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One of 'Bain's Buses' on the Castle St - Rosemount route before 1870
An undated photograph of an Aberdeen District Tramways horse tram at the top of Union Street (between 1874 & 1898)
A George Washington Wilson photograph taken around 1890 showing the St Nicholas Street - Union Street junction.
Photographs taken on 26th August 1898, the first day of Corporation-owned trams: note the decorations! The upper photograph is towards the top of Union Street, the lower is in Holburn Street, probably at an intermediate terminus at Balmoral Place.
Above: the Union Street - Union Terrace junction around 1900. The Rosemount tram, pulled by two white-faced horses, is approaching.
Below: the first electric tram - from St Nicholas Street via George Street and Kittybrewster to Woodside, on 23rd December 1899. The traversing crane in the background is probably for a granite cutting yard.
The Rosemount horse tram and the Mannofield electric tram in Union Street, 1901.
Woodside tram, 1900
Contrasts: two Valentine postcards showing the Facade in Union Street around 1905 (top) and 1912 (bottom). The horse cabs become cars; the trams top-covered; and the Forsyth Hotel installs plumbing!
Another George Washington Wilson photograph, showing Holburn Junction around 1900
Boer War parade, Queens Cross, 1902.
Above: The first tram to Torry - 10th October 1903
Below: Tram no 29 at the Bayview Road terminus of the Queens Road route. Note that the destination is painted on the tram.
The opening procession for the Ferryhill and Duthie Park tram service, in 1903.
Two postcards of Union Street posted in December 1903. The upper was chromo-typed in Hessen, and posted on the 10th. The lower was posted on the 31st.
The upper postcard is postmarked 31 October 1904, and was 'printed at the works in Germany'. The lower is undated and unplaced, but judging by the double track, the crossover, and the houses must show the suburban terminus of the Woodside route of the Corporation tramway.
The upper photograph is not identified in time or place (apart from being in Aberdeen!). However it can be unambiguously located by the coping of the wall on the left and the bay windows on the right. It shows two trams in Great Western Road, just on the city side of the Mannofield terminus. The photographer must have stood in the middle of the road, at the junction of Great Western Road, Duthie Terrace, and Countesswells Road. The houses on the right on the near side of the side road have now been replaced by a supermarket.
The modern photograph below was taken in 1991 from slightly further west, to show the bays of the centre of the terrace (which has survived), and to avoid injury to the photographer!
This and the following two pages show a sequence of views along the Queens Cross route to Castle Street around 1912. The sign on the Queens Cross lamp-post is 'Cars to town stop here'; it would have been in white on a red background. 'ABDINE' was a fruit drink.
Most of the cards were printed in Germany. The photograph with the elegantly-hatted ladies was taken by G W Wilson.
Queens Cross route to Castle Street around 1912.
Queens Cross route to Castle Street around 1912.
Even after the change to electric power, the streets were still dirty!
Another innovation - female conductors! Jeanette McLeod, early 1920s.
This photograph must have been taken between 1903 & 1931, as the Torry tracks are in place. Compare it with the earlier photograph on page 4.
Castlegate, 1936: tram 79 from Hazlehead negotiates the points.
Queens Cross, 1937.
Albyn Place, some time before WW2 when the railings were removed.
An ex-Nottingham tram passes the Palace Hotel on Union Street in the 1930s.
L.N.E.R. postcard of the Palace Hotel. The photo is faked! As the real-life one above shows, the buildings to the right of the junction would obscure the view; and the sharp-edged appearance of the right half suggest it has been added to the negative by hand. Note also the outline of the pavement.
This Valentine's card shows a panoramic view of Union Bridge and Union Terrace with two enclosed cars. The railway tracks can be seen below the Bridge and the Union Terrace Gardens between them and the Terrace. This card was postally used in August 1947. Note the ominous single-deck bus on the left in Union Street.
There were many obstructions to the trams...
Pigs escaping from Kittybrewster railway goods yard in the 1950s
Traffic in George Street
Winter: here the points at Bridge of Don are being salted by the tram crew.
Single-track sections of the Woodside route.
The 'Feeing Market' at Castle Street, 1935. Young farm labourers sought a new year's contract; the army recruiting sergeants waited for those who failed to find a farm job to their liking.
Above: snow in Union Street, 1942
Right: King Street, 1953
Union Street in the great snowstorm of December 1908.
About 1950: St Nicholas Street, showing the single-line sections of the tram track. The buildings - and the street itself - are no more, having been replaced by a shopping mall. There is a policeman on point duty standing in the middle of the second passing loop!
About 1950: view up Union Street showing the continuous procession of trams and buses
The last tram to Woodside, 19th November 1955
Bridges tram and Hazlehead bus at Union Terrace on Last Tram Day.
Official Procession for the closing of the last tram route in Aberdeen leaving the Bridge of Dee, 3rd May 1958.
The Funeral Pyre - 10 May 1958
Trams older and newer. Top row from left:
Bottom row from left:
Open-balcony tram 77, built by Clark in 1913
Tram 92, built by A.C.T. in 1920/1. In use around 1950 to transport extra passengers to a show at Hazlehead.
The tram garage at Queens Cross
Brush-built 106 entering the King Street depot on 25th April 1958
Brush-built 109 at Woodside depot on 4th August 1953.
Brush-built 115 at the Bridge of Don.
Right: Aberdeen-built 116 (c. 1927) at Queens Cross depot on dustbin day. (So the route number '1' showing would mislead strangers!)
Below: ex-Nottingham tram 2 at Bridge of Don, 1936-46. Note the dent! Bridge of Don to Mannofield was not a routing known to the author. The tram is about to depart; it was theusual practice to allow the forward motion to cause the bow to jam on a wire support, or stick by friction, and so turn itself over.
14 'Pilcher' trams were bought from Manchester in 1947/8, drastically overhauled, and survived until the end. Top: at the Union Street end of King Street. Bottom: at Castle Street.
Top: Pilcher at Queens Cross.
Bottom: nearing the end.. at Kings Cross depot, April 1958.
The King Street depot (the top photo is dated 27 April 1958).
The 1940 experiment: 4-wheel bogie trams 140 & 141 (original paint scheme)
1940 bogies at Hazlehead (top) and Woodside terminus (below).
Revised paint scheme.
The 1940 experiment: bogie trams 138, 139.
The 1940 experiment.
Top left: original paint scheme.
Top right: driver's cab.
Bottom left: lower saloon and stairs.
Bottom right: top deck.
Principal dimensions and seating plan.
In use - Hazlehead via Albyn Place to Castle Street. (Top photo taken on last day of Hazlehead service, 2nd October 1956)
Bridges route - Bridge of Dee (top); Holburn Street (below; taken 26th April 1958).
Bridges route - King Street (top) and Holburn Street at Great Western Road (below). Both taken 27th April 1958.
The last Aberdeen 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. In April 1991, this was on exhibition 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 notes that one of these was still in existence 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.
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©Andy Taylor. Last updated 28 Nov 2000.