''This article – one of several about Adelaide’s tramways – covers the three decades before the 1910s when horses provided the motive power for all trams over a network. Links to an
overview and other articles are in the following panel.''
Introduction
Many private companies operated horse trams in Adelaide from 1878 until 1907 on routes that eventually ran for more than 100 kilometres within a 16 km (10 mi) radius of the
Adelaide General Post Office
General Post Office, a colonial-era building situated on 141 King William Street on the north-west corner of King William Street and Victoria Square, is the former General Post Office for South Australia, Australia, Postal services operated fr ...
. The trams were extremely popular, since they were more comfortable than the horse-drawn
jaunting car
A jaunting car is a light two-wheeled carriage for a single horse, with a seat in front for the driver. In its most common form with seats for two or four persons placed back to back, with the foot-boards projecting over the wheels and the typical ...
s, carriages and
omnibuses that operated on the poorly formed roads of the time. The majority of people in the
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
suburban area, as it was then, were within walking distance of a horse tram route.
The companies laid tracks and ran trams wherever demand was apparent, and most remained in business for up to three decades. However, Adelaide was eventually the last capital city in Australia to be without faster, higher-capacity, cleaner electric or cable trams; the public eventually saw quaint vehicles as a blot on their city's image and clamoured for electric trams. However, in the early years of the 20th century, following a sustained large-scale drought and with increasing popularity of the "safety bicycle", few of the companies were making a profit and none could afford the capital cost involved.
In 1907 the
South Australian Government bought the companies' assets and formed the
Municipal Tramways Trust (MTT) to establish electric tram services, which were opened from 1909. Electrification generally proceeded rapidly. However, for the next eight years horse trams provided interim services, under MTT ownership, while electric transmission infrastructure and new tracks were progressively completed. Horse trams ceased running on Adelaide-centric routes in 1914 and on the isolated Port Adelaide lines in 1917, after 39 years of operation.
Investigations
Public transport was beyond the financial reach of many people in Adelaide's early days following European settlement in 1836.
However, the 1870s brought good harvests and prosperity to South Australia, and one of the consequences was a vast improvement in Adelaide transport services through the widespread introduction of horse buses, which charged fares about one-fifth those of coaches. But despite some good services, many of the operators had little regard for their customers' interests: complaints were made that the conveyances were filthy, with faded and ragged seat cushions and compartments rarely swept out.
During the early 1870s Sir
Edwin Smith and Mr
W. C. Buik, both prominent in
Kensington and Norwood Corporation
The City of Kensington and Norwood, originally the Corporate Town of Kensington and Norwood, was a local government area in South Australia from 1853 to 1997, centred on the inner eastern Adelaide suburbs of Kensington and Norwood. In November 1 ...
then
Adelaide City Council
The City of Adelaide, also known as the Corporation of the City of Adelaide and Adelaide City Council is a local government area in the metropolitan area of greater Adelaide, South Australia and is legally defined as the capital city of Sout ...
(and both later
mayors of Adelaide), spent some time inspecting European tramways. They were impressed with horse trams, since one horse hauling a tram could move three to ten times as many people compared with a
horse bus
A horse-bus or horse-drawn omnibus was a large, enclosed, and sprung horse-drawn vehicle used for passenger transport before the introduction of motor vehicles. It was mainly used in the late 19th century in both the United States and Europe ...
and the ride was far superior. On returning to Adelaide they promoted the concept. In April 1875 they issued a prospectus for a new joint stock company, the Adelaide and Suburban Tramway Company. Private commercial interests lobbied the
state government
A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonomy, or ...
for legislative support, over
Adelaide City Council
The City of Adelaide, also known as the Corporation of the City of Adelaide and Adelaide City Council is a local government area in the metropolitan area of greater Adelaide, South Australia and is legally defined as the capital city of Sout ...
's objections related to licensing and control.
![Horse tram 79, probably Kensington depot, ca 1909 (SLSA B 11037)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Horse_tram_79%2C_probably_Kensington_depot%2C_ca_1909_%28SLSA_B_11037%29.jpg)
Public expectations were favourable, reflected by an editorial comment in ''The Register'' newspaper:
Of the advantage of street tramways there can be no doubt. Whatever incredulity might at one time have existed upon the subject is now entirely removed by the great success which has attended their introduction in England and on the Continent of Europe, as well as in America. ...
There can be no question that Adelaide is greatly behind many modern cities in facilities for street conveyance, those which are provided being in many respects a long way behind the times. The experience of other cities where railways worked by horse traction have been in use for some time is universal in their favour. The unpleasant jolting which is a general characteristic of a ride in most of our city conveyances is done away with, and greater safety and convenience are ensured.
The Adelaide and Suburban Tramway Company had prudently refrained from committing itself to ordering equipment until the
Parliament of South Australia
The Parliament of South Australia is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of South Australia. It consists of the 47-seat House of Assembly ( lower house) and the 22-seat Legislative Council (upper house). General elections are ...
passed the necessary private Act
granting powers to construct and operate the line. It was 19 months before that occurred, especially since considerable opposition was raised by the Corporation of the City of Adelaide, mainly over who should have the right to control and license the cars.
The first horse tram line
Construction of the tram lines, eventually totalling 119 km (74 mi), was entirely by manual labour supplemented for some tasks by horses.
In addition to rails and sleepers, the Adelaide and Suburban Tramway Company ordered twelve new cars – eight single-decked 18-seaters and four double-decked, with 22 seats downstairs and 24 upstairs – from the
John Stephenson Company of
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.
[John Stephenson, an American coachbuilder, invented and patented the first streetcar to run on rails in the United States.] Another 12 months therefore elapsed before the
Governor of South Australia
The governor of South Australia is the representative in South Australia of the Monarch of Australia, currently King Charles III. The governor performs the same constitutional and ceremonial functions at the state level as does the governor-gene ...
ceremoniously laid the first rail on 29 October 1877.
The company began its first service from Adelaide to
Kensington Park without further ceremony on 10 June 1878.
The service became the first permanent tramway system of an Australian city.
[The word "permanent" is the operative word in the Adelaide "first tramway" claim: the first tramway to operate in Australia ran along Pitt Street in Sydney in 1861 but closed in 1866.] Ironically, in due course Adelaide would become the last Australian capital city to discard horse trams for more modern public transport
– but in 1878 horse trams everywhere were a source of wonder, reflected in
Henry James
Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...
's novel ''
The Europeans
''The Europeans: A sketch'' is a short novel by Henry James, published in 1878. It is essentially a comedy contrasting the behaviour and attitudes of two visitors from Europe with those of their relatives living in the "new" world of New England ...
'', published in that year:
From time to time a strange vehicle drew near to the place where they stood – such a vehicle as the lady at the window, in spite of a considerable acquaintance with human inventions, had never seen before: a huge, low omnibus, painted in brilliant colors, and decorated apparently with jangling bells, attached to a species of groove in the pavement, through which it was dragged, with a great deal of rumbling, bouncing and scratching, by a couple of remarkably small horses. When it reached a certain point the people, ainlywomen, carrying satchels and parcels, projected themselves upon it in a compact body – a movement suggesting the scramble for places in a life-boat at sea – and were engulfed in its large interior. Then the life-boat ... went bumping and jingling away upon its invisible wheels, with the helmsman (the man at the wheel) guiding its course incongruously from the prow.
A writer in ''The SA Register'' in September 1877 rhapsodised about the American tram cars then being assembled by Adelaide company
Duncan & Fraser
Duncan & Fraser Limited was a vehicle manufacturing company founded in 1865 in Adelaide, South Australia that built horse-drawn carriages and horse trams, and subsequently bodies for trains, electric trams and motor cars, becoming one of the larg ...
:
The object sought to be attained in all American vehicles and machines is a maximum of strength with a minimum of weight, and the manner in which this has been effected in the tramway cars is both interesting and wonderful. ... Though rather different in form to anything we have previously seen in this city the car is very elegant in appearance, and is painted and ornamented in the most chaste and tasteful manner. ... The interior of the car is elegant in the extreme. It is fitted throughout in native American woods, all of light colours and varnished. The seats which run along the sides are marvels of lightness, cleanliness, and comfort. ... The ventilation – that most important consideration in a climate such as ours – is thoroughly provided for by means of adjustable panels in the ceiling.
The Kensington service was so successful that on 9 December 1878 the Adelaide and Suburban Tramway Company was able to open its North Adelaide line, satisfying a key proviso of the Act that it was to construct 10.8 miles (17.4 km) of track from
Adelaide's city centre to the suburbs of
Kensington
Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London.
The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...
and
North Adelaide
North Adelaide is a predominantly residential precinct and suburb of the City of Adelaide in South Australia, situated north of the River Torrens and within the Adelaide Park Lands.
History
Surveyor-General Colonel William Light of the colo ...
within two years; the goal for Kensington had been reached in May 1878.
By 1907 the company owned 90 trams and 650 horses, and had its own tram factory at Kensington.
Growth of the network
The network continued to be developed solely by private companies. The routes were laid to meet market demand and when services were introduced they were extremely popular. Eleven companies built lines between 1878 and 1883.
[The companies were as follows:]
Three companies had failed before laying tracks; evidence suggests they were floated to encourage land speculation, as well as being a speculative investment themselves.
The South Australian Parliament subsequently passed legislation authorising other companies to build new lines.
Some of the Acts provided for "steam or other power" in addition to horses.
[In this period the world's first operational electric tram service opened in Berlin (1881).]
Within six years of the first line being authorised, companies were operating the following lines:
Another isolated route was opened from
Glenelg to
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
in 1883.
[Earlier (in 1879) a steam-hauled broad-gauge line had been opened from Marino, five miles to the south of Glenelg, passing through Brighton and terminating at Jetty Road, Glenelg. The line ran for most of its distance on the edge of scrubby sand hills fronting the beach. It closed after 15 months. In September 1883 two horse tram routes were built: one along the Brighton Road from Glenelg to Brighton, which lasted until February 1914, and another in the southern streets of Glenelg, which closed after 18 months. The South Australian Government did not purchase the assets of the Brighton company nor the Port Adelaide company.]
The Corporation of the City of Adelaide took responsibility for controlling the disparate services. By-laws imposed a speed limit of 8
mph (13
km/h).
By 1901 the horse tram companies had 74 miles (119 km) of tramlines, 162 cars and 1062 horses.
Infrastructure
In accordance with the horse tramway companies' enabling Acts,
all lines were built to a gauge of 4 ft ins (1435 mm
standard gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...
, except for the Port Adelaide to Albert Park line, which was built to 5 ft 3 ins (1600 mm) broad gauge to accommodate steam locomotives, all of which in the Adelaide area were to that gauge. (This line was also notable for having
embankments to avoid swampy ground and flooding.)
Most streets at the time were
unsealed, although some heavily trafficked roads were built with the
macadam
Macadam is a type of road construction, pioneered by Scottish engineer John Loudon McAdam around 1820, in which crushed stone is placed in shallow, convex layers and compacted thoroughly. A binding layer of stone dust (crushed stone from the o ...
process. Regardless, the surfaces were made soft between the rails to aid the horses' traction.
The condition of the streets – muddy in winter and dusty in summer – also militated against the introduction of street-level steam
train
In rail transport, a train (from Old French , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles that run along a railway track and Passenger train, transport people or Rail freight transport, freight. Trains are typically pul ...
s, which had started operating five years earlier: precursors to what became the
Glenelg tram line service.
Various streets needed to be widened especially for tram lines, including Brougham Place, North Adelaide by and
Prospect Road
Prospect Road is a north–south road in the inner north suburbs of Adelaide, Australia.
Route
The road commences at the intersection with Waldaree Street in the industrial suburb of Gepps Cross and heads directly south, crossing Grand Junction ...
to a total width of .
The route map in the infobox shows the horse tram network in the 1900s, when they were at their maximum extent. City-centred routes had termini at
Henley Beach
Henley Beach is a coastal suburb of Adelaide, South Australia in the City of Charles Sturt.
History
Henley Beach was named for the English town of Henley-on-Thames, the home town of Sir Charles Cooper, South Australia's first judge. Cooper ha ...
,
Hindmarsh,
Prospect
Prospect may refer to:
General
* Prospect (marketing), a marketing term describing a potential customer
* Prospect (sports), any player whose rights are owned by a professional team, but who has yet to play a game for the team
* Prospect (mining ...
,
Nailsworth,
Walkerville,
Paradise
In religion, paradise is a place of exceptional happiness and delight. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical or eschatological or both, often compared to the miseries of human civilization: in paradis ...
,
Magill
''Magill'' was an Irish politics and current affairs magazine founded by Vincent Browne and others in 1977. ''Magill'' specialised in investigative articles and colourful reportage by journalists such as Eamonn McCann (who wrote its anonymous ' ...
,
Burnside,
Glen Osmond
Glen Osmond is a suburb of Adelaide, South Australia in the City of Burnside which is in the foothills of the Adelaide Hills. It is well known for the road intersection on the western side of the suburb, where the South Eastern Freeway (National ...
,
Mitcham,
Hyde Park
Hyde Park may refer to:
Places
England
* Hyde Park, London, a Royal Park in Central London
* Hyde Park, Leeds, an inner-city area of north-west Leeds
* Hyde Park, Sheffield, district of Sheffield
* Hyde Park, in Hyde, Greater Manchester
Austra ...
and
Clarence Park.
Port Adelaide
Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...
–
Albert Park and
Glenelg–
Brighton
Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London.
Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...
were isolated lines.
Horse trams ran at an average speed of about , usually two horses pulling each tram from a pool of four to ten.
However, the largest trams were hauled by three horses, especially when going up and down hills.
Most of the companies operated
double-deck trams with an enclosed saloon at the bottom and an open top deck, although some were single-decked. Many were built by the
John Stephenson Company of New York,
Duncan & Fraser
Duncan & Fraser Limited was a vehicle manufacturing company founded in 1865 in Adelaide, South Australia that built horse-drawn carriages and horse trams, and subsequently bodies for trains, electric trams and motor cars, becoming one of the larg ...
of Adelaide, and from 1897 the largest of the companies, the Adelaide & Suburban Tramway Company, built its own at
Kensington
Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London.
The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...
.
Life on the horse trams
Horse tram drivers were to be at least 17 years old and conductors 12. The driver and conductor were not to be drunk. No smoking was permitted while on duty. When the hard roads began to trouble their feet, the tramway horses were sold to farmers, who, it was said, could only drive them by using a bell. It appears that the horses, which were trained by the companies and deployed for a few years, were well cared for; it did not pay the companies to do otherwise. Members of the public were not slow to rise in protest at the slightest hint of ill-treatment of the animals.
Horse tram crews were well known to passengers and other people along the lines. One man reminiscing about the Henley Beach line said:
Newspapers were individually delivered along the tram line, the conductor slinging them across the front fence or passing them on to the family dog trained to take delivery. Meat from a butcher Hindley Street
Hindley Street is located in the north-west quarter of the centre of Adelaide, the capital of South Australia. It runs between King William Street and West Terrace. The street was named after Charles Hindley, a British parliamentarian and soc ...
, in the Adelaide retail centre] was delivered to the back doors of homes along the tram line.
Businessmen often gave conductors their takings to bank in the city during the 20-minute layover. The linen bags, often containing £70 or £80, were thrown under the driver’s stairs. Big cheques were also taken to the city, cashed at the bank, and the change taken down on the next run.
The layover was often hectic for the conductor, taking mails to the delaideGeneral Post Office and collecting mails for delivery down the line, calling for prescriptions phoned in by doctors, and collecting cakes for delivery. The conductor made quite a bit for these deliveries. He would hop off the car before it stopped, dash up to the back door, pick up his waiting coin – threepence, sixpence or a shilling
The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence o ...
– plunk down the parcel and run back to his car.
It was not uncommon to find that a car, licensed to carry 16 passengers inside the saloon and 19 outside (i.e., 16 on the top deck and 3 on the front platform with the driver), would carry as many as 25 inside and more than 30 outside – about 60 per cent overloaded. To remonstrate with the driver about overloading was to no avail: he would take on passengers as long as he could pack them in.
Another inconvenience was the presence of dogs which were permitted in tram cars "to the great annoyance of persons inside" while the ever-present drunkard was "far more objectionable than a dog in a crowded vehicle".
[
The men who drove the cars were most "respectable and steady; their daily task assevere and protracted. "They worked from twelve to fourteen hours a day and had no special times for meals – they took them when they could. If they were off duty from sickness or any other cause, they had to "place a shilling for every trip made in their absence." They received a holiday every other Sunday and one week every year, the latter being a concession only introduced in 1881.][
Many youths from working-class families, some as young as 12, were employed as conductors. A newspaper editor remarked:]
There are few boys who see as much of life as a tram boy. Take the early morning trams for instance. The working men go by these. Wife stands at the door with a half-dressed kid in her arms, other kids scrambling up the picket fence without much clothes on, and with a great deal of dirt on their faces... Most of these men carry their dinners with them in red handkerchiefs with perhaps the neck of a bottle of cold tea sticking out of their pockets. They mostly ride on the top of the car and they mostly smoke and spit .... About 9 o'clock the Government officers and clerks and shop people begin to move ... they read the newspapers and talk politics ... well-blackened briar-root pipes or mild cigarettes are all the go with these fellows. ... Inside the same car are probably several girls going to school. A lot of books tied round with a strap, a roll of music and perhaps a little velvet bag in gaudy colours, full of nothing. As for the schoolboys they mostly like to ride in front with the driver. ...
In the chaos of overcrowded cars, passengers often complained about the behaviour of young conductors. Identifying them could be difficult, however:A sort of an attempt was made some time ago ... to put badges with numbers on their hats. However this regulation, if it be one, is observed only to a limited extent; many of the lads have no badges at all, and it is within our knowledge that the boys change badges and hats too at times – so that travelling on one car at different times of the day may ring the changes and baffle if not quite prevent positive identification.
The end
Although they were modern at the time they were introduced, the horse trams in Adelaide soon became outdated: tramway technology was advancing rapidly to provide faster, higher-capacity, cleaner public transport
Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...
. By the end of the 1880s steam tramways had opened in Sydney and cable tramways, followed by Australia's first electric tramway, in Melbourne. Adelaide stayed with horses and became the last Australian capital city to electrify.
By then, Adelaide's horse trams had come to be regarded by the public as a blot on the city's image. Slow speed and subsequent low traffic capacity made them inadequate, especially since the city's population had exceeded 160,000. The unsealed roads the horses needed became quagmires in winter and sources of dust in summer. The 10 pounds (4.5 kg) of manure each horse left behind daily was also not well regarded.
Although it became obvious that the time to convert the tramways to other forms of traction had come, none of the horse tramway companies was in a position to undertake the conversion from its own resources, especially following the sustained large-scale drought that started in 1895. [Not all of the companies made a profit. The Adelaide & Hindmarsh Tramway Company, for example, had never paid a dividend in its operating life.] This was despite the companies being said to earn about 6 per cent interest, although the severe drought had by then reduced their income.
Electrification proposals
At the close of the century, Adelaide businessmen had been giving thought to the introduction of a system of electric tramways. The first scheme to appear was promoted by F.H. Snow on behalf of two London companies. Between September 1899 and June 1900 he made arrangements with the Adelaide and Suburban, Hindmarsh, Payneham and Paradise, Mitcham, and Hyde Park companies to bring them under one management by buying them out and giving their shareholders a prior right of reinvesting their purchase money in a new electric tramway company. Meanwhile, the Corporation of the City of Adelaide, unbeknown to Snow, had passed resolutions supporting a scheme of indirect municipalisation of the tramways submitted by W.J. Bingham. When the council finally made its approval of this scheme known, considerable controversy arose. Suburban councils were particularly upset that the corporation had not consulted them. However, attempts to promote municipal ownership of the tramways were doomed to failure since the councils would have been unable to raise the capital to purchase the existing horse tramway companies.
Socialists
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the eco ...
formed a Public Tramways League to promote nationalisation
Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...
of the tramways. However, the electorate evidently considered that the state government should not own tramways, for the socialists had little success at subsequent elections. After much heated debate, the bill to authorise the Snow scheme was passed in parliament on 6 December 1901. In a referendum soon afterwards, the provisions of the Snow bill were overwhelmingly supported by local residents. However, the legislative proceedings had taken so long that the original source of capital for the scheme had been used on other projects, and financial stringency of the period put an end to any alternative support appearing. Consequently, the whole scheme collapsed.
Government takes over
Despite the outcome of the earlier referendum, public pressure for government ownership and electrification grew, and estimates of costs and income from increased patronage under electric systems were favourable. The government made several attempts to acquire the horse tramways between 1904 and 1906 but they were abortive.
Finally, the government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...
decided to negotiate to purchase seven of the eleven horse tramway companies' assets – properties, plant and equipment – but not the companies themselves. An Act was tabled in the South Australian Parliament and assented to on 22 December 1906 "to authorise the Government to purchase certain tramways, and for the creation of a Municipal Tramways Trust to construct and work tramways, and for other purposes". The hand-over of assets, including 162 trams,[The figure of 162 trams excludes an unknown quantity of Port Adelaide trams, which were included in the purchase and ran until 1914. The minor horse trams from Glenelg were not purchased.] 22 other vehicles and 1056 horses, took place on 4 February 1907 when the state treasurer presented a cheque for 280,372 pounds, 9 shillings
The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence or ...
and 3 pence
A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is th ...
(£280,372.9.3) to a representative of the companies in return for a receipt and the company title deeds. By 1909 at the launch of Adelaide's electric tram services there were 163 horse trams and 650 horses under the control of the MTT. The government funded the assets purchase by issuing treasury bills [The Glenelg, Brighton and Marino Tramway Company's assets were not purchased; the company continued operating separately until its failure in 1914. (Kingsborough 1965 pp. 43–44.)] – an amount reduced, following a Supreme Court decision, from an asking price of £410,000.
Twilight period
Until the MTT had upgraded a line for electric services (which included construction of sturdier track), horse trams (and sometimes horse buses) ran from a horse car terminus to a temporary electric terminus. The horse tram service was then retired as the electrified infrastructure
Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and priv ...
became operational. The first stages of electric services were mostly at the city end of each route.
During the horse tram era, and especially during the twilight period, on some occasions when horse trams travelling in opposite directions met on single track, the car with the fewer passengers was derailed and pulled along the road – by horses and humans – to allow the other car to pass. As new tracks were completed for the electric trams but before electric infrastructure was erected, horse cars were authorised to run on them. When it became evident that the new tracks were more substantial, a local reviewer informed readers that male passengers who were periodically asked to re-rail horse cars when they left the tracks could be sure that derailments would not occur on the new tracks.
By December 1908 about half of the 87 km (54 mi) of new track due to be laid had been completed and driver training on electric trams was due to start on North Terrace. By the end of 1911 most of the tram system had been electrified. Lines were progressively opened to Kensington, North Adelaide, Walkerville, Payneham, Maylands, Marryatville, Parkside, Unley and Hyde Park. However, it was not until 24 October 1914 – seven years after the South Australian Government's purchase of the horse tram companies' assets – that electrification of the entire Adelaide-centric network was complete and horse-drawn services ceased. On the isolated Port Adelaide lines, horses continued to haul trams until 4 April 1917, when electrification was complete. Then, all the trams and the horses that hauled them, "which the Adelaide people are now making haste to forget", disappeared into history. The arrival of electric trams was the start of a new era:How unhappy erethe days when tired animals pulled abominably crowded vehicles (antiquities of a forgotten civilisation) around corkscrew hills and up long slopes to the tune of a vigorous whipping, and the sarcastic indignation of those on board. That regime of exhausted horses and exasperated passengers seems never to have existed, so familiar have become the glories of the new system. The people have won the splendid reward of waiting....
''Links to other articles about Adelaide tramways, including those that followed the horse tram era, are accessible by clicking'' ">span style="color: #0645AD">/kbd> ''in the panel at the beginning of this article.''
Gallery
File:Horse tram and waiting wagonettes, King William Street ca 1880 (SLSA B-7871).jpg, ''About 1880'' : A late afternoon horse tram in King William Street; some of the 10 wagonettes will take passengers from it.
File:Adelaide horse tram turning from Albert Street into Welbourne Street in Mitcham (SLSA B3561).jpg, ''1885'' : In the suburbs: turning from Albert Street into Welbourne Street near the end of the Mitcham route, 7.5 km from the city centre.
File:Horse tram at intersection of King William Street and Rundle Street ca 1909.jpg, ''About 1900'' : A horse tram at the intersection of King William Street and Rundle Street (now Rundle Mall).
File:Horse tram Glenelg-Brighton-Marino Tramways ca 1905 (SLSA B 19668).jpg, ''About 1905'' : Trams of the Glenelg, Brighton & Marino Tramway ran near the coast; they did not serve central Adelaide.
File:Horse tram and electric tram, North Terrace, Adelaide, 1909 (SLSA B-4364).jpg, ''1909'' : In North Terrace, a "toast rack" electric tram passes a horse tram running a service until its line was upgraded.
File:Horse trams loading on Wakefield Street Adelaide, ca 1909 (SLSA B-4398).jpg, ''About 1909'' : Outside the Government Offices in Wakefield Street, office workers board a tram after work. The other tram awaits Victoria Park race-goers.
File:Horse tram at depot, Unley (SLSA PRG-280-1-43-312).jpg, ''About 1910'' : At the horse tram depot at Unley are 11 employees, some showing their tools of trade.
File: Horse tram of Parkside Tramway Co at Hackney depot ca 1915 (SLSA PRG-1356-1-13).jpg, ''About 1915'' : This single-deck car of the former Parkside Tramway Company, retained at the MTT's Hackney depot about 1915, was among the smallest of Adelaide's horse trams.
Notes
References
Further reading
*
*
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External links
Adelaide's Tram History
Adelaide Tramway Museum at St. Kilda
See also
* Transport in Adelaide
The metropolitan area of Adelaide, South Australia is served by a wide variety of transport. Being centrally located on the Australian mainland, it forms a hub for east–west and north–south routes. The road network includes major expressway ...
* Transport in South Australia
Transport in South Australia is provided by a mix of road, rail, sea and air transport. The capital city of Adelaide is the centre to transport in the state. With its population of 1.4 million people, it has the majority of the state's 1.7&nb ...
* Municipal Tramways Trust
* Henwood v Municipal Tramways Trust
''Henwood v Municipal Tramways Trust (SA)'', was a significant Australian court case, decided in the High Court of Australia on 30 June 1938. The case was an influential decision in the law of negligence and is an authority for the propositio ...
* List of public transport routes in Adelaide
Public transport in Adelaide, South Australia, is managed by the State Government's Department for Infrastructure & Transport, branded as Adelaide Metro. Today bus services are operated by contractors: Busways, SouthLink, Torrens Connect and T ...
* Trams in Australia
The earliest trams in Australia operated in the latter decades of the 19th century, hauled by horses or " steam tram motors" (also known as " steam dummies"). At the turn of the 20th century, propulsion almost universally turned to electrificat ...
{{TramsAustralia
Tram transport in South Australia
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
Transport in Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
History of transport in South Australia