Potteries Electric Traction Company

Last updated

Potteries Electric Traction Company
Potteries Electric Traction Company.jpg
Map of the routes of the Potteries Electric Traction Company
Operation
Locale The Potteries, North Staffordshire
Open16 May 1899
Close11 July 1928 [1]
StatusClosed
Infrastructure
Track gauge 4 ft (1,219 mm)
Propulsion system(s)Electric
Depot(s)see main body for info.
Statistics
Route length 32 miles (51 km)
Potteries Electric Traction map
Goldenhill - Longton and Silverdale
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Goldenhill Woodstock Street
Goldenhill Tram Depot
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Tunstall High Street
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Brownhills Road
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Scotia Road
Davensport Street
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Smallthorne
Middleport
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Burslem Town Centre
Longport Railway Stn
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Porthill(Watlands View)
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Maybank Tram Depot
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Waterloo Rd(Cobridge)
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Waterloo Road Stn
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Chell Street
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to Newcastle
& Stoke(via Shelton)
to Hanley(via Cliffe Vale)
& Stoke(via Hartshill
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Hanley(see better map below)
Newcastle Ironmarket
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High St
Newcastle
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to Chesterton
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Silverdale
Church St
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Leek Road
Lichfield St/Victoria Road
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Victoria Place
Fenton
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Silverdale High St
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to Stoke Town Centre
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Fenton Tram Depot
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Longton
The Strand
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Longton
Commerce St
Longton
Queen Park Road
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Meir
Station
Potteries Electric Traction map
Chesterton to Trent Vale / Hanford
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Chesterton (Sandford St)
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Chesterton
Loomer Road
to Silverdale
 
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Newcastle
High Street Terminus
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Newcastle
Ironmarket
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to Middleport
to Tunstall/Goldenhill
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Hartshill
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Cliffe Vale
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Etruria Railway Station
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Hanley Town Centre
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to Hanley
via Stoke Road
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Stoke Town Centre
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to Stoke
Glebe Street
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to Longton
Trent Vale
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The Potteries Electric Traction Company operated a tramway service in The Potteries between 1899 and 1928. [2]

Contents

History

British Electric Traction incorporated a new company on 27 June 1898, called the Potteries Electric Traction Company. Its purpose was to extend the existing tramway through the towns of the Potteries. In payment of £152,410 to British Electric Traction the Potteries Electric Traction Company acquired four separate companies: [3]

The contract for construction of 28 miles of permanent way was awarded to Dick, Kerr & Co. and the overhead work was awarded to R. W Blackwell and Company.

The coal-fired power station was constructed by Brush Electrical Engineering Company at the depot at Woodhouse Street, Stoke and opened in 1899. It contained four Lancashire boilers with three Mackintosh & Seymour 330 h.p. compound engines driving three 200 kW dynamos. Later an additional engine drove a fourth dynamo.

In 1902 a second station was opened at Lunt Street, between May Bank and Wolstanton. [4] It housed four Lancashire boilers, four engines coupled to two 200 kW and two 440 kW dynamos, with a 20 kW emergency set.

The 4 ft (1,219 mm) was laid with 30 feet (9.1 m) lengths weighing 87 lbs per yard paved with stone setts. The steepest gradient was 1 in 8½, and the tightest curve had a radius of 26 feet (7.9 m). [4]

The Board of Trade inspected the newly re-constructed routes on 18 April 1899. The first section from Hanley via Cobridge, Burslem and Tunstall to Goldenhill was opened with due ceremony on 15 May 1899, [5] with regular services commencing on the following day. The remainder of the line from Hanley through Stoke to Longton opened shortly afterwards followed quickly by the Longton to Dresden and Meir. [6]

The steam trams were disposed of with Blackburn Corporation obtaining seven, The Bradford Tramways and Omnibus Company taking four, and the Bradford and Shelf Tramway Company taking one. The tramway trailers were sold for garden sheds.

The construction of the extensions was also underway at this time. On 13 September 1899 the Board of Trade inspected the line from Burslem to Smallthorne, and Burslem to Longport and these were approved for service. Services started as soon as new rolling stock became available. Services to Newcastle were inaugurated on 17 March 1900. [7]

In January 1901 the tram lines from Newcastle to Chesterton and from Newcastle to Silverdale were opened. [8]

By 1902, the company had a fleet of 105 trams and carried 14,438,048 passengers.

Further extensions were completed as follows which brought the total route length to 31 miles 58 chains (51.1 km).: [9]

Fleet

Accidents

Trams were relatively safe, although there were accidents.

On 18 February 1924 at 7.30pm car number 122 was approaching Stoke from Newcastle with around 14 passengers when it suffered a failure of the braking system and lost control descending Hartshill bank. When it passed Shelton Old Road it left the lines on a curve and crashed into the wall adjoining some houses. It came to rest in front of St Andrew's Church. It was reported that it was beyond the driver's control for around 300 yards before it left the lines and reached speeds of up to 40 mph. [12]

On 7 March 1924 an accident occurred at 8.45pm at the level-crossing in Waterloo Road, Cobridge, known as the Granvile crossing. A tramcar stopped as the gates were closed, but then crept forwards and collided with a passing goods train. The tram driver, John Steventon of Tunstall, died of his injuries shortly afterwards and the crossing keeper was badly injured. [13]

Depot

As with all tram systems, the PET Company had a number of tram depots located at the end of each line. PET had depots located at Chesterton, Fenton, [14] Goldenhill, [15] Stoke, Maybank.

Closure

The system closed in 1928 with the last tram running on 11 July 1928, and in May 1933 the company was renamed Potteries Motor Traction.

The Red Lion Hotel, National Tramway Museum The Red Lion Hotel, Crich Tramway Museum - geograph.org.uk - 1731456.jpg
The Red Lion Hotel, National Tramway Museum

The Red Lion public house which for years stood outside the tramway depot in Stoke-on-Trent, is now relocated to the National Tramway Museum.

Possible reintroduction

It has been proposed as part of the Transforming Cities Fund that Stoke-on-Trent could get a tramway once again for the first time in 90 years. [16] [17]

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Staffordshire Railway</span> Former British railway company

The North Staffordshire Railway (NSR) was a British railway company formed in 1845 to promote a number of lines in the Staffordshire Potteries and surrounding areas in Staffordshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Shropshire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hanley</span> Human settlement in England

Hanley is one of the six towns that, along with Burslem, Longton, Fenton, Tunstall and Stoke-upon-Trent, amalgamated to form the City of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burslem</span> Human settlement in England

Burslem is one of the six towns that along with Hanley, Tunstall, Fenton, Longton and Stoke-upon-Trent form part of the city of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, England. It is often referred to as the "mother town" of Stoke on Trent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trentham Estate</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Longton, Staffordshire</span> Human settlement in England

Longton is one of the six towns which amalgamated to form the county borough of Stoke-on-Trent in 1910, along with Hanley, Tunstall, Fenton, Burslem and Stoke-upon-Trent. It is in the ceremonial county of Staffordshire, England.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Potteries Loop Line</span> United Kingdom legislation

The Potteries Loop Line was a railway line that connected Stoke-on-Trent to Mow Cop and Scholar Green via Hanley, Burslem, Tunstall and Kidsgrove. It ran between Staffordshire and Cheshire in England. It served three of the six towns of Stoke on Trent. It was opened in many short sections due to the cost of railway construction during the 1870s. The line throughout was sanctioned but the North Staffordshire Railway felt that the line would be unimportant enough to abandon part way through its construction. This upset residents of the towns through which the line was planned to pass and they eventually petitioned Parliament to force the completion of the route.

Stoke-upon-Trent was a parliamentary borough in Staffordshire, which elected two Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons from 1832 until 1885, and then one member from 1885 until 1918, when the borough was enlarged, renamed Stoke-on-Trent, and split into three single-member constituencies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goldenhill</span> Human settlement in England

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The federation of Stoke-on-Trent was the 1910 amalgamation of the six Staffordshire Potteries towns of Burslem, Tunstall, Stoke-upon-Trent, Hanley, Fenton and Longton into the single county borough of Stoke-on-Trent. The federation was one of the largest mergers of local authorities, involving the greatest number of previously separate urban authorities, to take place in England between the nineteenth century and the 1960s. The 1910 federation was the culmination of a process of urban growth and municipal change that started in the early 19th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cobridge</span> Human settlement in England

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Predominantly centred on Hanley and Burslem, in what became the federation of Stoke-on-Trent, the 1842 Pottery Riots took place in the midst of the 1842 General Strike, and both are credited with helping to forge trade unionism and direct action as a powerful tool in British industrial relations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coventry Corporation Tramways</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Florence Farmer</span> Pioneer of women in politics in Stoke on Trent

Florence Ann Farmer was a pioneer of women in politics in Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, England who was the first female councillor on the county borough council before becoming the first female Lord Mayor of the city in 1931–32.

The Staffordshire Potteries Street Railway operated a horse-drawn tramway service between Hanley and Burslem from 1862 to 1880.

The North Staffordshire Tramways operated a steam tramway service from 1881 to 1898 in the Staffordshire Potteries area.

References

  1. Dibdin 1960, pp. 87.
  2. Klapper, Charles Frederick. The Golden Age of Tramways. Taylor and Francis.
  3. Dibdin 1959, pp. 60.
  4. 1 2 Dibdin 1959, pp. 61.
  5. "Electric Tramways in the Potteries. Inaugural Ceremony" . Newcastle Guardian and Silverdale, Chesterton and Audley Chornicle. England. 20 May 1899. Retrieved 13 December 2022 via British Newspaper Archive.
  6. Dibdin 1960, pp. 67.
  7. "Tramways to Newcastle" . Staffordshire Sentinel. England. 19 March 1900. Retrieved 13 December 2022 via British Newspaper Archive.
  8. "The Tram Lines" . Staffordshire Advertiser. England. 12 January 1901. Retrieved 13 December 2022 via British Newspaper Archive.
  9. Dibdin 1960, pp. 71.
  10. "The Hartshill Trams" . Staffordshire Sentinel. England. 23 February 1904. Retrieved 13 December 2022 via British Newspaper Archive.
  11. "New Tramway Section at Longton" . Staffordshire Sentinel. England. 25 November 1905. Retrieved 13 December 2022 via British Newspaper Archive.
  12. "Runaway Tramcar at Stoke" . Staffordshire Sentinel. England. 19 February 1924. Retrieved 13 December 2022 via British Newspaper Archive.
  13. "Tram Smash at Cobridge" . Staffordshire Sentinel. England. 8 March 1924. Retrieved 13 December 2022 via British Newspaper Archive.
  14. http://www.stokemuseums.org.uk/collections/browse_collections/Local_History_Collections/pmt_collection/pmt_garages/001546.html?tab=image [ permanent dead link ]
  15. http://www.stokemuseums.org.uk/collections/browse_collections/Local_History_Collections/pmt_collection/pmt_garages/001548.html?tab=image [ permanent dead link ]
  16. "Trams could be returning to Stoke-on-Trent". Archived from the original on 6 October 2018.
  17. Corrigan, Phil (3 October 2018). "Next stop Stoke-on-Trent! Plans for trams to return to city for first time in 90 years as part of multi-million pound 'transport revolution'".

Sources

Works cited