The South Staffordshire and Birmingham District Steam Tramways Company which became the South Staffordshire Tramways Company operated a tramway service from their depot in
Wednesbury
Wednesbury () is a market town in Sandwell in the county of West Midlands, England. It is located near the source of the River Tame. Historically part of Staffordshire in the Hundred of Offlow, at the 2011 Census the town had a population of ...
between 1883 and 1924.
South Staffordshire and Birmingham District Steam Tramways Company
The Staffordshire Tramways Order of 1879 authorised the construction of the steam tramway which was operated by the South Staffordshire and Birmingham District Steam Tramways Company. The company depot was at Kings Hill, Wednesbury.
Routes and start dates were as follows:
*16 July 1883 New Inns Handsworth and Darlaston, via West Bromwich and Wednesbury.
*14 January 1884 Carter's Green West Bromwich to Great Bridge
*21 January 1884 Wednesbury to Dudley, via Tipton
*21 January 1884 Darlaston to Moxey
*4 December 1884 Wednesbury to Bloxwich, via Pleck and Walsall,
*4 December 1884 Darlaston to Pleck,
*4 December 1884 an extension from Walsall to Mellish Road
*12 October 1885 Great Bridge to Dudley
*21 November 1885 an extension at Bloxwich
Fleet
*1-2 Wilkinson 1883
*3-12
Beyer, Peacock and Company
Beyer, Peacock and Company was an English railway locomotive manufacturer with a factory in Openshaw, Manchester. Founded by Charles Beyer, Richard Peacock and Henry Robertson, it traded from 1854 until 1966. The company exported locomotives, ...
1883
*13-16
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. Th ...
1883
*17-21 Wilkinson 1883
*22-29
Beyer, Peacock and Company
Beyer, Peacock and Company was an English railway locomotive manufacturer with a factory in Openshaw, Manchester. Founded by Charles Beyer, Richard Peacock and Henry Robertson, it traded from 1854 until 1966. The company exported locomotives, ...
1884
*30-37
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. Th ...
1884
*38
Falcon Engine & Car Works
Brush Traction is a manufacturer and maintainer of railway locomotives in Loughborough, England. It is a subsidiary of Wabtec.
History
Hughes's Locomotive & Tramway Engine Works
Henry Hughes had been operating at the Falcon Works since t ...
1885 (second-hand from Hartlepool Steam Tramway)
In addition there were 12 passenger trailer vehicles from the
Starbuck Car and Wagon Company
G. F. Milnes & Co. Ltd was a tramcar manufacturer based in Birkenhead (1886–1902) and Hadley, Shropshire (1900–1905)
Starbuck Car and Wagon Company
George Starbuck established the first tramcar manufacturing business in Britain at 227 Clev ...
and 22 from
Falcon Engine & Car Works
Brush Traction is a manufacturer and maintainer of railway locomotives in Loughborough, England. It is a subsidiary of Wabtec.
History
Hughes's Locomotive & Tramway Engine Works
Henry Hughes had been operating at the Falcon Works since t ...
.
South Staffordshire Tramways Company
![South Staffordshire Tramways 1889](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/South_Staffordshire_Tramways_1889.jpg)
Modernisation of the services was initiated on 26 August 1889 when the company changed its name to the South Staffordshire Tramways Company. A programme of electrification followed shortly afterwards, and on 1 January 1893 the routes from Walsall to Bloxwich and Darlaston to Mellish Road via Walsall had been converted.
The
British Electric Traction
British Electric Traction Company Limited, renamed BET plc in 1985, was a large British industrial conglomerate. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was acquired by Rentokil in 1996, and the merged company is now known as Rent ...
Company purchased the electric lines on 11 June 1899 and transferred them to the South Staffordshire Tramways (Lessee) Company and leased the remaining lines from 23 June 1900.
Walsall Corporation purchased the track within their boundary on 1 January 1901 and leased them back until 31 December 1903, by which time the
Walsall Corporation Tramways were in a position to operate their own services. The Company worked joint services with
Walsall Corporation Tramways on the routes from Wednesbury, and from Darlaston, to Walsall.
West Bromwich Corporation followed suit on 31 January 1902, and later Wednesbury, Handsworth and Dudley Councils, purchasing tracks within their boundary to converting them for electric traction. They were leased them back to the Company.
Electrification progressed as follows:
*20 December 1902 Handsworth to Carter’s Green
*24 January 1903 Carter’s Green to Great Bridge
*19 February 1903 Carter’s Green to Hill Top
*10 April 1903 Hill Top to Wednesbury
*23 April 1903 Darlaston to Moxley (served by the
Wolverhampton District Electric Tramways Company).
*30 May 1903 Great Bridge to Dudley railway station
*8 October 1903 Wednesbury to the White Horse
*22 January 1907 Wednesbury and Dudley
On 9 October 1912 a through service between Colmore Row, Birmingham to Darlaston, via Handsworth, West Bromwich and Wednesbury started. On 26 May 1923 it was extended to Bilston (over the tracks of the
Wolverhampton District Electric Tramways Company).
Power generation
![Tramway Generating Station - geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Tramway_Generating_Station_-_geograph.org.uk_-_438043.jpg)
The generating-station was situated near to the
Birmingham Canal
The BCN Main Line, or Birmingham Canal Navigations Main Line is the evolving route of the Birmingham Canal between Birmingham and Wolverhampton in England.
The name ''Main Line'' was used to distinguish the main Birmingham to Wolverhampton rout ...
on the Darlaston and Walsall Road. A canal basin was formed alongside the station for the delivery of coal. The station comprised an engine-room by , a boiler-house by , an octagonal chimney-stack high, and detached oil-stores and outbuildings.
The boiler house had three Lancashire boilers working at per square inch. Each boiler was by , with internal flues in diameter, with five cross-tubes.
The engine room housed three compound horizontal engines and three dynamos. At 100 revolutions per minute, with a pressure of per square inch, each engine developed . At 450 revolutions per minutes the dynamos gave an output of 260 amps at 350 volts.
[The South Staffordshire Electric Tramway. Alfred Dickinson, Assoc. M. Inst. C.E. Institution of Civil Engineers, Minutes of the Proceedings, Part 3, Volume 117, Issue 1894, January 1894, pages 282 - 295]
Closure
The South Staffordshire Tramways Company came to an end on 1 April 1924, when the services were split between
Birmingham Corporation Tramways
Birmingham Corporation Tramways operated a network of tramways in Birmingham from 1904 until 1953. It was the largest narrow-gauge tramway network in the UK, and was built to a gauge of . It was the fourth largest tramway network in the UK behi ...
the
Wolverhampton District Electric Tramways Company, and the
Dudley, Stourbridge and District Electric Traction Company
The Dudley, Stourbridge and District Electric Tramways Company operated an electric tramway service between Dudley and Stourbridge and also other lines in the neighbourhood between 1899 and 1930.
History
On 2 April 1898 the Dudley and Stourbri ...
.
References
{{Historic UK Trams
Tram transport in England
3 ft 6 in gauge railways in England