FIG. 16. CROSS LANE JUNCTION, SALFORD. THE LARGEST AND MOST COMPLICATED OVERHEAD TROLLEY CROSSING IN THE KINGDOM
By permission of Geo. Hill & Co., Manchester
without interruption. At the upper end is a small deeply grooved wheel which, by means of springs at the base of the trolley pole, is pressed against the under side of the trolley wire overhead, and in that position remains as the car proceeds. From the wire the electric current passes through the grooved wheel and down the trolley pole to the motors, of which there is one at each end of the car.
In all three systems the motor itself is suspended from the axle, which it turns; and the armature of the motor is parallel to the axle and nearest to the centre of the car. On the end of the armature is a small cogwheel which gears into the teeth of a larger wheel keyed to the axle, and this turns round the wheels of the car. A coiled spring supports the field-magnet of the motor, and when the driver turns the lever on to the top of the controller (which is a high box in front of each platform containing a series of wires connected with the motor), and switches on the current, the motor is lifted up on the first revolution of the armature, the coiled spring takes up the motion of the motor, and prevents the car starting with a jerk. The current, when done with, returns to the source of supply by the ordinary tram rails, which are specially connected at the joints for this purpose. It is maintained that for cheapness of construction, simplicity of operation, reliability in action, and flexibility in adaptation, this method is superior to all others.
There was at one time a certain objection to it on æsthetic grounds. The earlier examples, when clumsy wooden posts and festoons of wire obstructed the view and seemed to choke up the street, undoubtedly justified the protest against the “overhead”; but now that slender iron poles, ornamental rather than otherwise, and, in some cases, rosettes attached to the houses, are used for the suspension of the trolley wire, people have become reconciled to the appearance of the thoroughfares, and no longer object to the apparatus.
One more system, an ideal one, remains to be considered. It is that of the “Self-contained Car,” which carries a battery of secondary cells, whence the current for working the motors is taken as required. But, for the present, there are serious obstacles against its general application. The great weight of the accumulators leads to a disproportionate consumption of power, and involves heavy expenditure on the permanent way and in rolling-stock. The batteries must be recharged at frequent intervals, and must either be removed from the car—a troublesome process—or the car must be kept idle while the cells are revivified. Accumulators as a rule do not live long, and have to be renewed.
Thus the working expenses are so heavy that, ideal as the system is, and delightful the smooth running of the cars, it does not pay commercially to adopt it, and we must wait patiently in the hope that one day a perfect and practical secondary battery will appear on the scenes. Great improvements in lightness and durability are in the air.
Tramcars have become luxurious compared with the makeshifts that did duty in George Francis Train’s day, and each new line endeavours to make its rolling-stock superior to the others. Some cars are double-decked, i.e. have seats outside; some are single-decked, i.e. have no outside seats. They are roomy and comfortably upholstered, and the windows are curtained, or provided with louvre shutters to keep the sun out. Those of the London United Tramways are models of comfort, and people who recollect only the early examples, mostly of foreign construction, would be surprised at the advance made. They seat thirty inside and thirty-nine outside passengers, have spring cushions covered with plush moquette, and ceilings panelled in bird’s-eye maple. There are electric push-buttons for signalling the motor-man; electric light is provided, and ventilators extend the whole length of the car, ensuring an abundant supply of fresh air.
No cars, however, in Great Britain have reached the pitch of perfection attained in America by the palace and parlour tramcars; the former fitted up like a Pullman, with little tables and easy-chairs, and windows prettily curtained. Of this type, perhaps the most superb is in Buenos Ayres. Decorated in early French style, it is beautifully finished; while inside it resembles a drawing-room, with windows separated by carved pilasters and draperies of white silk and gold damask. A fine Wilton carpet covers the parquetry floor, whereon stand woven cane fauteuils with gold plush seats. At each end of the car is a buffet, and one of the platforms is provided with an ice chest, while an electric heater produces tea and coffee when required.
I cannot close this chapter introducing the subject of tramways, without reference to the “Rush for the Trams” that attracted so much attention last year. The rushes in the Blackfriars Bridge Road began shortly after five o’clock and continued until seven p.m., and were described in the daily journals as follows: “South London, thanks to the L.C.C., rejoices in an excellent tram service. There are many trams going everywhere within a reasonable distance—Streatham, Greenwich, Tooting, New Cross. Now, however hard or however fast you rush at a tram, it is not to be bullied into holding more than a certain number. If, however, you rush sufficiently fiercely and with sufficient violence, you may either knock or frighten out of the way a girl who has been waiting longer than you. Some genius discovered this and rushed; others, not to be beaten, rushed also. The result is that every evening the Blackfriars Road is the scene of a savage fight for the incoming trams, where men and women meet in unequal strife.... All notions of chivalry, of ‘ladies first,’ are thrown to the winds, apparently, on these occasions, with the result that many young girls, weak women and children, rather than share in the unequal strife, are content to walk all the way home.... Long before the trams arrive at the starting-point, they are boarded at either end, and a jovial crowd, knocking off one another’s hats, poking out one another’s eyes, swarms on to them. As an entertainment, this is not without merit; as an exhibition of the passions, it is undoubtedly interesting. But if you happen to be weak or a woman and want to get on one of these cars, it is possible you will fail to consider these things. Only a day or two ago a fatal accident occurred in the rush for the trams. Such a serious case is, no doubt, rare, but small injuries must be of frequent occurrence, torn clothes and bruises part of the daily round, the common talk of those who struggle for the trams. It is unpleasantly common to see women knocked off their feet and dragged in the road. Nor is the Blackfriars terminus the only battlefield. The Westminster Bridge Road is no whit better, and there, with a roadway somewhat narrower and a somewhat larger quantity of quick traffic, the danger is even greater.”
The remedy for this state of affairs was thus significantly pointed out:—
“When electricity is fully adopted the service will be able to deal with a larger traffic, for, although the same number of cars will be running, they will run faster, and each will carry 50 per cent. more passengers, so that the carrying capacity of the line will be much increased. Till then there is no hope of improvement. It is impossible with horse traction to run more cars, or run them faster.”
“When all is done, the help of good counsel is that which setteth business straight.”—Bacon.
ALL tramways within the boundaries of the County of London—an area of some 16½ by 12 miles—will eventually be controlled and worked by the London County Council, who, under the Tramways Act of 1870, have the power of purchasing, either compulsorily at the expiration of twenty-one years from the passing of the Act, or by agreement, any tramway undertaking within their official territory. A heavy responsibility truly; but whether for good or for evil, municipal trading has come to stay, and the principle as applied to tramways seems to be particularly appropriate in this, our great metropolis, with whose locomotive system none but a very powerful and experienced governing body can ever hope to successfully cope.
Mr. J. Allen-Baker, the vice-chairman of the L.C.C.’s Highways Committee, reporting on the subject of our congested highways, said: “Even though there should be no future increase in street traffic, I believe it to be the imperative duty of the Council to seek a remedy, and how much more when we feel assured that London will keep growing, and that within the next thirty years both a water and locomotive service will have to be provided for an estimated population (in Greater London) of probably not less than ten or twelve million people; and whatever the growth outwards may be, the best system of rapid transit for the central districts will always become more and more essential. If, therefore, we are to cope with either our present or our future requirements, and prevent our streets from becoming really impassable, it is, in my judgment, our duty to take up the subject at once, and seek from His Majesty’s Government those additional powers and amendments to existing Acts of Parliament that will enable the Council, as the central authority, to carry out these improvements in the interests of the whole metropolis.”
I doubt if anybody realises the gigantic scale of Greater London’s street traffic, so much of it being hidden away. It is estimated that in one year travellers by cabs and omnibuses number 580,000,000, and by tramways 400,000,000. By Underground, Tube, and suburban railways 890,000,000 travel; and should the metropolis increase at the rate expected by Mr. J. Allen-Baker, in thirty years’ time there will be something like 4,000,000,000, or 11,000,000 human beings per diem, moving about on wheels or on foot.
All these facts will doubtless be carefully considered, and, if possible, the problem of London’s traffic solved, by the Royal Commission—Sir David Miller Barbour, K.C.S.I., K.C.M.G., in the chair—appointed in February last to deal with the subject. (vide Chapter IX.). It is authorised to report:—
(1) As to the measures which they deem most effectual for the improvement of the same (the street traffic) by the development and interconnection of railways and tramways on or below the surface, by increasing the facilities for other forms of mechanical locomotion, by better provision for the organisation and regulation of vehicular and pedestrian traffic or otherwise; and
(2) As to the desirability of establishing some authority or tribunal to which all schemes of railway or tramway construction of a local character should be referred, and the powers which it would be advisable to confer upon such a body.
The tramway policy of the L.C.C. is so connected with the housing, or, rather, with the rehousing question, that although this book is purely on the subject of electrical traction, I cannot avoid making some reference to it.
For fifteen years, since, under the Local Government Act of 1888, the Council was constituted, it has slowly been winning the confidence of Londoners. Aggressive at first, it has relinquished the altruistic theories of youth, and it now realises the fact that it is a body of trustees acting not for one class only, but that it must administer its heritage in the interests of the community at large. Jealousy of its powers is dying out, and by comprehensive and energetic action it justifies itself as the one central privileged body able to deal with the highway, and with the housing problem of Modern Babylon.
One of its provinces, in fact its statutory obligation, is to provide new accommodation—not necessarily in the same locality—in place of all houses destroyed as unfit for human habitation. It also takes upon itself voluntarily (where no such legal obligation exists) in certain instances to provide for rehousing, and, wherever possible, this is effected in the same districts. But this cannot as a rule be done when rehousing is compulsory, and to meet the difficulty, estates have been acquired, and blocks of houses and cottages erected at Croydon, Wood Green, Brixton Hill, Holloway, Hammersmith, and other more or less suburban spots. The Model Dwellings built on the site of Millbank Prison, and inspected by the King and Queen on February 18th last, accommodate 4,500 men, women, and children. At Tooting, the L.C.C. scheme provides for 8,600 people; at Norbury, for 5,800; while at Tottenham there will be quite a new town of 40,000 artisan inhabitants.
Encouragement is given by the Council to the idea that working-men and women—since they cannot, in so many cases, live chock-a-block with their employment—should be provided with homes upon, or a little beyond, the Council’s boundaries, and be brought backwards and forwards by train, for the popular 1d. Being practical men, the Councillors know that any transference on a large scale of London factories to the country, however desirable, cannot be effected yet awhile. And even if they could acquire sites in the centres of industry, and erect gigantic lodging-houses, the cost would be prohibitive. They have to deal with the present necessity. Their ideal is probably the workshop as it exists in London, with the heads of firms at Belsize Park, Bayswater, and Dulwich, the clerks at Wandsworth, Chelsea, and Fulham, and the workmen at Tottenham, Wood Green, and Hammersmith.
On the other hand, figures quoted by Mr. Troupe, of the Home Office,[5] show to what a large extent it might be possible to relieve congestion by the removal of factories to the country. He said that there were 748 factories in London classified, in the following proportions, viz. 50 for machine-making, 30 for bread and biscuit-baking, 14 for cabinet-making, 11 for turning out fruit preserves, 16 breweries, 47 book-binding establishments, 72 printing houses (not including newspapers), and 19 saw-mills. In these 748 factories close upon 200,000 people were employed, representing with their families some 600,000 human beings, and if, following the recent example of the largest cabinet-makers in London, the bulk of these removed into the country, which they might do if suitable railway arrangements could be made, a considerable number of the 600,000 men, women, and children would be rehoused amidst “fresh woods and pastures new,” greatly to their benefit.
This is a dream at present, as factories cannot without great loss be summarily transferred from suitable urban quarters where water-frontages and locomotive facilities exist. They have grown up with, and in many cases created the district in which they are situated. Bermondsey has for years been the home of the leather trade, Lambeth of the pottery industry, and although Mr. Justice Grantham instances Doulton’s as an awful example of an uneconomical delinquent London manufactory—their clay in Dorsetshire, their coal in the Midlands, their salt in Cheshire, and their works on the banks of the Thames—it is no light matter to break with long business ties and take up with fresh ones, not so easy to leave the old love and take up with the new.
It will be granted, however, that Mr. William L. Magden was right when he maintained that “no manufacturer about to commence business at the present day would fix upon London as a suitable position. He would choose rather a district in which land was cheap, and in which he could obtain cheap power for his machinery and transport for his goods. He should not in future be limited to the colliery districts or to the main lines of railway. Light railways serving as feeders to the main lines, and the supply of electrical energy over large areas from main power stations, could provide for both these requirements, giving the manufacturer ample assurance that his works could be run cheaply, and that the raw material and manufactured products could be efficiently handled. By such means electrical science is capable of opening up thousands of square miles in England for manufacturing purposes, the native population of which has been languishing under the chronic complaint of agricultural depression.”
Whether, as regards tramways, the L.C.C. will be the central authority recommended by the Royal Commissioners, time will show; but meanwhile it has already established its tramway system, which can be seen at work in our midst. In order to understand it the more easily, it should be assumed that all the lines, including those of the London United Tramways Company, are in the hands of the Council, that they are more or less linked together, that powers for new lines have been granted, and that electrical traction in some form has been adopted throughout.
On studying a tramway map, one is struck by the fact that, starting from the central area of London, all the tram-lines meander towards the Council’s boundaries, where they will eventually no doubt join and interchange through traffic with the vast light railway or rural tramway systems of various companies in the direction of north and south, north-east, south-east, north-west, and south-west; but that “through” (or cross-country) communication from west to east, practically does not exist.
In the north-west there are huge areas of brick and mortar as destitute of tram-lines as Central Australia, so that anyone living in the Regent’s Park districts has to “train” it eastward, or, if he be bent on “tramming” it, has to go by an inconvenient and awkward route to Hackney or Bow.
Another notable feature of the map is that, although there are almost as many tramways on the south as on the north side of the river, there is no access from one to the other, the bridges being looked upon as sacred thoroughfares, along which tramcars—certainly not as unæsthetic as omnibuses, or waggons laden with vegetables—may not pass, although Westminster is the widest bridge in the world, 85 feet; Blackfriars, 80 feet; and Vauxhall and Lambeth will be equally wide, and broad enough to accommodate the trams without inconvenience.
At present the lines are painfully disunited, without starting-point or terminus. The gaps in the lines require to be filled up, and where this is impracticable, shallow underground tracks should be made use of. The great defect, however, would at once disappear if the lines could cross the Thames at Westminster and Blackfriars; but if this be persistently refused, light bridges or tubes ought to be specially provided at convenient points with four tracks for the use of tramways only.
The history of the London County Council’s work towards the improvement of metropolitan highways dates back to the early nineties, when the Council began to acquire tramway companies. A most important step was taken in 1897, when the whole of the lines and depôts belonging to the North Metropolitan and London Street Tramways Companies in the County of London were purchased, the purchase-money being £800,000. In 1899 the Council acquired the South London Tramways at a cost of £882,043, and still more recently the control of the South Eastern Metropolitan Tramways Company and the South London Company has been effected. Negotiations for other acquisitions are pending, and, as a matter of fact, there are now not a dozen miles of tramway lines within the county which the Council has not already purchased.
The North Metropolitan lines have been leased by the Council to the Company for fourteen years from 1896. The South London lines are worked directly by the Council, and in the year 1901-2 no fewer than 119,880,559 passengers were carried over the system, 53,639,489 being at halfpenny fares and 50,913,036 at penny ones. The traffic receipts for the year amounted to over £439,000, and the mileage run was over 10,000,000. About 4,500,000 workmen’s tickets were issued during the year.
Thus our metropolitan Councillors have, after due deliberation and much searching of hearts, launched a prodigious undertaking. Whether it will or will not prove too costly is another matter. Dr. Alexander B. W. Kennedy, their consulting engineer, in his report, said: “I hope, therefore, that the Committee will find themselves able to believe that the enterprise in which they are about to embark is one which will not only be for the benefit of Londoners generally, but one also which will pay its way, and on which, therefore, there would seem to be no reason for grudging such expenditure as to make the whole scheme one of a kind suitable for and worthy of the greatest city in the world.”
Not long ago the Council decided to adopt electrical traction on all their lines, involving an ultimate cost of £9,000,000 which will include the necessary generating stations, rolling-stock, purchase of smaller undertakings, and extensions. The result attained will be a splendid system, equivalent in length to two hundred miles of single track, though not larger than that of some big provincial cities. Wherever possible the system will be that of the conduit underground; more expensive than the trolley method, but in the crowded streets of London—where every inch of space is valuable—advantageous, and from a severely æsthetic point of view, preferable, because it dispenses with poles and wires. But on lines acquired by the Council where already exists the overhead principle, there will be no difficulty in arranging the cars so that they can be run from one system to the other, either with no stopping at all at the point of change, or with a delay of but a second or two. The cars, except the trucks, will be made in England by British firms, and are to be double-decked, double-bogied, and thirty-two feet long; they are to hold twenty-eight passengers inside, and forty-two on the roof, and will be in two compartments. They will resemble the Liverpool cars, described in Chapter XIII, and will be painted a chocolate colour. The speed will be a maximum of twelve miles an hour, with an average of about seven.
Supposing, therefore, that all the L.C.C. parliamentary Bills are carried through, and that all the disunited lines are properly and harmoniously linked together, and through communication established in every direction, it will be feasible to take some such day’s business journey within the Council’s boundaries as that of Benjamin Short which I am about to relate. But before doing so I think the very important decision of the Lord Chancellor in an appeal case, November 27th, 1902, on the subject of the maintenance of tramway tracks should be recorded:—
On March 4th, 1900, Mr. Fitzgerald was driving a horse and Ralli car in Grafton Street, Dublin, when the horse stumbled and fell, and the respondent was flung out of the cart and sustained serious injuries. On the ground that the surface of the paving at the place where he was driving was unsafe for horses and in a condition which was a danger and annoyance to the ordinary traffic, he brought an action against the tramway company, and was awarded £1,000 damages, the jury holding that the part of the roadway for which the company was responsible was at the time slippery and unsafe, and that this was the cause of the horse falling. They, at the same time, found that the misfortune was not caused by the fabric of the pavement being improperly constructed or maintained.
The Lord Chancellor, at the conclusion of the arguments, moved that the appeal should be dismissed. The tramway company had been permitted the use of the public highway subject to certain obligations, which practically meant that while they were to use it they must take care that the safety and convenience of the public were consulted. They were not to have a monopoly of the highway, and it was their duty to take care of the public convenience in respect to that part of the roadway over which they were permitted to exercise a kind of subordinate dominion. It was not denied that the surface of the roadway became, in certain states of the weather, a danger and a nuisance to the public, and it was a strong contention to say that, having received instructions from the road authority to do that which would have prevented the accident, there should be no liability upon them. The obligation, as he read the statute, was to keep the pavement in a fit and proper condition for public traffic. How that was to be done was a question of mechanical engineering, and neither the Legislature nor the Court was called upon to enter into the question as to how it could best be done. All the judges without exception seemed to agree that the best and most proper mode of doing it was to do what the road authority directed them to do, and that they had deliberately disobeyed.
Benjamin Short was born and brought up in London, and if any man living knew its ins and outs he did. He was a jovial-looking little man, always called Ben, for, said his father, “We christened him Benjamin for long, but as he grew so slowly, we called him Ben for short; for short he is, and short he always will be—except of cash!”
Short the elder was a small tobacconist in the days when the fragrant weed was first put up and sold in packets—a paying idea, as he soon discovered—and to effectually put it into practice, he used a fast-trotting mare and a roomy, comfortable trap.
Ben, as he grew up, was allowed to accompany his father on these journeys, and having abundant powers of observation and natural quickness, he came to know more about Greater London than most men of double his age. He was cut out for a commercial traveller’s career, and a traveller, in due course, he became, inheriting from his father a snug bit of capital.
At the time of which I am writing, Ben lived at Stamford Hill, close to the London County Council boundary, in a well-built house with a bit of land at the back, in which he had invested his inheritance. He called it “The Watchmaker’s Rest,” and it faced the tramway line. Its front garden was the envy and admiration of the neighbours. There appeared in their season the choicest bulbous flowers, lovely annuals, herbaceous plants, chrysanthemums, and asters, all of irreproachable quality, for Short, being a sober and steady man, devoted his spare time to horticulture, at which he was an adept.
Ben Short travelled for a large wholesale firm of watchmakers and jewellers in Clerkenwell, whose warehouse was not far from the junction of Goswell Road and Old Street. Thither Short went to business every day at eight o’clock from Stamford Hill, not by a Tube (“Toob” he called it), but by the tram which passed his door. He was a first-rate salesman, working on salary and commission, as active and enduring as a bee, but as no travelling expenses within the London district were allowed him, he had to get about as cheaply as possible.
Hitherto he had been in the habit of working a single section of town until it was exhausted, and then taking up another. But one July morning the head of the firm asked him if he could vary the plan and take the pick of several districts in one day as an experiment. This was done to test Short’s capacity as against that of an English-speaking German traveller, a protégé of his partner, who had already tried his best by train and ’bus to cover a large area in one day, but had blundered over the job. Ben Short, who had noticed a “foreigner” hanging about the place a good deal, drew his own conclusions therefrom, and promptly acquiesced in the proposition, and replied that he was quite willing to show how much could be done in twelve hours by one who knew his London well and how best to make use of its locomotive facilities. Ben intended to make a record!
To save time he took home with him from the sample-room his bag, an inconspicuous, well-worn old companion. It was easily carried, as the contents, though valuable, were light. Next morning at 7.30 to the minute he was at breakfast, clean as a new pin, thoroughly well groomed, a man of peace, but if you had put your hand into the side pocket of his coat you would have found a smooth ivory handle, suspiciously like that of a neat six-shooter—in case of accidents! At eight o’clock he was in a comfortable electric tram bound on his first stage to far-off Hammersmith.
The route was viâ Stamford Hill, High Street, Stoke Newington Road, and Kingsland Road, and, branching off at Hackney Road, by way of Old Street and Clerkenwell Road, to the western end of Theobald’s Road. Thence, a long stretch by way of Hart Street, Bloomsbury, along part of New Oxford Street, into Oxford Street, past the Marble Arch, along the Uxbridge Road, past Notting Hill Gate, and down the beautifully paved, broad incline towards Shepherd’s Bush, then to the left through Brook Green, and so to the Broadway, Hammersmith—one of the most interesting rides in London, and but recently added to the London County Council system, after tremendous agitation and opposition on the part of the “Tube” and others, but absolutely necessary to complete the linking of other and disjointed sections.
Here, at Hammersmith, Ben Short transacted some very satisfactory business in King Street. It was early; his “clients” had just finished their breakfasts, their shops had been but a few minutes opened, and they had leisure to attend to his persuasive arguments. He was a favourite wherever he went, and as he carried exactly the kind of goods to attract, he quickly booked orders and was free to proceed.
On board once more, at good speed Ben was rolled along Fulham Road, leaving on the right the big convent jealously guarded by high walls, which made Ben fall to wondering how any sane young woman could voluntarily cut herself off from a world about which she probably knew practically nothing. On went the tram, past the big buildings of the Fulham Workhouse, past the entrance to Fulham Palace and the Bishop’s Park, along the widened High Street of Fulham, over Putney Bridge, and by way of Putney Bridge Road and West Hill, Wandsworth (a new route), to Lower Tooting—altogether a pleasant trip at that time of the year, for gardens, at which he critically and eagerly gazed, greeted Ben in every direction.
Wasting no time, Short called upon all the most likely customers, and again he was in luck, for whether they wanted watches and jewellery or not, orders were booked.
Now the energetic little man had to get to the “Elephant and Castle.” Along the Balham Hill Road, with its pleasant shops and lively pedestrians, was plain sailing enough, past umbrageous Clapham Common on the left, edged with sedate and comfortable mansions recalling the old days when prosperous Evangelicism dwelt exclusively in Clapham; then by way of Clapham Road and Kennington Park Road to the far-famed “Elephant and Castle.” Here a less sharp-witted man than Short might well be bewildered by the wonderful concentration of tram lines converging from Walworth Road, New Kent Road, Newington Causeway, London Road, St. George’s Road, and the road he had come by. Here, if anywhere, as at the Mansion House, well-arranged passenger subways are needed.
Our “commercial” did much business round about, for it was one of his best districts for cheap goods, and then he thought it was time to refresh the inner man. In a neighbouring cool, clean little crib—“a close borough of his own,” he called it—he rested, and made intimate acquaintance with a noble piece of silver-side, some crisp lettuces, and any amount of piccalilli—he was a lover of cold meat and pickles—but, in accordance with a rule he never broke in business hours, he restricted himself to coffee as a beverage.
Short, braced up by his luncheon, was now ready to set out for the wilds of Plumstead—a somewhat long journey. He started by train from the “Elephant and Castle” viâ the New and the Old Kent Roads, New Cross Road, Greenwich Road, Trafalgar Road, Greenwich and Woolwich Lower Roads to Woolwich, and by the Plumstead Road to Plumstead itself. He worked the two districts together, but his luck had deserted him, and orders were fewer and farther between than he altogether liked; but he was not going to “chuck the thing up” yet. He would do a bit of the East End, and thus complete the circuit of London.
He took the same route back from Plumstead as far as Blackwall Lane, then viâ the Blackwall Tunnel to East India Dock Road, Burdett Road, and Mile End Road to its junction with Cambridge Road. In this neighbourhood he did his only extensive bit of walking. The district, though poor, was large, and he did a fair amount of business, but as time was getting on he decided to return home; so by Cambridge Road, along Cambridge Heath, Mare Street, Lower and Upper Clapton Roads, he got back to Stamford Hill, and was put down almost at his own house.
He had travelled by electric tramway some fifty miles at a cost of about 2s. 1d. (or a halfpenny a mile). He had done a lot of business, and had been absent just twelve hours!
In the bosom of his family he found ample compensation for his exertions. A hearty welcome and a savoury supper, accompanied by something that was not coffee, awaited him, and the following day the firm received him with acclamation. The Teuton was not “in it,” and Ben Short reigned supreme as its chief and highly appreciated traveller.
Want of space forbids more than the mere mention of the South Metropolitan and the London Southern, the Woolwich and South Eastern, the West Ham, and the Northern Middlesex Tramways. But this chapter would be incomplete without some reference to the useful and popular organisation, the London United Tramways Company, that takes up the running at the London County Council’s boundary.
Forty million passengers were conveyed last year over its original route of twenty-two miles, extending from Shepherds Bush and Hammersmith to Southall, Hounslow, and Twickenham. In one week alone over a million were carried.
Last April an important extension was inaugurated from Twickenham, which brought the trams through Teddington and Hampton Wick right to the gates of
FIG. 17. BOILER-ROOM, LONDON UNITED TRAMWAYS CO.’S POWER HOUSE AT CHISWICK, FITTED WITH VICARS’ AUTOMATIC STOKERS
By permission of T. and T. Vicars, Earlstown, Lancashire
Hampton Court Palace, and from Richmond Bridge to Hampton Court. In the near future these extensions will be connected with new lines running to Uxbridge, Thames Ditton, Surbiton, Hook, Kingston, New Malden, Wimbledon, and Tooting; while eventually these western and southern tracks will, by the system of tubes, rejuvenated underground railways, and the L.C.C.’s electric tramways, be joined to those of northern and eastern London. In three years’ time, when its extensions are completed, the London United will have 100 miles of tram lines in operation.
The gauge is the standard 4 feet 8½ inches. Throughout the route the overhead trolley system has been adopted. At Chiswick is the power house, and the mains convey the electricity to sub-stations, six miles apart, where rotary converters change the alternating into direct current, and transform down the high voltage of 5,000 into the Board of Trade limit of 500. In the fine boiler-room T. and T. Vicars’ automatic stokers are used, and very interesting it is to watch the machines continually pushing small charges of coal into the furnaces without any direct human agency.
Mounted on two four-wheeled bogie trucks, with two 25 horse-power motors, the handsome cars seat thirty-nine passengers outside and thirty inside. On the Sunday after the opening of the extension no fewer than 200,000 people journeyed from Hammersmith, Shepherd’s Bush, and Richmond, to Kew, Twickenham, Teddington, and Hampton Court; and on Whit Monday, 1903, the number reached 400,000, thus establishing a record. So great was the rush during some part of those days that a two minutes’ service of cars had to be provided.
The extension from Twickenham to Hampton Court was opened by Mr. C. T. Yerkes, the Chairman, and author of the happy alliance of train, tube, and tram, which may possibly enable many toilers in the East End to live in the country. At the least, it will give them the chance, when possessed of a little leisure and a few pence, to quickly exchange their sordid environment for one of the numerous sylvan spots which surround London, especially in the west.
FIG. 18. A LONDON UNITED TRAMWAYS COMPANY TRAM-CAR
By permission of the London United Tramways Co., Ltd.
Alluding to this, Mr. C. T. Yerkes, at the inauguration, significantly remarked that it was a strange fact that London was particularly behind in transportation, being the most backward of all cities. Though during the last twenty years in London, 900 miles of streets had been made, and 340,000 houses had been built, it was only within the past few years that intramural transportation had been even spoken of. The London United Tramway Company, he said, expected to join very intimately with the Metropolitan District, forming a continuous line to Hampton Court from the City; and they anticipated connecting with the Great Northern, Brompton, and Piccadilly Circus Railway. People would be carried very cheaply, and when the District was electrified the mileage rates would be abolished in favour of uniform fares, which were far the best. Poor people who were living in an unenviable condition should have the chance of getting into the country.
On the much-debated question of American capital and American enterprise in Great Britain,[6] Mr. Speyer spoke no less to the point. He said that those who undertook to provide the metropolis with an up-to-date system of locomotion should be encouraged, for they performed a task that should have been done twenty years ago. English capital had had every opportunity of investment in underground lines, and if only half of the five millions had been subscribed in this country it was not the fault of the promoters. They would have preferred that the Underground Company should have English shareholders only, but unfortunately they had had to allot half of the shares of the Company to Americans and foreigners. One would have thought, he said, that there would have been more keenness in London to build its own underground railways, which would so materially add to the well-being of the masses. If either of the proposed lines were situated in South Africa, Australia, or Klondyke, London investors would have been tumbling over each other to subscribe. But the fault of these lines was that they were at our own doors. It was a fact, incredible though it might seem, that the richest city in the world did not appear able or willing to provide the funds for what was really a public necessity—quicker transit. So let them hear nothing more of American invasion, if people here stood with folded arms and allowed others to do the work which they ought to have done themselves; for while they persisted in this non possumus attitude, no one could blame the Company if they went elsewhere.
“They shall measure to their cities round about.”—Deuteronomy xxi. 2.
IN the year 1896 an Act of Parliament was passed which, it is no exaggeration to say, revolutionised tramway locomotion, and was destined to produce consequences undreamt of by the promoters of the measure.
Under the Tramways Act of 1870, Municipal Corporations had been exercising their powers of buying up existing tramways, working them in the interests of the ratepayers, and of generally entering into the business of providing a cheap and efficient means of traversing the area within their boundaries. They used the new Light Railways Act of 1896 occasionally, but only for the promotion (by two or more combined local authorities) of certain lines running through several districts.
Prior to 1870, tramways, like railways and canals, had to be promoted by special Bills, and the Tramways Act of that year was intended to facilitate their construction, and to cheapen and simplify the method of obtaining parliamentary powers, either by Bill or by the alternative of an application to the Board of Trade for a Provisional Order authorising the construction of the tramway, the said Order being subsequently confirmed by an Act of Parliament introduced by the Board.
The Act of 1870 provided that no tram line should be sanctioned without the consent of the district local authority, and that the local authority might buy up the undertaking at the end of twenty-one years at its then value—practically only the worth of the rolling-stock and plant, without any allowance for the goodwill of a going concern.
In either case (that of a private Bill in Parliament or a Board of Trade Provisional Order), if a tramway was planned to run through two or more districts, the consent of the local authorities having jurisdiction over two-thirds of the length of the line was sufficient. But this condition gave the local authorities owning just over a third of the route, power to veto the whole scheme.
Under the same Act, land, otherwise than by mutual agreement, could not be acquired by tramway promoters.
Up to 1896, electric tramway schemes had remained in abeyance, but though the Light Railways Act removed many obstacles to their increase, and made electric traction commercially possible, it did not bestow perfect liberty of action. But the fresh legislation on the subject, anticipated during this year’s session of Parliament, will doubtless result in such amendment of the Act as will abolish all ground of complaint on the part of the advocates of the industry.
At the time the 1896 measure became law, hardly any Tramway Company in Great Britain, whether horse-drawn or steam-propelled, paid its way, except in a few large centres. The companies knew that the time was drawing near when they could be bought out by corporations; so they had no inducement to make expensive reforms; and only by charging high fares, and by avoiding every possible form of capital-expenditure, could they keep their heads above water. Their undertakings, one and all, sank into a state of inefficiency, and a strong public feeling arose in favour of their being reformed, and worked with improved cars and at popular tariffs by local authorities. So, one by one, these bodies absorbed the private companies, placed new rolling-stock on the lines, and adopted electrical traction, to the advantage of the public, and in one notable instance—that of Glasgow—it is claimed, at great pecuniary benefit to the ratepayers also.
Throughout the British Isles these municipal tramway undertakings now flourish and increase in number. Take a map, and we shall see that the coast line from the North Foreland to Plymouth is dotted with towns provided with electric trams, while inland, Camborne, a Cornish tin-mining centre, marks their western English limit. Then round Land’s End along the Bristol Channel it is the same. South and North Wales show a blank until Llandudno is reached. Then up-to-date towns provided with electric traction thicken on the Lancashire coast as far as Fleetwood. In the Isle of Man there are no fewer than four electric tramways. Except at Glasgow and district, the west of Scotland is bare of any kind of tram, and continues so round the North Cape and the East Coast until we come to Aberdeen, Dundee, and Kirkcaldy. Next are clusters reaching from North Shields to Middlesbrough. After this, electric trams are to be found at Hull, Great Grimsby, and Yarmouth.
Inland are three great centres—Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham—around which “electrified” towns gather thickly. Isolated Guernsey and the Isle of Wight each possess an electric tram, the latter being on Ryde pier.
In Ireland there is a wide stretch of country, empty and desolate from an electric tramway point of view, i.e. from the Giant’s Causeway to Cork, except at Newry, Dundalk, Lurgan, and Dublin. By far the greater number of these British and Irish tramways are on the overhead trolley system.
The 1896 Act provided for the establishment of a Light Railways Commission of three members, whose special work was to facilitate the construction and working of tramways or light railways in Great Britain and Ireland, the Commissioners being appointed by the Board of Trade.
Application for a Light Railway Order may be made for a county, borough, or district council by any individual, corporation, or company, or jointly by councils, individuals, corporations, or companies. Applications have to be referred to the Commissioners in the first instance, and, if approved of, are placed before the Board of Trade for confirmation. Provision is made by the Act for the purchase of land under certain conditions specified in the Lands Clauses Act. Provision is also made for enabling local authorities to acquire any undertaking whose route passes through their district, the time and terms of purchase being arranged by agreement between the promoters and the municipalities, the terms of sale, usually thirty-five years’ purchase, being settled on the basis of a fair market value of the line in full work, but with no allowance for compulsory acquisition.
Local authorities, landowners, and adjacent railway companies have the right to object to proposed lines. The local authorities, however, possess no power of veto, but generally the Commissioners refuse applications from promoters if their schemes are strongly protested against by the municipalities concerned.
To what extent this Act has been taken advantage of may be judged by the fact that last year no fewer than forty-seven municipalities were stated to have disbursed, or to have decided to disburse, eleven millions sterling in their electric tramways. In several instances the municipality owns the tramways and leases them on certain conditions to large companies or syndicates, a kind of compromise between absolute urban control and unrestricted private enterprise.
How it works in the provinces can be understood by taking as examples four of the largest cities in Great Britain, viz., Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham.
Glasgow, with a population of some seven hundred thousand, possesses the most successful and lucrative system of municipal tramways in the world, the working for the year ending May, 1902, on a capital expenditure of nearly two millions, showing a gross revenue of £614,413, with a gross balance of £200,371; and so large was the reserve fund in consequence, that it was applied to the writing off of all expenditure on the old horse-traction plant and equipment, so that the capital account included only the expenditure relating to the new (electrical) system of locomotion. In the language of the bookmakers, the city of Glasgow’s tramways stood, financially, on velvet. In 1894 the Corporation began the service of tramways (heretofore leased by it to a private company) with everything new—buildings, horses, and cars—their policy being a very frequent service at low fares. Not satisfied with horses, they soon began to search about for some better method of traction, and in 1899 resolved to substitute electricity on the overhead trolley system, and accordingly the change was effected; new lines were from time to time constructed, until at the present moment Glasgow possesses, including leased lines, 140 miles of single track and nearly six hundred double and single-deck cars.
Unlike the somewhat haphazard fashion of London, the Glasgow tramway lines have been planned in a skilful manner and on a definite system, to give means of transit from the north and south and east and west of the city. It is divided into five separate and independent areas, each supplied with current from its own sub-station, but these areas can be interconnected if necessary.
On a convenient side of the Clyde, with ample facilities for obtaining coal and water, is the main generating station, built with a steel framing clothed with Glasgow plastic clay, two great chimney-shafts, 263 feet high, towering above it. In this fine building is contained a mighty specimen of what is called the three-phase distribution of electrical energy, the system being to create the power at one centre and distribute it over a wide area; that is, electricity is produced in the form of three-phase alternating current at a pressure of 6,500 volts, and sent on to five outlying sub-stations, where it is transformed to a potential of 310 volts, and then converted from alternating into continuous current at 500 volts, for working the cars. The total capacity of the main station is:—