Tynemouth and District Electric Traction Company

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Tynemouth and District Electric Traction Company
Tynemouth and District Electric Traction Company.jpg
Map of the route of the Tynemouth and District Electric Traction Company
Operation
Locale North ShieldsTynemouthWhitley Bay
Open1 March 1901
Close4 August 1931
StatusClosed
Infrastructure
Track gauge 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm)
Propulsion system(s)Electric
Statistics
Route length 4.23 miles (6.81 km)

The Tynemouth and District Electric Traction Company operated a tramway service in North Shields, Tynemouth and Whitley Bay between 1901 and 1931. [1]

North Shields town in North Tyneside, Tyne and Wear in North East England

North Shields is a town on the north bank of the River Tyne in North East England, eight miles (13 km) north-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. Historically part of Northumberland, its name derives from Middle English schele meaning "temporary sheds or huts used by fishermen".

Tynemouth town and a historic borough in Tyne & Wear, England

Tynemouth is a town and a historic borough in Tyne and Wear, England at the mouth of the River Tyne, being 8.1 miles (13.0 km) east-northeast of Newcastle upon Tyne. Historically part of Northumberland, the modern town of Tynemouth includes North Shields and Cullercoats and had a 2011 population of 67,519. It is administered as part of the borough of North Tyneside, but until 1974 was an independent county borough, including North Shields, in its own right. It had a population of 17,056 in 2001. The population of the Tynemouth ward of North Tyneside was at the 2011 Census 10,472.

Whitley Bay seaside town on the north east coast of England

Whitley Bay is a seaside town on the north east coast of England. Historically in Northumberland, it is administered as part of the borough of North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear. It has absorbed the village of Monkseaton.

Contents

History

The company was formed in 1899. It was the successor to the horse tramway started in 1883 by the Tynemouth and District Tramways Limited. This became the North Shields and District Tramways Company Limited in 1884, the North Shields and Tynemouth District Tramways Limited in 1890, and British Electric Traction Company in 1897.

The Tynemouth and District Tramways operated a 3 ft narrow gauge tramway service between North Shields and Tynemouth between 1883 and 1900.

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 Rentokil Initial.

The horse tramway was closed in 1900 for electrification. The reconstruction of the line cost £58,000 (equivalent to £6,184,981 in 2018) [2] and eleven tramcars were purchased at a cost of £700 (equivalent to £74,646 in 2018) [2] each. One and a half miles of additional track was laid giving three and three-quarter route miles. [3]

The official inspection of the newly electrified line took place on 13 February 1901 [4] when two double cars and a pilot car was run to convey the Board of Trade Inspector, the Mayor of Tynemouth (Mr. Jacob Dalglish), the Borough Surveyor (Mr. Smillie), with several alderman and councillors.

Electric services started on 1 March 1901. The new electric line ran from the New Quay, North Shields to terminate at the Victoria Hotel, Whitley. In 1904 the line was extended from Whitley Front Street to the bandstand on the Links. [5]

Near New Quay there was a connection to the Tyneside Tramways and Tramroads Company.

Tyneside Tramways and Tramroads Company

Tyneside Tramways and Tramroads Company operated an electric tramway service in Gosforth, Wallsend and North Shields between 1902 and 1930.

Electric power was supplied by the new Tynemouth Corporation Power Station at Tanners Bank.

Fleet

Closure

The system closed on 4 August 1931.

Related Research Articles

Tyneside Electrics

The Tyneside Electrics were the suburban railways on Tyneside that the North Eastern Railway and the London and North Eastern Railway electrified using the third rail system. The North Tyneside loop was electrified from 1904 onwards and formed one of the earliest suburban electric networks; the South Tyneside line to South Shields via Pelaw was electrified in March 1938. British Railways converted these lines to diesel operation in the 1960s: the line to South Shields in January 1963 and the North Tyneside lines in June 1967 when the electrical supply infrastructure and the rolling stock had become life expired. In addition, the system was losing passengers and suffering from costly vandalism. Since the late 1970s, much of the system has been converted to form the Tyne and Wear Metro.

The North Tyneside Loop refers to the railway lines in North Tyneside from Newcastle upon Tyne via Wallsend, North Shields, Whitley Bay, Backworth, Benton and South Gosforth back to Newcastle. Since the 1980s, it has formed part of the Tyne and Wear Metro, albeit in modified form.

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Worcester Tramways Company and its predecessors operated a horse-drawn tramway service in Worcester between 1881 and 1902.

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Gateshead and District Tramways Company

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The tramways in Plymouth were originally constructed as four independent networks operated by three different companies to serve the adjacent towns of Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport in Devon, England. The merger of the 'Three Towns' into the new borough of Plymouth in 1914 was the catalyst for the three companies to join up under the auspices of the new Plymouth Corporation. The network was closed in 1945, partly as a result of bomb damage during World War II.

The Provincial Tramways Company was a holding company for horse tramway companies in various regional towns of England. It was floated in July 1872 by means of a prospectus inviting public subscription for shares in the new company. The published prospectus lists the towns where it was proposed to operate horse tramways as Plymouth. Cardiff, Dundee. Portsmouth. Southampton and Tynemouth. Initially those in Plymouth and Cardiff were constructed and in operation as reported to the half yearly meeting of the company in 1873.

The Middleton Electric Traction Company Ltd. operated an electric tramway service in Middleton, England between 1902 and 1925. It was a subsidiary company of the British Electric Traction group,.

References

  1. The Golden Age of Tramways. Published by Taylor and Francis.
  2. 1 2 UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
  3. "Tynemouth's New Tramways. Description of the System" . Shields Daily Gazette. England. 25 January 1901. Retrieved 9 February 2016 via British Newspaper Archive.
  4. "The Tynemouth Trams. Official Inspection Today" . Shields Daily Gazette. England. 13 February 1901. Retrieved 9 February 2016 via British Newspaper Archive.
  5. Great British tramway networks, Wingate H. Bett, John C. Gillham, Wingate H. Bett. 1944