Hartlepools Steam Tramways
History
Powers to build a 4.5-mile, 3ft 6in-gauge, steam tramway in Hartlepool and West Hartlepool were granted by the Hartlepool Tramways Order, 1883, which was passed into law on 2nd August under the Tramways Orders Confirmation (No 1) Act, 1883. Two months later, on the 16th October, the promoters registered a company — the Hartlepools Steam Tramways Company — that would eventually own and operate the tramway.
Unfortunately, the HTSCo was financially hamstrung before it had even got off the ground, the promoters, who were all London-based, deploying the usual bag of tricks to lure in local investors, including lavish meals for the local luminaries, and a guaranteed dividend of 6% before a tram had even run. The latter was paid by the contractor — the Public Works and Contract Company — a concern that had several directors in common with the promoters, and which effectively ran the tramway until such time as the HSTCo could pay them a pre-agreed sum for the tramway and their services. Although the PW&CCo would certainly have been over-paid for the work it did (to the benefit of its shareholders and the promoters), it ultimately had to accept HSTCo shares in part payment, as the tramway company was significantly under-capitalised, only around 50% of the authorised capital ever being subscribed, and even less being paid up.
Before it had dawned on the promoters that there was insufficient interest from local investors, and before a tram had run in earnest, additional powers were secured (in the name of the HSTCo) to build extensions totalling 1.33 miles. These powers were conferred by the Hartlepools Tramways (Extension) Order 1884, which was approved on the 14th July under the umbrella of the Tramways Orders Confirmation (No 4) Act, 1884; the act also formally transferred the 1883 powers from the promoters to the HSTCo.
Construction had commenced the previous year, on the 22nd November 1883, the new tramway eventually opening for business — using just a single engine (initially) — on the 2nd August 1884. The line prescribed an anticlockwise arc around Hartlepools' docks, from the junction of Middlegate and Northgate in Hartlepool to the eastern end of Church Street in West Hartlepool. Although the HSTCo held powers to build a total of 5.14 miles of tramway, only the initial 2.51 miles were ever built.
The PW&CCo, which operated the tramway initially, attempted to take whatever profits it could until the HSTCo paid up (it was very vague about how much profit was actually being made), there being little left in the way of capital to realise the originally envisaged scheme, let alone the 1884 extensions. If these handicaps were not enough in and of themselves, the tramway also found itself delivering a service to an area that was in the midst of a severe and protracted trade depression, and with a railway company also competing for passengers between the two towns.
The HSTCo finally took over ownership of its tramway on the 26th March 1887, and with it a significant debt (in the form of debentures), which the PW&CCo had taken out to plug the shortfall between the construction and operating costs, and the available capital. With income barely covering expenditure, it was unsurprisingly downhill all the way now, with the company formally abandoning its powers for the lines that it had no prospect of building, no doubt simply to get its deposits back, though somehwat bizarrely, it also applied to revive powers for portions of the tramway that it had not built, and which had lapsed. These powers were granted by the Hartlepools Tramways Order, 1888, which was approved on the 24th July under the umbrella of the Tramways Orders Confirmation (No 2) Act, 1888.
Although a significant number of passengers were carried, the financial situation inevitably meant that maintenance suffered, as a consequence of which accidents increased, piling problem upon problem, and there was still the matter of the debenture interest. Things came to a head on the 12th April 1889, when the debenture holders (the Debenture Corporation) successfully applied for the appointment of a receiver, the HSTCo presumably having been unable to service the debt.
The tramway was unsuccessfully put up for sale — on the 7th July 1890 — afterwards struggling on under the direction of the receiver, its general unreliability and lack of anything approaching punctuality becoming a running joke amongst the combined populaces of the Hartlepools. The tramway service finally expired on the 21st February 1891, and though several efforts were made to revive steam services, they all failed.
By November 1891, the HSTCo had been liquidated, a path the PW&CCo would eventually follow, but not until 1894. The assets were now in the hands of the Debenture Corporation, a company that had, unsurprisingly, close links to several of the original promoters, and which had a preferential call on the assets, the ordinary investors almost certainly getting nothing.
In 1894, the assets of the former HSTCo, i.e, the tramway and its engines, passed to Stephen Sellon, who was acting on behalf of the Electric Construction Company (see link). In the same year, Sellon also reached agreement — with Hartlepool and West Hartlepool Corporations — to revive the tramway and convert it to electric traction. The new electric tramway, which was the first in the northeast England, opened on the 19th May 1896.
Uniforms
Photographs depicting staff of the HSTCo have not survived, and documentary evidence is sparse indeed, so it is currently impossible to say whether tramcar crews were issued with uniforms, though given the trials and tribulations of the company, one would have thought not.
Further reading
For more information on the company, see: 'A History of the British Steam Tram, Volume 3 by David Gladwin; Adam Gordon (2007), as well as 'The Tramways of the Hartlepools' by J D Watson, in the Tramway Review, No 144 (p256-274); Light Rail Transit Association (1990).