Hull Street Tramways
Encyclopedia
Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...
, England. Two of these lines went west, and two east. The fifth went to the north, and branched to include extra lines serving suburban areas. Additionally a short line linked the city centre to the Corporation Pier where a ferry crossed the Humber estuary to New Holland, Lincolnshire.
The early tramway system was worked from 1876 by horse power by the Hull Street Tramways company, except on the eastwards Hedon Road route which was operated by steam power from the outset by the Drypool and Marfleet Steam Tramways Company after 1899. Both companys were acquired by the city council in the final years of the 19th century, and the routes electrified and converted to double track, and operated as a municipal concern.
The City of Hull Tramways (later known as the Corporation Tramways) expanded the electrified tram network along the main roads of Hull up to 1927 when the tram system reached its greatest size.
Between 1937 and 1945 the system was converted to trolleybus
Trolleybus
A trolleybus is an electric bus that draws its electricity from overhead wires using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires and poles are required to complete the electrical circuit...
operation. The Hull trolleybus system
Trolleybuses in Kingston upon Hull
The Kingston upon Hull trolleybus system once served the city of Kingston upon Hull , in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England...
worked on the same paths as tram system, with the exception of the Hedon Road and Corporation Pier branches which became diesel bus operated. Later, all trolleybus services were replaced with diesel powered buses.
Hull Street Tramways
In 1871, soon after the Tramways act of 1870Tramways Act 1870
The Tramways Act 1870 was an important step in the development of urban transport in Britain. Street tramways had originated in the United States, and were introduced to Britain by George Francis Train in the 1860s, the first recorded installation being a short line from Woodside Ferry to...
became law, permission was sought from the board of Kingston upon Hull to construct a tram system in the town. The scheme was backed by Major Trevenen James Holland and the scheme received the support of the local board, despite problems due to narrow streets in the old town - making double track running difficult as well as causing opposition from the landowning Trinity House. In 1872 the construction was authorised by a local act of parliament, allowing the construction by the Continental & General Tramways Company of several tram lines in Hull centred on the town centre, including two westward lines along Anlaby and Hessle Road, a line northeastward along Holderness Road, a line roughly westnorthwest along Spring bank, and a short line running southwards from the city centre to the old town to Nelson Street close to the Victoria Pier.
On 9 January 1875 the tram route to Beverley Road was opened, and, in November 1876 the Hull Street Tramways Company (incorporated 1875) acquired the partially constructed tramway system from the Continental & General Tramways Co.. The Spring Bank route opened in 1876, the lines along Hessle Road, Anlaby Road, Holderness Road and the line through the old town were all open by 1877. The tram system was horse operated, approximately 9 miles long, and mostly single tracked. The company operated a fleet of around 30 vehicles, initially single deck vehicles, later double deck horse drawn trailers were used, some with a capacity of over 40 persons. In 1882 over 30,000 passengers per week were being carried; most areas could be reached from the city centre for a fare of 1d.
The company had three depots, on Hessle Road (near Regent Street),53.737432°N 0.35572°W Hessle Road near Regent St (See 1890s Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...
maps). The site was not used after electrification, and later the location was used for a municipal bath house, Regent Street no longer exists being replaced by Rawling Way. Temple Street,53.75785°N 0.347169°W Temple Street, off Beverley Road. Site not used for trams after electrification. and at Jesmond Gardens.
The tram company was in competition with wagonette
Wagonette
A wagonette or an omnibus is a horse-drawn wagon for passenger transport. Two wooden benches along the right and left side of the wagon platform can hold several sitting people facing each other. The driver sits on a separate, front-facing bench.The term carried over to motorized vehicles...
s, omnibuses and hackney carriages, though ridership and income was good, accidents were common, including some resulting in the amputation of limbs of passengers, or even their death, for which the company was liable to provide considerable compensation. Damage to tracks caused by the harsh winter of 1886/7, falling income, and rising infrastructure costs, and other circumstances beyond the control of the company, led to the company being liquidated in 1889; the eastward route to Holderness Road was sold to the Drypool and Marfleet Steam Tramways Company in 1891.
In 1895 an agreement for the Hull Corporation to purchase the company was reached - the price being £12,500; the undertaking was temporarily leased to W. Nettleton from 18 October of the same year. By November 1896 the decision had been made to run the tram system as a municipal enterprise, and the decision was made to convert it to an electric tram system.
Drypool and Marfleet Steam Tramways Company
The Hull Street Tramways scheme had included a route east from the city centre along Hedon Road, but this did not form part of the final Act. In 1885 the Drypool and Marfleet Steam Tramways Company was formed by local individuals including F.B. Grotrian. After negotiations with the Hull Corporation, which required the new company to provide a deposit of £500 per mile, and to contribute up to £500 towards the costs of any bridges along the route requiring widening, the bill for the new line was submitted in 1886.By 1889 a section of track from Great Union Street to Hedon Road, going as far as the junction with Lee Smith Street had been completed,The line went as far as the newly constructed (1885) Alexandra Dock which was then at the outskirts of the town. and opened for traffic. The tramway was originally intended to extend as far as the outlying village of Marfleet
Marfleet
Marfleet is a suburb of Kingston upon Hull, near the A1033 road, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was served by Marfleet railway station on the Hull and Holderness Railway until it closed in 1964....
; extension beyond Lee Smith Street were delayed, and in 1892 the company sought to rescind from its original obligations; the maximum extent of the line was to just beyond the Holderness Drain on Hedon Road, a short branch to Drypool Bridge was also later built.
The company used 2 axle steam locomotives built by Thomas Green & Son
Thomas Green & Son
Thomas Green & Son, Ltd. were engineers who manufactured a wide range of products at the Smithfield Foundry, Leeds, United Kingdom.- Introduction :Thomas Green came to Leeds from Carlton-on-Trent near Newark and founded the company in 1835...
; the vehicles. which each cost £500 were fitted with apparatus enabling them to 'consume their own smoke', and had the wheels encased for safety. They drew double decker bogie carriages, seating 32 at ground level and 42 on the upper level; the upper and lower decks were enclosed. The company's depot was at Hotham Street off Hedon Road.53.748765°N 0.306015°W The depot was connected by a short branch along Hotham Street, which was disconnected from the system by the 1900s, the site later became an electricity substation, as of 2010 the substation land retains the same boundaries as the depot.
The line was single tracked with passing loops, a fare of 1d was charged for all journeys.
In 1899 the Hull Corporation (having acquired authority to construct an electric tramway in 1896) bought the Drypool and Marfleet Steam Tramways Company for £15,500. The system was operated under lease whilst the new electric tramsystem was under construction. By 1901 only two of the locomotives were still in operation, and the last steam tram ran on 13 January 1901 - the Hedon Road line was served by wagonettes until the electric tramway was opened in 1903.
Hull Corporation trams
The Hull Corporation acquired the Hull Street Tramways in 1895 and an agreement had been made to purchase the Drypool and Marfleet Steam Tramways Company in 1894, (the company was purchased in 1899). In 1896 the corporation got permission from Parliament to construct and operated an electric tram system, and to get loans of £300,000 in funding. The company was initially known as the City of Hull Tramways until 1919, from then until 1931 the name Corporation Tramways was used, followed by Hull Corporation Transport until 1945.Expansion of tram system and infrastructure (1898–1927)
The official ceremony of laying of the first rail took place on 9 June 1898. Siemens
Siemens
Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...
supplied electrical equipment, the rails were from Société Anonyme des Aciéries d'Angleur (Belgium), and were an unusual centre groove profile which was supposed to wear better, and give a smoother ride with rail joints cut at a diagonal angle, additionally only one point blade was required for points with the centre groove system. The tram wheels had a corresponding centre flange. The lines were constructed as double track.
For the new system a main depot with workshop facilities was built at Liverpoool Street53.732904°N 0.375352°W Liverpool Street depot and works. (Demolished) on the Hessle Road route as well as a depot on Wheeler Street on the Anlaby Road route.53.742405°N 0.384952°W Wheeler Street tram depot, Anlaby Road route. (As of 2010 some of the ground plan and walls remain, mostly demolished) A depot with facilities for track maintennce was on Stepney Lane (Beverely Road route) was also opened in 1898,53.758767°N 0.343921°W Stepney Lane depot a street further north of the earlier Temple Street horse tram depot.
By 1899 an electric power plant in Osborne Street supplying power to the tram system was operational and trams began running on Anlaby and Hessle Road on 5 July 1899. By 1900 lines along Holderness Road, Spring Bank (and an extension along Princes Avenue), and Beverley Road had been opened.
Further extensions took place in the 1900s; by 1903 the City Centre-Spring Bank-Princes Ave. system had been extended along Newland Avenue, the Holderness Road route extended as far as Aberdeen Street on reserved track
Reserved track
In tram transport terminology reserved track is track on ground exclusively for trams. Unlike track on streets and roads, reserved track does not need to take into account the transit of other wheeled vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists or horses...
in the central reservation of the road, and new electric tram services to Victoria Pier and along Hedon Road had been opened, and depots constructed on the eastward Holderness and Hedon routes. In 1909 a new depot on Cottingham Road took over from the Stepney lane depot for vehicle storage.53.769471°N 0.356838°W Cottingham Road depot. As of 2010 the site boundaries remain, including some walls (west side), the plot has been used for a housing development; the office buildings at the entrance to Cottingham Road (west side) still exist, and are used as offices.
In the 1910s the Hedon Road service was extended to Marfleet
Marfleet
Marfleet is a suburb of Kingston upon Hull, near the A1033 road, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was served by Marfleet railway station on the Hull and Holderness Railway until it closed in 1964....
, and a line along Spring Bank West created as far as Walton Street (the site of the Hull Fair
Hull Fair
Hull Fair is one of Europe's largest travelling funfairs, which comes to Hull, England for one week, from noon on Friday to midnight the following Saturday, encompassing the second Tuesday of October each year. The fair is open every day between these days except Sunday...
), the Hessle Road route extended on a central reserved track to Pickering Park
Pickering Park, Kingston upon Hull
Pickering Park is a park in the western suburbs of Kingston upon Hull, on the north side of Hessle Road, near Anlaby.-Description and facilities:...
. Further extensions were added in the 1920s; the Holderness Road section was extended to Ings road, the Anlaby road section extended to Pickering Road both on reserved track. Additionally a line was completed from Beverley Road along Cottingham Road to its end at Hall Road, and another line constructed along Chanterlands Avenue from Spring Bank West to Cottingham Road; by 1927 the tram system had reached its maximum extent, at 20.48 mi (33 km).
A number of level crossings with the North Eastern Railway
North Eastern Railway (UK)
The North Eastern Railway , was an English railway company. It was incorporated in 1854, when four existing companies were combined, and was absorbed into the London and North Eastern Railway at the Grouping in 1923...
's Victoria Dock Branch Line and the line westwards out of Hull Paragon station
Hull Paragon railway station
Hull Paragon Interchange is a transport complex in the centre of the city of Kingston upon Hull , England, which opened in September 2007. It integrates the city's railway station with the formerly separate bus and coach station...
caused delays to the trams. The crossings required catch point
Catch point
Catch points and trap points are types of turnout which act as railway safety devices. Both work by guiding railway carriages and trucks from a dangerous route onto a separate, safer track. Catch points are used to derail vehicles which are out of control on steep slopes...
s for the trams and interlocking
Interlocking
In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. The signalling appliances and tracks are sometimes collectively referred to as an interlocking plant...
with the railway signalling system. In 1925, the Corporation, Ministry of Transport and the NER's successor the London and North Eastern Railway
London and North Eastern Railway
The London and North Eastern Railway was the second-largest of the "Big Four" railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain...
proposed to eliminate the level crossings at a cost of £1¼ million, but no work was done until the 1960s. The last improvement to infrastructure came in 1931 with the building of the North Bridge in the town centre allowing trams to cross over the river Hull avoding the narrow Drypool bridge.
Withdrawal of tram service (1931–1945)
In 1930 the electric power station on Osborne Street was closed; afterwards the electricity supply for the trams was purchased from the Hull City Corporation's own electricity supply, in 1931 the tram service to Victoria Pier was replaced with a motorbus service.
In 1934 the city of Hull transport corporation entered into a cooperation agreement with East Yorkshire Motor Services
East Yorkshire Motor Services
East Yorkshire Motor Services is a large bus and coach operator which operates throughout Kingston upon Hull, the East Riding of Yorkshire, the North Yorkshire coast and the North York Moors. In and around Scarborough, EYMS operates as Scarborough & District Motor Services...
(EYMS); services were divided into three areas: Hull City, its suburbs, and the surrounding countryside; revenues for services were split between the two companies irrespective of service provider - the City transport company received revenues from the city area, whilst EYMS received the revenues for service outside Hull, revenues in the suburbs were split between the two. As a consequence it became uneconomic to operate the outlying tram routes; services on most of the routes built in the 1920s were replaced by bus services.
In 1936 the construction of a trolleybus system was authorised; with the exception the Hedon road route which was replaced by a motorbus service the remaining tram routes were replaced by trolleybus operation between 1936 and 1945. The final tram ran on 30 June 1945; the journey celebrated by the tram being illuminated by 800 lights, accompanied by local grandees and with several tens of thousands of local people along the path.
The Wheeler Street, Cottingham Road, Liverpool Street and Aberdeen Street depots were re-used for the trolley buses. Further extension of the trolleybus system were proposed and authorised but none were built.
Trams
Fifteen trams were acquired in 1898, and another thirty in 1899; these trams were open top dual deck vehicles. By 1901 one hundred trams had been acquired; 25 of these were originally trailer vehicles, intended to be pulled by powered trams, which had been later motorised. By 1915 the number of trams had reached its maximum of 180. The trams were numbered sequentially from 1 to 180.
All the vehicles were 2 axle bogieless designs with the exception of the original Tram number 101 which had a double bogie. No.101 was sold in 1916 to Erith Urban District Council. It was replaced by another Tram 101 delivered in 1923 which was an experimental design designed by the company's manager E S Rayner with cardan shaft drive to split axles via a differential.
The early trams had open upper decks, a form of roll top retractable cover, known as the 'Kennington roof' was trialled on the roofless trams in 1904; these were not totally successful, and fixed roofs were installed from 1906 onwards. From 1919 the drivers positions and the balcony's of the upper decks began to be enclosed.
Electrical equipment came from Siemens
Siemens
Siemens may refer toSiemens, a German family name carried by generations of telecommunications industrialists, including:* Werner von Siemens , inventor, founder of Siemens AG...
or Westinghouse
Westinghouse Electric (1886)
Westinghouse Electric was an American manufacturing company. It was founded in 1886 as Westinghouse Electric Company and later renamed Westinghouse Electric Corporation by George Westinghouse. The company purchased CBS in 1995 and became CBS Corporation in 1997...
for most vehicles; trams built up to 1930 had two 25 hp electric motors, later trams had two motors of between 33 hp.
Heritage and remnants
As of 2010 Tram number 132 is on display at the Streetlife Museum of TransportStreetlife museum of transport
The Streetlife Museum of Transport is a transport museum located in Kingston upon Hull, England. The roots of the collection date back to the early 20th century, however the purpose-built museum the collection is housed in was opened in 1989 by the then Hull East MP, John Prescott...
in Hull, Tram number 96 is preserved and modified as a single deck vehicle at the Heaton Park Tramway
Heaton Park Tramway
The Heaton Park Tramway is a heritage tramway running old trams as a visitor attaction in Heaton Park, Manchester.The tramway was briefly closed after thieves stole overhead cables on 17 October 2011, engineers worked flat out to get the tramway fully operational again, within a week.- History...
, Manchester
In 2011 short section of track has survived at the Anlaby Road entrance to the former Wheeler Street Depot, additionally the offices of the Cottingham Road depot, and the original horse tram depot at Jesmond Gardens, Holderness Road are still extand.
At the town outskirts the reserved track sections were built on a central reservation; these sections on Anlaby, Holderness, Hessle and Beverley Road were converted to dual carriageways; the tram sections now form part of a wide central grass section between the carriageways.
See also
- Doncaster TramwayDoncaster TramwayDoncaster Corporation Tramways was an electric tramway network serving the town of Doncaster, England.Tramway services begun in 1902 and ended in 1928-35...
, the other electric tramway in the UK to use centre groove rail
Sources
(possibly also printed under the title, or a work of similar scope "Hull Trams : The Early Days")- Kingston Upon Hull Corporation Transport : A Brief History, alternative sources :
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