The Isle of Thanet Electric Tramways and Lighting Company operated a tramway service between

Margate Margate is a seaside resort, seaside town on the north coast of Kent in south-east England. The town is estimated to be 1.5 miles long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay and Westbrook, Kent, ...

and

Ramsgate Ramsgate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the district of Thanet District, Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2001 it had a population of about 40,000. In 2011, according to t ...

between 1901 and 1937.

History

Services started on 4 April 1901 on a route which ran from Canterbury Road, Margate, via

Cliftonville Cliftonville is a coastal area of the town of Margate, situated to the east of the main town, in the Thanet district of Kent, South East England, United Kingdom. It also contains the area known as Palm Bay. The original Palm Bay estate was ...

, High Street

Broadstairs Broadstairs is a coastal town on the Isle of Thanet in the Thanet district of east Kent, England, about east of London. It is part of the civil parish of Broadstairs and St Peter's, which includes St Peter's, and had a population in 2011 of ...

, Dumpton Park Drive, to a terminus at

Ramsgate Town railway station Ramsgate Town railway station is a former railway station in Ramsgate, in the Thanet district of Kent, England. It was the seaside resort's first station, but was closed in 1926 when a new, more direct railway line bypassed it and the town's o ...

. The main depot for the tramway was located at (at the foot of Northdown Hill where it has a junction with Westover Road, Northdown Road and what is now Dane Valley Road). Electric power was supplied by

Thanet power station Thanet power station, also known as St. Peter's power station, supplied electricity to the towns of Broadstairs and Margate and other locations on the Isle of Thanet, Kent, England from 1901 to 1964. The station was owned and operated by the Is ...

adjacent to the tram depot. A smaller depot was located at at the terminus in Westbrook.

Fleet

The initial livery was maroon and cream. *1-40

St. Louis Car Company The St. Louis Car Company was a major United States manufacturer of railroad passenger cars, streetcars, interurbans, trolleybuses and locomotives that existed from 1887 to 1974, based in St. Louis, Missouri. History The St. Louis Car Company ...

1901. *41-50 G.F. Milnes & Co. 1901 *51-60

British Electric Car Company British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

1903

Accidents

On 27 May 1905 car 47 failed to take a bend and came off the tracks into a grocer's shop in Bellevue Road, Ramsgate, seriously injuring the driver, conductor and the grocer's 7-year-old daughter. On 3 August 1905, car 41, during a routine descent of the precipitous, and adverse camber leading down Madeira Walk hill into Ramsgate harbour, suddenly careered out of control, jumping the tracks, causing it to crash straight through the railings, so that it then dropped over the cliff edge adjacent. Providentially, only a few passengers were travelling on car 41 that day, and they came out of the ordeal unscathed, but the driver, who was new to the job, sustained some injury.

Closure

The tramway service closed on 27 March 1937 but the company continued to supply electrical power to the district for domestic and commercial consumption.

References

External links

Margate Museum Factsheet: The Isle of Thanet Tramway System 1901–1937

{{Historic UK Trams Tram transport in England Margate Ramsgate 3 ft 6 in gauge railways in England