Manchester Corporation Tramways 107-187

Manchester Corporation Tramways was the second largest tram network in Britain after the combined London tram network. At it's peak the corporation operated 953 trams. The corporation took over from the horse tram Manchester Carriage & Tramways Company in 1901 when the earlier company's leases expired. The corporation began a huge programme to electrify the network, and obviously required a lot of electric trams. Following a small number of trams built for evaluation purposes, the corporation placed large orders for three types for delivery in 1901, eighty were these double decker trams built by Brush.

Manchester Corporation Tram [2]

Information
Number built:	80
Built:	1901
Builder:	Brush Traction

The trams were originally open topped though top covers were retrofitted to most of the fleet at a later stage (Manchester, due to it's weather, began adding top covers to it's trams as early as 1904! [1]). The trams were built with Peckham Cantilever trucks though these were later changed to Brill 21E trucks. All of the trams were withdrawn by 1938. One tram (173) has been preserved.

[1] Charles Knapper, The Golden Age of Tramways (David & Charles, 1974) p. 134

[2] "New power station and electric car house as Manchester, England", Street Railway Journal (September 6 1902) Vol. XX No. 10 p. 300