Tramway years

The Tramway years

1875 - 1934

Information desk

History tour

Middlesbrough and Stockton Tramways Co. Ltd. (1875-1878)
Stockton and Darlington Steam Tramways Co. Ltd. (1881-1893)
Imperial Tramways Co. Ltd. (1878-1921)
Stockton and District Tramways Co. Ltd. (1893-1896)
Stockton-on-Tees Corporation Tramways (1921-1931) and Transport (1931)
Thornaby on Tees Corporation Tramways (1921-1930)
Middlesbrough Corporation Tramways (1921-1933) and Transport (1933-1934)
(The dates are of operation, not of the existence of the owning bodies)

Horse Trams

The first tramway in the district was opened by the Middlesbrough and Stockton Tramways Co. on the 20th January, 1875. The horse-drawn cars ran on standard (4ft 8.5 in. guage) lines between Middlesbrough (Albert Road) and Newport.

A second line opened on the 17th April 1876 from Albert Road to Linthorpe (Benson Street). In 1878 the Company sold out to the Imperial Tramways Co. and a short extension was built along Calvert Street to the Newport Ferry landing.

A further extension, north, from Albert Road, via Albert Bridge to Ferry Road, was opened on the 8th February 1882. The depot and stables were at Newport.

The lines closed down in 1897-1898, as work on the new electric system progressed. Only two photographs are known, single-deck no 12 at Linthorpe, and the touched-up view of a double-decker on the Newport line, under the title "Teddy Brown and his tram"

We apologise for the quality of some of these thumb-nails, the pictures are 19th Century

Steam tram with horse drawn coach

Stockton driver circa 1910

Steam Trams

The Stockton and Darlington Steam Tramways Co. operated steam trams of 4 ft. gauge in Stockton and horse trams on a 3 ft gauge in Darlington. The two were never connected, nor could they be, but the company's annual returns gave the figures, including rolling stock, for the whole as a single undertaking.

In Stockton, the main line was from Norton Green, where there was a reversing triangle, to Bridge Road, just short of the river. A branch ran via Yarm Lane and Yarm Road to St. Peters Church and a shorter one via Bishopton Lane to Stockton station. The opening date was 17th November, 1881.

The locomotives had the operating motion enclosed, as required by law. They hauled open-top four-wheel double-deck trailers, nos. 1-8. Later there was one top-covered bogie car (no.9), but it seems that it saw little use. The depot was in Bridge Road, on the site later occupied by Stockton Corporation Transport.

In 1887, soon after the earlier bridge was replaced by the much more substantial Victoria Bridge, the tramway was extended over the river from Bridge Road to the Harewood Arms, in what was then known as South Stockton. The two branch lines, however, had short lives. South Stockton was taken into the new Borough of Thornaby-on-Tees in 1892. The tramway company failed in 1893 and the undertaking passed to a new owner, the Stockton and District Tramways Co., but this too failed, in 1896, whereupon the Imperial Tramways Co. took over. The steam cars were withdrawn in 1897 to permit construction of the new electric system.

Electric Trams

The Imperial Tramways Co. constructed a unified electric system connecting Middlesbrough and Stockton. From Norton Green, this extended the former steam route beyond Thornaby to Newport, and extended the former horse route beyond Middlesbrough Town Hall to a terminus nominally at North Ormesby, but actually reaching only as far as Borough Road East. The Calvert Street spur was abandoned.

From Middlesbrough railway station, the new Linthorpe line extended beyond Benson Street, to a new terminus at Roman Road, but the line northwards to the ferry was not included in the initial electrification.

The new line was to a nominal 3ft. 6in. gauge but was actually 3ft.7in.It was opened on the 16th of July 1898 and fifty open-top 60 seat bogie cars (1-50) were soon in service. This is thought to have been the first major tramway in the world to be thus equipped. Significant future extensions might have been expected in such a rapidly expanding industrial area, but the only one actually opened was from Middlesbrough station to the ferry, on the 16th August 1901. There were ten new single-deck tramcars (51-60) for operation beneath Albert Bridge. Cars No. 50 and 37 respectively were converted to single-deck in 1912 and 1913, the latter having collided with Albert Bridge, an occurrence to be repeated all too often in the motorbus era.

Under the appropriate legislation, Middlesbrough, Stockton and Thornaby Corporations each opted to purchase its own share of the Imperial undertaking, and this took effect at midnight on Saturday 2nd April, 1921, municipal operation commencing on the following Monday morning the 4th.

Thus, after almost twenty three-years of operation as a unified undertaking, the system was split in two, Stockton and Thornaby operating through a Joint Committee, Middlesbrough took all the single deckers and nineteen of the double-deckers, intended to be numbered 100-130, although the renumbering process was never completed. They subsequently added nine new top-covered double deckers numbered 132-140. Stockton and Thornaby took twenty-nine double-deckers which ran from 1-29, renumbered where necessary.

On the 1st August 1930, Thornaby sold the whole of its tramway interest to Stockton. The joint through route between Norton and North Ormesby ceased on 31st December 1931 and the Linthorpe route on 9th June 1934, as noted in the municipal pages. The whole was not to be re-unified until the formation of the Teesside County Borough on 1st April 1968.

In their latter years, the trams gained a sorry reputation at the hands of the local press, by which they are still burdened, but their problems were to no small extent a consequence of the timing and the terms of the municipal purchase. The success of Tees-side's electric trams from their inception in 1898 should be emphasised. With frequent services they linked areas which were previously somewhat isolated from each other, and in so doing turned the notion of Tees-side into a reality.

Philip Battersby

The livery used by the early operators is a little unclear, although the nineteenth century Middlesbrough and Stockton Tramway Co. used red, but the shade is unknown.

The Stockton and Darlington Steam Tramway Company used chocolate and white.

Imperial Tramways used an eye catching livery of vermilion and white with Imperial Tramway Company fleet names on the rocker panels.