City of Aberdeen: The Rise and Fall of the Tramcar

Route map

Key Dates

Horse buses

From the 1860s, the City of Aberdeen and its immediate suburbs was served by horse bus services including Market Street to Bieldside, the Mill Inn and Murtle, to Woodside, Bucksburn and Stoneywood, and from Queen's Cross to Old Aberdeen via Union Street and King Street. The best known of the horse bus operators was William Bain who operated for a time from the Old Waterhouse on Union Place. His buses served a number of districts including Gallowgate, Old Aberdeen, King Street, Rosemount, Skene Square, Carden Place, College Street, Marywell Street, and were known as 'Bain's Buses'. They operated without serious accident during the whole of their existence.

Horse buses also operated to 'country areas' such as Echt, Cluny and Newburgh. The routes are given in the annual Aberdeen Post Office Directory maps, and these seem to indicate that not all operators were listed in the Directory itself. There were also horse buses between country towns; for example the 'Foggie Dirder' between Aberchirder and Huntly, which carried a post box for the use of the public, passengers or not (see appendix III). As late as 1893, when horse trams were established in the town centre, the inhabitants of the growing suburb of Torry successfully petitioned for a horse bus service, passenger fares being set at one penny with creels a penny extra. The service operated from Guild Street to avoid the steep ascent of Market Street, and was much favoured on public holidays for picnics at the Bay of Nigg.

Horse tramways

In 1872, a number of influential citizens floated a company for the purpose of constructing and working tramways in the City and Suburbs. Parliamentary sanction was granted under the Aberdeen District Tramways Act, 1872, and a private company called the "Aberdeen District Tramways Company" was set up with initial capital of £18,000. By 1874, a single track tramway had been installed from the North Church, King Street to Queen's Cross depot, a distance of 1½ miles, and another from St Nicholas Street to the Astoria, Kittybrewster, also 1½ miles; both had passing places at various points. The tramways were opened for public traffic on 31st August 1874. The cars were pulled by horses: eight per tram, working in pairs in 3½ hour shifts. Four [or 5: the sources disagree] double-decked trams each drawn by two horses (carrying 20 passengers inside and another 20 passengers on top) and three [or 2] single-decked (seating 20) provided a service every 15 minutes from 8am to 10pm; half fares were charged for those travelling outside. The first year's revenue was £5535; the population of the City at that time was approximately 90,000.

In exceptional circumstances such as snowstorms it was necessary to use three horses per tram. The average cost for feeding was 11/- [55p] per horse per week and the life of the horses averaged 5 years. Drivers and Conductors worked 14½ hours per day, including one hour for breakfast and one hour for dinner. No time was allowed off for tea, but 1/- [5p] was paid instead, and the men concerned used to avail themselves of the first opportunity for taking this meal on the tram. They were allowed three nights off per week from 5 p.m., and no Sunday services were run. The wages were 22/- [£1.10] per week for first-year drivers, and 24/- [£1.20] per week thereafter. Operations were continued through the snowy winter of 1878 by mounting the trams on sledges.

Railway competition

In 1887, the Great North of Scotland Railway Company entered the commuting market by introducing on its main Aberdeen-Inverness railway line a succession of intermediate stations in the Dyce to Joint Station sector with passenger and parcel services, but no facilities for freight. An initial service of 2 up and 2 down was quickly increased to 8 and then 20 up and down per day, serving amongst other needs the workers in the Lower Donside papermills. This suburban service on Donside was relatively easy to implement as the main line was double track. A similar service quickly nick-named the "subbie service" was extended to Lower Deeside, and the track was doubled on this Deeside branch line as far as Culter by 1894. The mill at Culter and the Cults and Bieldside commuters and shoppers provided ample trade. Presumably the G.N.S.R. aimed at balancing the losses it incurred on rural branch lines with profits made on these fast and efficient suburban services; eg, there was a 20-minute service between Culter and Aberdeen.

Developments on the G.N.S.R. network were also made in 1893: the Ellon-Boddam branch-line was linked by an electric tramcar with the splendid 100-bedroom Company hotel at Cruden Bay. The hotel laundry was large enough to serve all the needs of the Company's several hotels. As the "subbies" built up their passenger traffic from the ribbon residential developments in lower Deeside and Donside, so Aberdeen's continuing growth and prosperity encouraged further extensions of the horse tramways. By 1891, the burgh boundaries had extended to absorb Old Aberdeen, Woodside, Ruthrieston, Ferryhill and Torry, the total now named the Municipal Burgh of Aberdeen. Population in these outlying areas was growing fast. Torry's population of 473 in 1861 had increased to 2933 by 1891, largely associated with the newly completed Albert Basin and re-located Fish Market.

Horse Tramways - expansion

A new line and extensions to the system were opened in 1880 from Union Place to the suburb of Mannofield, and extensions from the North Church, King Street, to King Street Cattle Market, and from Kittybrewster to Woodside. Between 1883 and 1889, the Company extended its network further, notably through the Queen's Cross circular running via Fountainhall, Beechgrove, Rosemount Place and Rosemount Viaduct to Union Terrace, while the Castle Street - Holburn Junction line along Union Street was double tracked, and an extension built from the King Street Cattle Market to Merkland Road, giving a total track mileage of 9 miles. The horse buses continued to operate in some areas as 'feeders', and indeed the Company itself briefly operated feeders on the Murtle to Mannofield and Stoneywood to Woodside routes but these apparently proved uneconomic.

Originally the routes had been laid with the old box type rails, but as traffic became heavier these were replaced by steel girder rails. At the same time, double lines were laid throughout, thus replacing the original single-track system with its passing loops every quarter mile or so. An extension to the Bridge of Don in 1892 and to the Bridge of Dee in 1894 completed the 'Bridges' route', while in 1895 the section from Loch Street to Kittybrewster was double-tracked. In 1896 Albyn Place was double-tracked, and the last of the horse tramway extensions opened from Queen's Cross to Bayview Road, reflecting the westward spread of residences along the old Skene turnpike, and making a grand total of 11 route miles of horse tramway, with an annual revenue of £26,000. Between 1871 and 1891, the population of Aberdeen had risen from 88,198 to 124,943, and by 1901 it reached 153,503.

Horse Tramways - Municipalisation

Electrification was first mooted in 1896, and the company, rather than be faced with raising new capital for the very heavy expenditure necessary for electrification and the purchase of some forty new cars, decided to sell the whole concern to the Corporation for £103,785. This represented 5,649 £10 shares of the company at £15 plus the mortgage debt of £19,050 (or alternatively about 4 years revenue). The Corporation deemed it to be in the public interest to buy, so following long negotiation, agreement was finally reached and the terms of purchase settled. An Act of Parliament was required, and on 25th August 1898 the assets and powers of working were transferred to the Town Council under the Aberdeen Corporation Tramways Act, 1898. In the 24 years of the Tramways Company, some 60 million passengers had been transported.

The Aberdeen Corporation Tramway

To celebrate their takeover the Corporation introduced a universal penny fare for two days, and decorated the trams with flags. The total stock at the take-over was 39 cars, 244 horses, 2 blacksmith's shops and several horse-buses. With the Corporation ownership of the tramway system, several changes were quickly introduced. For the first time, tram stops were marked on lamp-posts, although the vehicles still stopped on request; sheets of tickets and tokens were introduced; and from 1899 the fare differential between inside and outside was abolished. A programme of improvement and expansion was at once begun, including converting the system to electric traction. The Woodside line was first to be fitted with electric traction. It was a growth line in terms of passengers and its conversion did not affect other operating lines. The completion of double-tracking to the terminus took place at the same time. Power was provided by cable from Cotton Street Works. Service was operated by eight double deck cars of the horse-car type, each seating 52 passengers; they were built by Brush, with Westinghouse electrical equipment, and 6ft. trucks. No. 4 survived till at least 1948 as works car 4A (and as the rest were scrapped in 1912 must have been the one that led the Last Tram procession). The first electric cars were run between St. Nicholas Street and Woodside on 23rd December 1899. Almost immediately, the number of passengers doubled at a time when the cost of feeding horses was increasing.

New tramways followed. On 4th July 1901, a line was opened between Castle Street and the Bathing Station (rechristened "Sea Beach"), and by 1902 the whole system had been converted to electric traction at a cost of £156,000. Before 1902 no Sunday services had been operated, but in July they were started and proved very popular. There were unsuccessful experiments with conduit and stud contact systems for electric trams (this may have been later, around 1910?).

1902 also saw a complete reorganisation of the numbering system; hitherto, each route had kept its own cars with their own numbers, and similarly horses. Until the system was completely electrified the electric cars delivered also followed this practice. Below is a table giving the route, electrification date, and number of cars in operation. All were LRTA-type B4E (ie open top, 4 wheels, no canopies or vestibules - see Appendix I for explanation of these codes).

The above cars were renumbered 1-24, the last four being similar to the first twenty, but built by B.E.C. These last cars were however slightly narrower, and owing to difficulty in collecting fares were all scrapped very early. In the same year, 1902, eight other cars of the B4E type were delivered by B.E.C. These cars were wider than the last four, and all were eventually top-covered; 25 and 28 survived till at least 1948.

The Aberdeen Suburban Tramways Company

The success of the Corporation tramways encouraged attempts to raise private capital for tramways in lower Deeside and Donside as early as 1901, in the face of the established "subbie" rail service. By 1904 there was considerable potential traffic beyond the city boundary, but the Corporation could not itself legally lay tracks and operate tramcars outside the borough. Accordingly, in 1904 powers were granted to the then newly formed Aberdeen Suburban Tramway Company to construct two routes, which in reality were extensions of the existing Corporation tracks, from Mannofield to Bieldside (Cults) and from Woodside to Bankhead, each about 2½ miles long.

Work on both lines began at once, commencing at the Episcopal Church, Bieldside,and was completed in July the same year, although the first car ran on 23 June. A fleet of six cars, painted red with cream panelling, operated a 12-minute service between Bieldside and Mannofield and between Bankhead and Woodside. An agreement was negotiated with the Corporation for the supply of power and for through-running on certain occasions. On high-demand public holidays (Sunday services having began on Corporation lines in 1902) Corporation cars ran on the Suburban route. The Deeside line depot was on Morningside Road.

The Aberdeen Suburban Tramways Company however consistently met with financial and operating problems. Its single track running meant that for efficient operation, strict time-tabling was essential, and both track and vehicles over time became increasingly run down. Although the Company diversified into buses in 1924, major disruptions to the Deeside service appear to have been caused by the construction of the Invercannie-Aberdeen aqueduct. Operation continued until 1926, when local bus services operated by Grigg, and later by W. Alexander & Son, were taking too much of the traffic.

The Corporation attempted to purchase the undertaking to avoid loss to its tramways on the two routes serving the A.S.T.C. tracks. Unfortunately, legal difficulties prevented the Corporation from acquiring the ownership of the tracks outside the borough boundary, and with the termination of the through-running agreement in 1926, the Company ended its tramway operations. Within a year, the tracks were lifted and the cassies tarred over. On the "subbies", Sunday services commenced in 1928. Here for twelve years matters remained, but slowly the borough boundary was enlarged, and by 1938 had reached Scatterburn. The same year the Woodside route was extended to Scatterburn, and a few yards of the old A.S.T.C. tracks were thus brought into use again.

Steady development

By 1903 the original 10 miles had been increased to just over 12 miles [19.2 km] of street track, of which eight miles six chains [13 km] was double track, and the remainder single. The next few years were spent in improving the system, and changing over from open top to closed top deck cars. The power of the motors was increased in order to give a speedier service and everything possible was done to keep abreast of the times. The tram fleet was further increased to 56 by the delivery of the remainder of the B.E.C. contract. Of these, 33-42 and 51-56 were similar to 25-32, and were all later top-covered. Nos. 43-50 were also similar but had screw slipper brakes. The latter were all later top-covered as type C4A.

In 1903 the Ferryhill and Torry lines were constructed, the former via Crown Street and the Duthie Park, the latter from Guild Street to St Fittick's Road with the depot at the Victoria Bridge. Eventually the Torry line was linked up with the main network via Bridge Street, a mirror being provided on the single-track at the foot to see around the corner. Revenue between 1899 and 1904 trebled, while passenger numbers rose from 4 million to 15.5 million in the same period.

In 1903-4, thirteen 6-window horse cars, originally built in Glasgow in 1897, were converted to electric traction. However, the electrification of these cars was not successful, the 21E trucks causing frequent breakdowns. Most of these cars had a very short life, none ever being top covered. No. 60 was in existence in 1945 as No. 24, and used by the works department for some very obscure purpose, perhaps merely as an excuse for keeping it as a relic. Nos. 68-69 were scrapped as early as 1908.

Half penny fares were introduced in Union Street in 1903 to encourage short-distance use of the trams (e.g. Bridge Street to Holburn Junction), and later extended to Woodside, but it was not until 1911 that they were extended to cover all routes. Top covers were progressively fitted to avoid congestion downstairs on wet days - this required the lowering of the road surface beneath Holburn Street Railway Bridge where the Deeside line crossed over the road. A parcel delivery service (a feature of the old Aberdeen District Tramways) was restarted in 1907.

In 1908, when the Highland Show was staged on the Links, a special 40-second car service was successfully operated. By 1910, the Corporation was running 71 cars, and 19 million passengers were carried. Passenger shelters were provided at the termini of the Bridges route, as well as at Woodside, Ferryhill and Rubislaw. In 1910, four new cars of an entirely new design were delivered. These had closed tops, and were canopied on both decks with no vestibules (C4A). The cars were built by Brush with Westinghouse equipment and B4E trucks; and were not as successful as had been hoped.

Aberdeen is said to have had a post box in 1910 on one late tramcar on four routes; reduced to one route by 1923. However, no survivor from that time that the author has interviewed can recall it, nor has any confirmatory evidence been found.

In 1912/13, six new cars were delivered, of the C4A type. These were built by J. T. Clark of Aberdeen, and numbered 72-77. They were all later vestibuled and fitted with 21E trucks. Nos. 72-73 were both later equipped with P35 trucks and were in existence in 1946 as type C4D with E.E. controllers. These were the first electric cars built locally, and many more were to follow. In 1914 six more cars of the C4A type were built by Brush and numbered 78-83. These cars were a decided improvement, being powered by two 30BHP motors. Originally fitted with Westinghouse 90 controllers, all these cars were still in existence in 1946 as C4D type; Nos. 78-80 fitted with BTH controllers and P35 trucks, while 81-83 were fitted with EE controllers and Brill trucks. Seven cars were also built by the Transport Department, and numbered 57-63 to replace those scrapped earlier. All were later rebuilt as C4D with P35 trucks. (See 1946 fleet list in Appendix II.)

On 28th April, 1913, the "Pay-as-you-Enter" system of fare collection - arguably the first in Europe - was started on the Woodside route and afterwards extended to the Beach, Torry and Mannofield routes. The experiment was the subject of a good deal of controversy for about two years and finally on 15th March 1915 the Town Council, as a result of numerous deputations from different parts of the City, decided to abolish the system [because of the boarding delays caused?], Mannofield being the first route to revert. The passenger traffic doubled between 1914 and 1920.

First World War

iN 1914 The Corporation Tramways purchased the old Militia Barracks in King Street intending to erect a central depot and repair shop to replace the existing one at Dee Village Road, which was then becoming too small. However, on the outbreak of the war it was again taken over by the military authorities, so that all building schemes had to be shelved until it was vacated by them at the end of the war. The First World War interrupted deliveries of new cars, and maintenance standards became deplorable. Depot shortage was acute; many cars had no shed space at all.

The interwar period

After the war, the King Street Barracks were handed back by the military authorities and reconstruction of the premises began. In due course the workshops were transferred there and accommodation provided for a large number of trams. The question then arose of providing services to those areas of the City not served already, and owing to the high cost of materials and the capital cost of laying a permanent track the question of other forms of transport began to be seriously considered. As an experiment the department purchased a motor-bus, this being delivered on l9th July 1920. It was used to run circular tours around the town and proved a great success, and to meet this new demand two open charabancs were acquired.

In 1919, a further delivery of cars was made, all built by the Corporation itself, and numbered 66-67 & 84-86. These cars were specially designed for the Beach route, and fitted with 30BHP motors, Westinghouse controllers, and 21E trucks. None of these cars was ever top-covered. In 1920, cars 87-99 of the C4R type were completed. At first fitted with 21E trucks, these were later changed to P35. These existed in 1946 as C4D, except 93 and 95 which had been scrapped and 99 which remained C4B.

Like other cities in Great Britain, Aberdeen was rapidly expanding, with the result that parts of the city were no longer served by the existing tramways. At a council meeting in 1921 it was therefore decided to open out all new routes with buses. The first bus ran between Castle Street and Footdee on 10th January 1921. Six months later, as the bus fleet increased, the service was extended to Balnagask Road, Torry. As was so often the case, there was direct competition between trams and buses.

Hazlehead

On 30th April 1921, a bus service was started between the Rubislaw tram terminus near Bayview Road and Hazlehead to link up the City with Aberdeen's newly acquired estate there. Owing to Hazlehead's great popularity and the consequent demand for increased travelling facilities, it was decided to double the tram track between Queen's Cross and Rubislaw and extend the tram track from Rubislaw terminus as it was realised that the heavy demand, especially at weekends, could be best met by the tramcar with its large seating capacity.

As soon as the decision was made, and in spite of opposition from local bus operators, the track was extended 2 miles 56.18 chains [4.35 km) to the two termini at Woodend and Hazlehead. The last half mile of the Hazlehead section was on reserved track, and the terminus was provided with a station; sidings were built in 1948. The work was pushed on with all possible speed, and on 16th July 1924 the extension was formally declared open by Lord Provost Sir William Meff who drove the first car to Hazlehead. The bus service was discontinued.

During 1924 and 1925, cars Nos. 100-115 of the C4B type were delivered. Of these, 100-105 were built by A.C.T., and 106-115 by Brush. All these cars were still running in 1946 with P35 trucks, except 109 which still had 21E, and were all fitted with air brakes. These were the first completely enclosed cars.

A further nine completely enclosed cars, 116-124, were built by A.C.T. in 1926-27, with Brill trucks on 116-119 and 121-122 and P35s on 120, 123 and 124. It is interesting to note that No. 125 was planned to be built, but shortage of parts prevented this, and since in 1929 a further delivery of Brush cars took place it was decided to keep the parts for spares, and use the body to rebuild other cars. This latest delivery of C4B's by Brush was fitted with P35 trucks, and were numbered 126-137, with a seating capacity of 26 on the lower deck and 40 on the upper. From 1927, the electric trams were modernised: all were fitted with Peckham P35 trucks; and many with air brakes, new controllers and higher power motors. And 12 new cars fitted with high power motors and air brake equipment were bought in 1929. The Fisher bow collector was adopted in the thirties.

When Nottingham abandoned its trams in 1936, Aberdeen bought eighteen. (Nottingham nos 181-199 (except 195), built in 1926-7 by English Electric, with 70 seats, Peckham P22 trucks, 2x40hp DK30B motors and DK DB1 K3 controllers.) They were split into upper saloon, lower saloon, and truck, loaded on flat railway wagons, and sent by goods train. All had P22 trucks, except 193, 195, and 199 which had 21E. That the sale was of 18, not 19, is confirmed by 'Tramways of the East Midlands' and by the Aberdeen fleet list.

The Motor Bus

Initially the Corporation envisaged the motor bus in much the same way as the old District Company had viewed the horse-bus: as feeders and as providing extension services to areas where cost and gradient prohibited the construction of tramways. The early service by bus from Footdee to Castle Street was on a route where traffic would not have justified the costs of track construction. The G.N.S.R. had successfully operated omnibuses west of Ballater in much the same way. However the growth of Aberdeen up to World War I had been sectoral, mainly running along main roads in ribbon fashion and making the tramway service highly effective. The main residential, shopping and commercial areas all lay on or near to these corridors.

Increasingly in the interwar years, infill, extension and entirely new housing schemes (many of them council-owned) meant the potential traffic for tramways lay at increasing distances from the tracks. Areas like Ashgrove, Union Grove, Broomhill, Hilton and Torry, were further developed during this period. These were served by Corporation buses. In the financial year 1926-7, the number of tram passengers fell from 40 million to 36 million, while bus passengers doubled from 5.5 million to 10.6 million, a clear sign of a growing trend in Aberdeen's public transport system, and reflecting the need for new more flexible services not tied to the tracks. Nevertheless in terms of revenue and passengers carried, the trams remained far ahead of the buses.

More Buses

Towards the end of 1925, privately owned motor buses began to make their appearance on the streets, running in opposition to the Corporation services and by means of fare cutting and other irregular methods filching a considerable proportion of the traffic previously carried by the department. Some idea of the proportions assumed by this competition may be gained from the fact that when it was at its height, no fewer than twenty separate concerns were operating vehicles, most of them on the Bridges route. However owing to the uneconomic methods employed, the majority of them soon went out of business.

A rapid extension of Corporation bus services then took place in order to cater for the needs of the new housing estates springing up on the outskirts of the City. This in turn necessitated a big increase in the fleet of buses owned by the department, and also the provision of extra garage accommodation, which was done by purchasing premises at Canal Road capable of holding 70 buses. In the 1930s, the gap between bus and tram services began to close, both in terms of revenue and accumulated mileage. The first double-decker bus (a Crossley Eagle) with 52 seats began on the Hilton-Garden City service in 1930. By 1932, the buses had beaten the trams in terms of accumulated mileage. In 1937 bus revenue exceeded tram revenue for the first time.

The first closures

On certain routes passengers could choose between buses and trams; and they preferred buses. In 1930, the year of the greatest slump ever known, the City Council met to consider the relaying of the tram routes to Duthie Park and Torry. On the Torry route, for example, tram passengers and receipts virtually halved between the financial years 1919-20 and 1928-9. These routes had been unremunerative for many years, and the position was gradually getting worse as the new housing areas were sited away from the tram lines and required separate bus services to serve them. In view of this the Town Council did not feel justified in spending thousands of pounds in re-laying tracks with no prospect of their ever being a paying proposition, and it was decided to abandon the Torry and Ferryhill tramcar routes and to substitute buses.

The Torry service was therefore withdrawn on Saturday, 28th February, 1931, and the Ferryhill and Duthie Park service on 30th May 1931. The "subbies" also faced increasing competition in the early 1930s, and in 1936 all the intermediate stations with the exception of Cults, Bucksburn and Kittybrewster were closed. In the same year, the number of trams and buses operated by the Corporation achieved parity at just over 100 each. In 1933, the trams introduced ticket issue machines and early morning services, while the ending of the Castle Street Market in April 1935 allowed the tram turning loop system to be operated there.

Tram modernisation

In July 1940 (according to A.C.T., or 1941 according to Modern Tramway), four revolutionary new cars arrived in Aberdeen (see Appendix I for a contemporary technical description). These were ordered as an experiment to make sure that modern cars could stand up to the same strain that the old Aberdeen cars had in the previous twenty years. The first two, 138-9, were the first bogie cars in Aberdeen. Built by English Electric and fitted with EMB trucks, they were generally similar to cars of the same type operated in Llandudno and Sunderland. The second two, 140-1, were four wheel cars, of a very modern design, being the first air-smoothed 4-wheel cars in Great Britain. These cars did everything that was expected of them, and in 1945 twenty more bogie cars were ordered for delivery in 1948; the design incorporated improvements learnt during operation. These had a seating capacity of 74, a centre entrance door and required a conductor on each deck. Their choice over the 140-1 class was a surprise, as most drivers preferred the 4-wheelers.

In 1937, work was begun on a new route on reserved track from Castle Street to Sea Beach. In 1938 the Woodside tramway was extended in double track to the city boundary at Scatterburn (thus reopening some of the old Suburban track!). In 1939 there were 111 buses to 102 tramcars, but during World War Two, with the number of buses halving through wartime requisition, the trams notably increased their traffic. In 1939, around 41.3M passengers were carried on the trams, in 1946, 68.7M. The year 1941 saw the abolition of the ½d. fare. During wartime years the trams were often grossly overloaded, frequently carrying 150 passengers. However in the immediate post-war period, the buses quickly regained lost ground, and they provided the services to the new council housing estates of Northfield, Mastrick and Kincorth. The maximum fare of l½d. from Castle Street to any terminus was increased to 2d. in 1948.

The postwar period

After the Second World War, the shortage of cars became acute, as traffic had increased beyond all measure. Accordingly, as well as the new bogie trams on order, 14 "Pilcher" trams were bought at what seemed the bargain price of £210 each from Manchester in 1947/8 (R Stuart Pilcher was Aberdeen Transport Manager from 1906 till 1918). A contemporary writer who inspected the cars on arrival could not help wondering how they ever ran in Manchester. Some arrived with only one eighth of an inch flange on the wheels, with springs and axle boxes secured with wire, and all were in a generally appalling condition. Manchester passengers would not now recognise those cars, he continued, nor would their former general manager, for in the rebuilding each car was stripped down to the last nut and bolt, and reassembled with new parts to replace those which were damaged. They were fitted with new indicators, bow collectors and English Electric air brakes; the track brakes were removed.

Before the war, cars had been painted according to the route they ran on, and with the actual route name on the sides below the upper windows. Now, however, the colours on both buses and trams were uniform - a quiet olive green, with white lining. A few cars which had been repainted, however, still had the route names and colour on their sides.

Post-war closures

In 1945, Aberdeen City Council decided with only one opposing vote (that of Councillor Sutherland) that the trams were to continue as the basic form of transport in Aberdeen, and at the same time decided to abandon the Mannofield route, though to this there was more opposition. However, the Mannofield route could not be scrapped until 1951 for several reasons. First, the Corporation had ordered 92 new buses to be delivered in the next three years, but were not expected to get more than eighteen in that time, and as most of their bus fleet was badly in need of replacement the new buses would have to be used for that purpose and also for extending existing bus routes to new housing estates. Even then there would be a shortage of buses for at least ten years. Secondly, there was a tram depot at Mannofield, so even if this route had been converted, it would still have to be kept open until the extensions to Queen's Cross depot were made.

The years after the war saw further development of new housing schemes all around the City, and an increasing number of buses was required to serve them. The number of buses in the fleet almost doubled from 77 to 149 between 1945 and 1950. The early fifties saw a further increase in the number of buses needed, and a decrease in the use of trams. On 3rd March 1951, the Mannofield-Castle Street tramway (route 2) was withdrawn. It had been found that the modern double-deck streamlined cars bought in 1949 could not operate on this line because the tracks were too close together on the curves. The cost of track-lifting and of modifying the depot for buses appears to have been twice that of re-laying the tracks, but the bus and the private car were cutting into tram passenger totals. The older open balcony cars still running in 1952 were mainly used as summer extras to the beach, as were the surviving second-hand cars from Nottingham and Manchester.

On 2nd October 1954 the trams on Rosemount (routes 3, 5, 6) were withdrawn and soon after, in January 1955, the Town Council decided that the whole of the tramway system should be abandoned by October 1959, owing to the extensive track replacements which would have been necessary if trams were retained. In 1953 the Sea Beach route (4) was closed. The Woodside route (7) was converted to buses on 26th November, 1955, and through bus services provided to other parts of the town, eliminating the tramway terminus at St. Nicholas Street with its awkward traffic bottleneck. On 7th October 1956, the private track to Hazlehead (opened in January 1957) was closed and on 17th November the Woodend tram service (4) was withdrawn and replaced by buses.

The Last Tram

Owing to a rapid deterioration of the track the date of closure of the Bridges route (1) was brought forward from October 1959, and the last trams ran on Saturday 3rd May 1958. There was a formal procession of two single-truck and four bogie trams from the Bridge of Dee to the King Street depot, joined at Holborn Junction (at the top of Union Street) by a horse tram; bogie tram 36 was the last of all. All the trams were scrapped, being burned to reduce them to scrap metal; a man (not the author!) is alleged to have leapt briefly on and off the last tram to be pushed on to the final pyre, so becoming the last passenger on an Aberdeen tram. In the final year of operation, tram passengers in Aberdeen totalled 11.0 million, buses 85.8 million. The closure meant considerable re-routing of public transport services in and around the city. Extensive descriptions and photographs of the procession, and the cremation the following weekend, were published in the local newspaper and are reproduced in Appendix V below.

The vehicle which led the procession was on display in April 1991 in the Grampian Museum of Transport at Alford, near Aberdeen. It is a double-deck open-top two-horse tram, immaculately repainted and numbered "1". A notice beside it says that it had been electrified when the Corporation took over the tramways, and was converted back to a horse tram to take part in the "50 years of Tramcars" parade held in 1924. However, the local newspaper report of the closing procession stated that the horse tram was 60 years old (ie made in 1898), the time of the first electrification for which new Brush trams were bought; and the 1947 fleet list (Appendix II) notes that one of these was still in existance as works car 4A. Contemporary photos of the first electric trams show them with arched window frames, or with bars and top lights. The museum tram has plain flat-topped windows, and is almost identical to one shown in a photograph of a horse tram taken in Holburn Street on takeover day, 26/8/1898 and published in the Corporation's own booklets . The most likely explanation, in the author's opinion, is that the surviving electric works car was rebuilt to resemble a horse tram. The alternative but less likely hypothesis (though the newspaper was not renowned for factual pedantry) is that a horse tram had been retained either as a maintenance trailer or as a relic.

Conclusion

The "Third Statistical Account of Aberdeen" published in 1953 and reflecting the thinking of the early 1950s considers the bus versus tram argument. A major problem appears to have been the congestion of public transport in Union Street. At peak periods, a tram passed every minute, a bus every one and a half to three minutes. The street was traversed by six different tram routes and five different bus routes all including a part or all of Union Street in their routes (see contemporary photographs). At peak hours, tram services operated at a 3-minute frequency. There was incessant obstruction to the flow of traffic by passengers heading into the road for boarding, while the then two sets of traffic lights led to backup of traffic, notably on St Nicholas Street. Trams frequently took ten minutes to travel less than a quarter of a mile. In addition, the general absence of cross-town services, as opposed to those running through the centre, was a matter of concern, and must have favoured recourse to private transport. [Desireable though cross-town services might be, there were essentially none, and there still are none! -author's note, 1991]

The horse-trams, electric traction trams and subbies served their initial purpose in providing cheap and efficient public transport for travel to work, shopping and leisure when these destination points lay along the main late 19th-century sectoral thoroughfares, converging on the city centre and Union Street. However by the interwar years the pattern of residential development changed by infill and spread, often at considerable distance from the inflexible tracks. The cost of track laying and gradient increasingly placed the trams at a disadvantage by comparison with the buses. The early closure of the Ferryhill and Torry tramways resulted from the proven success of the bus, and the costs of tram track maintenance, irrespective of speed, frequency and fares.

By the 1950s, despite the fillip to the tramways during World War II, the private car was an increasing competitor, and the 19th-century pattern of tracks and services was causing increasing traffic congestion. The increasing necessity for cross-city routes was already apparent in the fifties, and the Council inevitably invested in the more flexible bus - the mode of conveyance initially envisaged as merely a supplement to fill gaps in the tram system.

©Andy Taylor. Last updated 28 Nov 2000.