Peter Walker
gone but not forgotten
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.
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.
