Aberdeen Corporation Tramways was formed in 1898 with the purchase of the horse-drawn Aberdeen District Tramways Company and began a programme of electrification. The first converted line opened in 1899 with the final line converted opening in 1903. A new line to Torry was also opened in 1905. The tramway reached it's maximum extent of just under twenty six kilometres in the 1920s. The corporation operated a mixture of purpose built and second-hand trams. The original fleet of electric trams were built by Brush though these soon proved insufficient for demand though no other trams were bought for the time being, the Corporation converted thirteen horse cars to electric though these did not prove a success and most soon became works cars [1].
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| Aberdeen Corporation tram [2] |
| Information for original fleet |
| Number built: |
56 |
| Built: |
1899 |
| Builder: |
Brush Traction |
| Motor: |
Dick Kerr DK105 or 108 or BTH 200 electric motors (DC OHLE) |
The Corporation upgraded most of it's trams with top covers from 1904-09. In the 1930s the tram fleet was converted to use Fischer bow collectors instead of trolley poles to reduce wire wear. The older cars were modernised with Dick Kerr or BTH electrical equipment and Peckham P35 trucks. New cars were finally added to the fleet in the 1920s including some built at the Corporation's own works.
The Corporation also worked in partnership with a private company, the Aberdeen Suburban Tramways Company which operated two lines which were extensions of the Corporation's lines but outside the municipal boundary. Through-running was possible though as the ASTC company went into decline the Corporation terminated it's agreement.
The Corporation experimented with pay as you enter on some routes in 1913-15, the first scheme of it's type in Britain, though these proved unpopular and the scheme was abandoned. The tramway went into decline in the 1920s though any closures were put off until 1931. The Corporation began to operate buses and slowly converted it's tram routes to the bus. The last tram operated in 1958 and the network was shut down for good.
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| On the top deck [2] |
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| Tram during pay as you enter experiments [3] |
[1] Charles Klapper, The Golden Age of Tramways (David & Charles, 1974) p. 229[2] Walter Jackson, "The zone fare in practice", Electric Railway Journal (Vol. 53 No. 17 April 26 1919) p. 814
[3] "Double deck pre-payment cars at Aberdeen", Electric Railway Journal (Vol. XLI No. 9 March 1 1913) p. 385
