PORTSMOUTH TRAMS
When the Portsmouth Corporation took over the running of the tramways in Portsmouth, it not only planned to extend the system but also to convert it from horse power to electic power.
Electrification of the system took place in September of 1901 at which time an additional 3.5 miles had been added to the tramways.
In 1909 the Corporation further extended the traway system, the rails used in this extension were of a heavier type than the original construction and the joints were welded using the
Thermit process, the first application of which was the welding of tram tracks in Essen, in 1899. This process is now widely used for track welding by the railway industry world wide.
The gauge of the track was 4ft 7.75 inches and the length of tramways in operation in 1927 was 15.75 miles.
The generation station for the tramway was located at Fratton and this supplied the entire power for the Corporation tramway. The generation plant consisted of 4 Babcock & Wilcox
boilers with super-heaters, 3 horizontal compound condensing engines, 1 vertical compound condensing engine and 1 vertical triple expansion engine.
The car shed and workshops were located at North End. The shed was 232ft long and 197ft wide and able to house 100 cars.
The following statistics are for the Portsmouth Corporation tramway in 1911;
- 100 cars
- 477 employees
- 22,960,176 passengers carried
- 2,155,530 miles run
- £104,507 revenue
- £50,002 expenses
- £15,528 profit
- £696,365 capital
Trams last ran in Portsmouth in 1936 when Portsmouth Corporation Tramways closed, the Gosport and Fareham Tramways, in neighboring boroughs, having closed at the end of 1929.
Very little evidence of the tram system is visible today, but some tracks can still be seen in the preserved cobbled street of Rugby Road just south of Fratton railway station and in Broad Street, Old Portsmouth.
