made a good reversing triangle. Electric track was completed between the boundary and Aston Cross by 16 June 1904, when Birmingham electric cars ran through to Aston Cross, while the steam trams continued to their outer termini. By 19 September 1904, tracks in Park Road were complete and CoBTC electric trams were running from Steelhouse Lane as far as Aston Church, Corporation cars continuing to terminate at Aston Cross, in the proportion of three Corporation cars to one company car. On 6 October the electric service was extended to Witton Depot, which had presumably been completed in the intervening time. It is said some company trams were shedded at the Corporation’s Miller Street depot until the new shed at Witton was complete, as shown on the later OS map (10.1). Civic pride is manifest in the title ‘Borough of Aston Manor’, a title which had just been created from the former Urban District Council. Finally on 14 November 1904, electric cars took over the Gravelly Hill route, marking the end of the Aston Road steam trams.
Other steam trams within Aston were the line from Newtown Row to the boundary with Handsworth at Birchfield Road, the line from Wheeler Street to Witton Road and Witton Lane, and the line from Six Ways to Villa Cross. The end of steam operation on these lines is not widely recorded, but a photograph of new trackwork at Six Ways shows the Perry Barr tracks rebuilt and seemingly complete with overhead wires, see the enclosure (10.2). The Perry Barr route would probably still have been worked by steam at that time. In the foreground new tracks leading into Lozells Road are about to be installed, with connections into High Street Aston, Witton Road and Victoria Road. The latter was new tramway, opened from Park Road as far as Six Ways on 27 October 1904. The Lozells Road line was opened to electric services rather later in stages, the first being as far as Finch Road, in May 1906. The opening dates of electric services on Wheeler Street and Witton Road are not known.
End of the Small Heath steam trams
The Birmingham District Tramways Bill of 1903 proposed by the BET sought running powers over Corporation tracks, with severe penalties for non-cooperation, as a result of which the Bill was withdrawn in return for a promise to co-operate fully until the existing leases expired, in most cases, at the end of 1906.
Work began accordingly on the Coventry Road, where tracks were extended from the Small Heath Terminus to the city boundary at Hay Mills. Concurrently a new line was built within the Parish of Yardley from Hay Mills to ‘The Swan’, South Yardley, and opened to electric operation from there as far as Small Heath where a depot was built behind the coke yard. An electric shuttle service began on 29 March 1904, but it was not until 23 February 1905 that the line was ready for electric trams to run through into the city, and steam trams disappeared from the Coventry Road. A historic view showing an electric car at Small Heath with a connecting steam tram in the background is attached (10.3).
C Gilbert wrote that the original steam tracks at the end of the Small Heath route were not at first replaced, and the joints merely opened at the joints, so that they could be bonded with copper bonds. This section had to be relaid in 1905.
End of the Dudley Road trams
Three months later the last steam tram ran on the Birmingham and Dudley line, and electric cars replaced them, long before the expiry date of the Birmingham and Midland Tramways Company’s lease on 30 June 1906. By that date a joint working arrangement was agreed, whereby the Corporation built a new city loop terminus at Edmund Street, which was shared between Company trams to Oldbury and Dudley and Corporation trams running beyond the city boundary over company tracks to Bearwood and Soho, as well as on a new route within the city to Lodge Road. Differences between the car mileage of company cars within the city and of Corporation cars outside the City were adjusted by occasional Sunday workings of company cars to Bearwood.
The final phase — end of the Perry Barr, Saltley, Sparkbrook and Kings Heath routes
30 June 1906 was the expiry date of many of the CoBT Company’s other leases, and on that date ownership of Kyotts Lake Road depot and works was handed over to the Corporation. It was agreed that the company operation should expire on 31 December 1906, and the Corporation would take over on 1 January 1907. Reconstruction and electrification of the Saltley, Nechells, Moseley Road, and Stratford Road lines had already been carried out in the summer and autumn of 1905, and the original Nechells horse service was withdrawn on 30 September 1906. Track in Lancaster Street and New Town Row was rebuilt in early 1906. Meanwhile, with the Kings Norton District Council had bought out the tramway in Moseley and Kings Heath from the company, and it was agreed with Birmingham Corporation that the latter should work the tramway from Moseley to Kings Heath with effect from 1 January 1907.
Conversion of the Perry Barr route was a very protracted story, judging from an indignant letter appearing in the Birmingham Mail on 15 January 1907 (10.4). It appears that Birmingham dully started running a electric service from the new terminus at Martineau Street to the Aston boundary at Phillips Street but, although Aston had already electrified its section from Phillips Street to Chain Walk, but it was not until 4 January that CBT electric cars operated over this section. The remaining ¾ mile of the route ran in the Urban District of Handsworth, which had purchased the steam tramway installation but evidently did not start rebuilding it until 7 January. It had been agreed with Birmingham Corporation that the latter should run a through service to Perry Barr, and lease the depot at Perry Barr from Handsworth Council, but it was not until 23 May 1907 Birmingham Corporation could open the new electric through service. What happened to the Lozells services is a mystery which has yet to be resolved. It appears that the Saltley and Stratford Road conversions took place uneventfully, and that the only mishap on the Moseley Road routes was the failure of one Kitson engine and its trailer at Kings Heath were unable to make the journey, and were abandoned at the back of the Kings Heath depot, which lay disused in the possession of the District Council until it was taken over by Birmingham Corporation after the boundary change in 1911. A photo showing a stretch of temporary steam track on the footpath, in use while electric tracks are being laid (10.4).
The final illustration (10.5) is one of the more affectionate postcards marking the demise of the Birmingham steam tram. Others were less charitable.
Postscript
Looking back today it is hard to see what was so terrible about steam trams. On grounds of sheer humanity they were surely preferable to horse trams, and certainly safer than battery electric cars. Petrol, gas, oil and naptha engines were experimented with in the 19th century without much success, and compressed air trams had briefly shown promise for a time, leaving only the cable tramway as a valid alternative. This was extremely costly, rather noisy and not entirely safe. So there was little alternative to the steam tram until electric traction became a feasible option.
There is no doubt that in Birmingham, as in other towns, the steam trams were hated at the end. The engines were frequently described as devilish, and seen as something evil in themselves. Yet a visit to the Chiemseebahn in Germany or the Grottes de Haan in Belgium will demonstrate that, driven with care and affection, a steam tram engine is one of the sweetest pieces of machinery one could encounter.
Bibliography
Apologies for the late arrival

Bunce, J T: History of Birmingham Corporation, Vol 2, Cornish Bros, 1885
Vince, C A: History of Birmingham Corporation, Vol 3, Cornish Bros, 1902
Briggs, Asa: History of Birmingham, Vol 2, Borough and City, 1865 – 1938, Oxford University Press, 1952
Klapper, Charles: The Golden Age of Tramways, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1961
Gilbert, C: Memories of Birmingham’s Steam Trams, in ‘Modern Tramway’, Vol 28 Nos 328 & 329, April-May 1965
Dunbar, Charles S: Buses, Trolleys and Trams, Paul Hamlyn Ltd, 1967
Webb, J S: Black Country Tramways, published by the author, 1974
Mayou, C A: Electric Tramcars in Birmingham – Depots & Allocations, Birmingham Transport Historical Group, 1974
Buckley, R J: History of Tramways from Horse to Rapid Transit, David & Charles,1975
Coxon, R T: Roads and Rails of Birmingham, 1900 – 1939, Ian Allan Ltd, 1979
Webb, J S: The British Steam Tram, Tramway and Light Railway Society, 1981
Jenson, Alec G: Birmingham Transport – a history of Public Road Transport in the Birmingham area, Birmingham Transport Historical Group, 1978
Collins, Paul: Birmingham Corporation Transport, 1904 – 1939, Ian Allan, 1999
Pollard, J R: Birmingham and Aston Tramways, in ’Tramway Review’ No 182, Summer 2000

Useful web sites

Gould, P: Birmingham Corporation Transport - The Tramways, 1872-1953, General overview
https://www.petergould.co.uk/local_transport_history/fleetlists/birmingham1.htm

Gould P: Birmingham Tramways and Omnibus Co. Ltd. (Birmingham & District Tramways Co. Ltd.), 1872-1885, General history and fleet list
https://www.petergould.co.uk/local_transport_history/fleetlists/tramways/birmingham8.htm

Gould, P: Birmingham Central Tramways Co. 1884-1896, General history and fleet list
https://www.petergould.co.uk/local_transport_history/fleetlists/tramways/birmingham10.htm

Gould, P: Birmingham & Aston Tramways Co Ltd, 1882 – 1904, General history and fleet list
https://www.petergould.co.uk/local_transport_history/fleetlists/tramways/birmingham9.htm

Gould, P: City of Birmingham Tramways Co. Ltd. 1896-1911, General history and fleet list
https://www.petergould.co.uk/local_transport_history/fleetlists/tramways/birmingham11.htm

Gould, P: Birmingham District Power & Traction Co. Ltd. (Birmingham & Midland Tramways Ltd.) 1885-1928, General history and fleet list
https://www.petergould.co.uk/local_transport_history/fleetlists/tramways/birmingham12.htm

Gould, P: South Staffordshire Tramways (Lessee) Co. Ltd. (South Staffordshire & Birmingham District Steam Tramways Co. Ltd.) 1883-1924, General history and fleet list
https://www.petergould.co.uk/local_transport_history/fleetlists/tramways/southstaffs1.htm

Miles, R: More about Early Public Transport, excellent general history of local transport, part of Birmingham Jewellery Quarter website
https://bobmiles.bulldoghome.com/pages/bobmiles_bulldoghome_com/morepublictransport.htm

Hardy, P L: A transport history of Yardley, authentic general history, part of Acocks Green Historic Society website
https://aghs.jimdo.com/transport-history/hardy-history/

Taylor, B: The Story of Road Transport, article based on earlier copies of ‘Midland Red Magazine’, part of Quinton Local History Society website
qlhs.org.uk/oracle/road-transport/road-transport.htm

Burkill, C: Tramways in Handsworth, article on Handsworth Historical Society website.
https://www.handsworth-history.org/hhs_tram_1.html

 

[Peter Walker]

Thylacine,
Thank you for that picture, which is a new one to me. But it is very, very similar to the attached photo below, of B&MT engine 25 and single-ended trailer 25, waiting outside the Windmill Lane coke yard. This is taken from J S Webb's "Black Country Tramways". The location is clearly the same as that in your view, as shown by the iron fence on the extreme right.
I also attach a jolly picture taken in the coke yard of a permanent way gang and special train. You can see that fence in the background.
Peter

 

[Lloyd]

If I may?
That is Kitson's patent steam condenser, the answer to local authorities' demands that 'no steam or smoke be emitted from the locomotive' of steam trams.
The 'no smoke' was achieved by burning coke, which is hotter and more efficient than coal anyway, and the steam exhausted from the cylinders passed through the air-cooled condenser and was returned to water, which was pumped back into the boiler thereby reducing the requirement to refill tanks as frequently.

The technology of steam engineering and the efficiency which could be derived from the fuel consumed reached a peak in the years up to WW1, when the internal combustion engine's simplicity of operation and ability to start instantly from cold gained it more poularity.
As an example, the steam generated at 215 p.s.i. (Pounds per Square Inch) in the boilers of the White Star liner 'Titanic' in 1912 was consumed firstly by each main reciprocating engines' high pressure cylinder, which exhausted at 78 p.s.i to the intermediate pressure cylinder, again exhausting at 24 p.s.i. to the twin low pressure cylinders. The pressures are as indicated by gauges, i.e. in relation to (therefore above) atmospheric pressure of approx 14 p.s.i.
Titanic used condensers to turn used steam back into water, by using sea water pumped around the "radiator tubes" containing the non-saline boiler water. This had the effect (as water decreases greatly in volume when turned from a gas to a liquid) of creating a vacuum, so 'sucking' the exhaust from the low pressure cylinders at 9 p.s.i.a. (pounds per square inch absolute, describing an absolute vacuum as 0) so therefore -5 p.s.i.
At half or faster speed the Parsons turbine diving the third (centre) propellor was added to the system (ahead only, turbines are not reversable), taking the 9 p.s.i.a. exhaust from the LP cylinders and exhausting it at 1 p.s.i.a. (-13 p.s.i.).
This quadruple expansion of the steam (and remember a large part of the power of steam is its expansion, unlike say compressed air that just 'pushes') extracted the maximum possible energy from the energy expended by the coal burnt in the furnaces, which heated the water in the boilers.
Far more detail here on Titanic's motive power system, if you are interested (including a working schematic diagram of the system in operation!).

 

[Thylacine]

Thanks, Lloyd! Very interesting indeed.

 

[Thylacine]

[Peter, I thought you might like this old ballad, if you haven't seen it before. Do you know the identity of "Moore" referred to in the seventh stanza? From Jan Raven's Urban and Industrial Songs of the Black Country and Birmingham (Wolverhampton: Broadside, 1977). Original source: "Brummagem Ballads — No 6 The Town Crier" (March 1886) — Local Collection, Birmingham Reference Library.]

Steam Tram Lines

You gentlemen of Edgbaston,
Who loll in broughams at ease,
You'd better on this tram question
Just mind your Q's and P's.

You've set your face against steam trams
Upon the West End routes,
And proved, by this, you're nothing but
A lot of selfish brutes.

The greatest good unto the great-
Est number must be done,
And in this case I'm glad to say,
That number's number one.

What's it to me if you object
To live in steam and smoke,
Why we must ride through Edgbaston,
Though you may have to choke.

What if your flowers and plants decay,
To your disgust intense;
Pooh! what are these when placed beside
Our great convenience.

And if they will to property
Its value soon abate,
Be thankful you have property,
It can depreciate.

The sulphur, too, you rave about
Which in your rooms they pour,
It's not a grain a minute each,
He say's it can't be — Moore.

And if the bell will jangling go,
From morn till eventide:
Put up with it — we don't object,
Who off the route reside.

 

[Thylacine]

Rupert recently discovered the picture attached below and posted it on another thread. With his permission I am copying it here, along with his interesting notes:

Looking at some of the photo’s posted on here in the last few years; this one stood out for the quality of the framing and interest in the subject. A little steam loco with it’s attached tram car going about it’s business; chugging along the Stratford Road towards Birmingham. It’s at the junction of Court Road and Stratford Road and the picture is looking towards the direction of Henley/Stratford and it’s a winters day at half past 12. The date must have been 1906 give or take and this may have been one of the last trips for this little engine…the overhead wires are there for the electric trams which were to replace steam. The tram would have run it’s journey back and forth for the whole of the Boer war and now that had ended and maybe some of the soldiers were spending Christmas at home for the first time in a while. Behind the photographer there was a hospital back then and just behind the lamppost the cape of a nurse can be seen and a nurses cap perhaps and another nurse further away in a different coat but a hat also. Maybe they were hurrying to the library to change books during the lunch break. The library being across the road …the building with the clock tower. The building is still there and a library now so I presume it always was. When the tram was passing the library would have been fairly new back then. It is not on the 1890 survey so that it may have been built in the field during the steam trams tenure of operation. Anyway I must have passed this place many times on the Midland Red and it would not have looked any different except for the vehicles and overhead wires and tram lines…after a while anyway. It’s not so cold maybe but the English dampness would make it seem so and the slush always made life miserable. There would be a few years of peace before the start of the first world war. One of my favorite pictures and I think a real stunner. Map reference.​