PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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PLYMOUTH CORPORATION TRAMWAYS DEPARTMENT 1905 - 1914 In January 1905 Plymouth Borough Council received a memorial from the workmen residents in and around Beaumont Road. They were praying for the workmen's cars from that area to be run through to the Palace Theatre, which was at the eastern boundary of the Town. This involved Plymouth Corporation trams traversing the tracks owned by the Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport Tramways Company as far as Manor Street. A decision on this request was deferred and , in fact, was deferred several more times. The service was started, however, although the Company not surprisingly objected and refused to pay its rates. The Corporation laid plans to take them to Court but they paid up shortly before. The line from Tavistock Road to Pennycomequick was under construction and the it was decided to electrify the West Hoe Route and combine it with the one to Pennycomequick. This would visitors arriving by train direct access to the Promenade Pier and the front of the Hoe. In February 1905 an order for four tramcars carrying 46 passengers and two demi-cars (single deck) capable of taking 20 passengers were ordered. Two months later the order was amended to six ordinary double-deck cars and the demi-cars were deleted. A contract was made with Messrs Fisher Brothers to paint them. On Wednesday August 2nd 1905 a trial trip was made over the new line from Pound Street through Cobourg Street to Pennycomequick in preparation for the Board of Trade inspection on the following Friday. The old horse tramway had been taken up and a new electrified line laid to a terminus immediately adjoining that of the Devonport and District Tramways Company in the valley below the Great Western Railway. A new junction had been put in at Tavistock Road/Pound Street and loops had been provided at Pound Street, in Cobourg Street opposite the Public Schools, and at the top of York Street. The line down Saltash Road past North Road Station was double-track. During the construction, the opportunity was taken to lay new double-track in 'the new thoroughfare' between Old Town Street and Tavistock Road. It had previously been called Garden Street and was very narrow but between 1903 and 1905 it was widened and the properties on either side rebuilt. A new junction was also laid in at the junction with Ebrington Street to enable cars returning to Prince Rock Depot to run straight through without having to reverse. Rails of 95lbs per yard were used throughout. Interestingly, although the roadway in Cobourg Street and Saltash Road was laid with Basalt granite setts, the 'new thoroughfare' was laid in wood. The trial trip started from Pound Street and ran to Pennycomequick and then back to the terminus at the Theatre Royal. A second run was made before the car returned to Compton Depot. A new type of bogie tramcar was to be used on this service, at a cost of £645 each. They were slightly shorter than the previous cars but the wheelbase was 8 feet 6 inches instead of 6 feet to give them greater steadiness. They carried 22 passengers inside and 26 on top (or 'outside' as it was termed). The new innovation was the Raworth patent regenerative control. By this the speed of the car was controlled by a series of notches on the control lever and there were twelve grades of speed. The cars were also fitted with hand-operated slipper and emergency brakes. They also had shortened trolley masts to enable them to pass under low bridges. Colonel Druitt from the Board of Trade made his inspection on Friday August 4th 1905. He started from outside the Theatre Royal in one of the new tramcars at 10am and visited the new lines in Tavistock Road and Cobourg Street. He approved of what he saw and made no suggestions for alterations to the route. However, he recommended that an additional safeguard, an electric or mechanical shoe, should be fitted to the tramcars for use on the hill at North Road. He authorised a speed of 10 miles per hour for the section from Pound Street to the Caprera Hotel and 4mph down the hill. The maximum speed up the hill was 8mph. In Tavistock Road the speed was increased from the old 4 to 6mph. The maximum permitted speed on the remainder of the Corporation's system was 8mph so this was now the fastest stretch of track in the Town. Compulsory stops were to be enforced at the top of the hill before descending and half-way down, at the junction with Albert Road. Cars were not allowed to stop on the hill in the upward direction so passengers arriving by train had to walk down to Pennycomequick or up to Cobourg Street. On the level section there was no restriction on stopping places. The Western Morning News announced that the new service would start as soon as the Board of Trade Certificate had been received. Trams would run from the Theatre to Pennycomequick every 7 or 8 minutes for a fare of one penny, with a half-penny stage at the Market. After this inspection, Colonel Druitt visited the track outside Hyde Park School, which had been converted from single to double. He also sanctioned the abolition of the compulsory stop at Gifford Terrace before descending the hill to Hyde Park. In future it was a request stop. One will have noticed the inconvenience to rail passengers by the fact that the trams were not allowed to stop outside the Station. So did the Great Western Railway and on September 18th 1905 the Council considered a proposal from the GWR for 'a deviation of the Up tram line at the entrance to the Down platform at North Road Station.' On Thursday September 21st 1905 the new route opened for traffic, without ceremony. The first car left the Theatre Royal at 10am and cars then ran at intervals of 10 minutes until 10.30pm. Only two people were on the first car when it left the Theatre, Mr C R Everson, the general manager, and Mr W H Sleep, the joint inventor and patentee of the new clutch brake that had been fitted to the cars. Most of the day the trams were lightly loaded but at midday and early in the evening they were quite busy, especially those from Pennycomequick. Normal service started on the following day, when the first departure from the Theatre was at 7.32am. A wage increase for the tramways staff was announced at the end of November 1905. Motormen's wages were to be increased from 21 shillings to 22s a week and the maximum from 24 to 25 shillings. Conductors with over four years service were to get £1 per week. Shortly after a wage increase for inspectors was also announced, from 26 shillings to 28s a week. At the start mention was made of the extension of the Beaumont Road service along the track of the Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport Company as far as the Borough boundary at Manor Street. A long discussion took place at the Tramways Committee meeting on Monday January 9th 1906, several Councillors asking that the service be given more time to prove its worth, especially as it connected one end of the Borough at the Palace Theatre to both Prince Rock and Peverell at the other ends. The objectors lost the vote and Plymouth Corporation trams were withdrawn from Union Street on Saturday January 13th 1906. Read the salaries, wages, hours of work and holiday entitlement of the staff in 1906.......... At least one of the new demi-cars had been delivered by mid-March 1907 because after the Tramways Committee meeting on Monday March 18th, the Committee went for a trial run on one down Pennycomequick Hill. On May 22nd 1907 the Committee resolved to accelerate the service to Compton to every 6½ minutes all day; to Peverell every 9 minutes from 8am until 12.30pm and then every 6½ minutes for the remainder of the day; and to Beaumont Road by the running of an additional car from Midday onwards. On Saturday June 22nd 1907 the West Hoe electrified service started, without ceremony. The first car left West Hoe at 9.08am and ran right through to Pennycomequick. Although there was no official opening, both the chairman of the Tramways Committee, Mr R Rugg Monk, and the general manager, Mr C R Everson, travelled over the new line during the day. Four trams were used during the morning and the service was well patronised. A fifth car was put on at 12 Noon. The fare from Pennycomequick to West Hoe was 1½d; to the Theatre Royal, 1d; and also 1d from Ebrington Street to West Hoe. On the Saturday the last car left Pennycomequick at 10.53pm but it was expected that in future the last car would leave at 9.50pm during the week but supplemented with a later car on Saturdays. No mention was made in the press that the trams used on this service were of the single-deck, or demi-car, type. However, six cars, numbered 37 to 42, were purchased for that service. By this time some form of route identification was necessary. Although the tramcars carried their destinations, there were still a great number of people who could not read so it was decided that some other means of showing the route was required. The answer came with coloured discs. It is not clear exactly when these were introduced but it was either during 1905 or after the West Hoe section had been opened in June 1907. The discs were suspended over the front dash above the fleet numbers. They were allocated as follows:
During the winter of 1907 the West Hoe service was terminated at Radford Road rather than the Promenade Pier. A sign of "things to come" occurred on Wednesday March 22nd 1911 when the Tramways Committee submitted to the full Council a letter from a Mr W Hopkins of London asking 'whether the Council would be prepared to licence motor omnibuses and motor char-a-bancs as hackney carriages for public service in Plymouth and in the summer to places of interest?' The question was adjourned to the next meeting. It was reported in 1945 that the wages for tram drivers in 1914 were 25 shillings (£1 5s) per week. As related in the Local Government section, on Monday November 9th 1914 the three towns of Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport became one, the new Borough of Plymouth. At the end of that year it is recorded that the new Plymouth Council licensed 44 motor men, 66 conductors and 33 tramcars belonging to the Devonport & District Tramways Company and 21 motor men, 20 conductors and 15 tramcars belonging to the Plymouth, Stonehouse & Devonport Tramways Company. RETURN TO PCTD
1900-1904 |
