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I will add other UK cable tramways to this page as time and information permit. I always welcome suggestions.
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Douglas, Isle of Man - Upper Douglas Cable Tramway
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| Douglas cable tram 72/73 running on its battery-powered trucks on 20-Aug-1998. Photo courtesy of Geoff Cryer. Visit Geoff's Rail Pages for more excellent pictures. July (Summer), 2001 Picture of the Quarter (copyright G A Cryer, 1998). |
line: Upper Douglas
opened: 15-Aug-1896. From the promenade Clock Tower around the back of Douglas by a U-shaped route and back down to the promenade at Broadway
powerhouse: York Road?
grip: single jaw side
gauge: 3'0"
cars: double ended, double bogied (trucked). One closed saloon, the others with cross benches.
turntables: cross overs?
crossings: N/A
notes:The Isle of Man, in the Irish Sea, is the Lost World of railways. A visitor can ride on a horse car line that has operated since 1876. At Derby Castle, the rider can transfer to an electric car built in 1893. The Isle of Man Railway hauls its trains with tank engines built between 1873 and 1926.
One piece of transportation history that no longer lives in its original form on the island is the Upper Douglas Cable Tramway.
Douglas Corporation wanted better transit service for the hilly Upper Douglas area. They persuaded the Isle of Man Tramways & Electric Power Company, which operated the horse tramway, to build a cable railway in return for an extended franchise.
The line followed a hilly, U-shaped route through Upper Douglas, connecting with the promenade at each end.
Douglas Corporation acquired the horse tramway and the cable railway in 1902 after Dumbell's bank failed.
The cable tramway was abandoned on 19-Aug-1929.
Cars 72 and 73, the only surviving rolling stock, had been turned into a bungalow. They had been built by G F Milnes in 1896. In 1976, the best pieces were joined to form a new car, 72/73. In 1996, the car was put on battery powered trucks. Persistent stories have it that the horses are scared of the car, as they often were of cable cars.
On 21-Jan-2000, sewer excavations on the promenade near Victoria Street exposed the terminal sheave pit. One sheave was destroyed, but the other may be preserved. See the Manx Electric Railway Society site for an illustrated story.
Visit the Isle of Man Tramways site.
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| A 1988 stamp depicting Douglas cable tram 72/73. August, 2004 Picture of the Month. |
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Glasgow - District Subway Company
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| Geoff Cryer photographed these recently retired cars from the Glasgow Subway at the Beamish Museum in County Durham in July, 1977. October 2001 Picture of the Month (copyright G A Cryer, 1977). |
line: Inner/Outer Circles
opened: 14-Dec-1896. Circular route under the city, crossing the Clyde twice. 15 stations.
powerhouse: Scotland Street
grip: single jaw side
gauge: 4'0"
cars: single ended, single and double bogied (trucked) closed-bodied rapid transit grip cars and trailers.
turntables: N/A
crossings: N/A
notes: While "underground" is the term usually used in the British Isles for what an American would call a "subway", the pioneering cable-hauled line in Glasgow was officially the Glasgow District Subway. Only London and Budapest had underground transit lines before Glasgow.
The Glasgow District Subway built two tunnels on a circular 6.5 mile route around the city. The conservative directors chose cable to operate the system because they felt that electric propulsion was not sufficiently developed. This was the only Hallidie-type cable-driven subway in the world. London's Tower Bridge Subway and Istanbul's Tunel were both funiculars.
The subway opened on 14-Dec-1896, but an accident caused service to halt until 21-Jan-1897.
The system had many interesting features. There were no track connections between the Inner and Outer Circles. There was no rail connection with the shops; a crane lifted cars out of the tunnels for servicing. Cars generally spent the night in the tunnels. The platforms were only long enough to handle two-car trains. The cable used was 1.5" in diameter, which was unusually thick for the industry. The cable ran at 12.5 miles per hour. There was no need for a conduit, so the cable ran above the rails.
In 1923, the Glasgow Corporation (city) took over the system. They tested third-rail electrification in 1933. In March, 1935, they electrified the Inner Circle. On 30-Nov-1935, the last cable-driven train ran on the Outer Circle. Both lines used converted cable stock.
The narrow gauge and short platforms made for many capacity problems.
In 1936, the official name changed from "Subway" to "Underground", but Glaswegians still call it "subway". In 1940, the line was damaged by German bombs and closed for four months.
The converted cable equipment continued to run until 1977. The system shut down until 16-Apr-1980. It reopened with new rolling stock, a rail connection from the tunnels to the new maintenance shops, crossovers between the circles, new track, power supply, and signals, and platforms long enough to handle three-car trains. The circular route and the orange color of the new cars inspired "clever" journalists to try to give the system the nickname "Clockwork Orange". The name was roundly ignored. (Thanks to Charles Billette for the information).
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Liverpool - Liverpool United Tramways
line: Kirkdale
opened: 25-Sep-1883. Kirkdale car sheds.
powerhouse: Kirkdale car sheds.
grip: probably single-jaw side
gauge: 4'8 1/2"
cars: (?)
turntables: (?)
crossings: N/A
notes: Thanks to Andrew D Young and Ron Smith for providing most of this information.
In 1883, Liverpool United Tramways, a horse tramway operator, considered using cable traction on a line on London Road and Prescot Street from William Brown Street to Kensington.
At the urging of the American Cable Railway Trust's representatives, including William E Eppelsheimer, Liverpool United arranged a trial at their car sheds at Kirkdale. The trial took place in the yards at 3:30 pm on 25-Sep-1883.
There are few recorded details about the trial: No one knows how the cable was powered. The grip was probably attached to a horse car, but no one knows which one. No one knows if the installation ran again after 25-Sep-1883.
We do know that Liverpool United Tramways chose not to use cable traction, but this experiment may have led to the construction of the Highgate Hill Cable Tramway in London.
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London - Highgate Hill Cable Tramway
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| A model of a Highgate Hill train at the London Transport Museum, Covent Garden, London. Note the double decked trailer. Photo by Stuart Jenkins. December, 1999 Picture of the Month. |
line: Highgate Hill
opened: 29-May-1884. Highgate Hill from the Archway Tavern to Southwood Lane, to a point along Southwood Lane. Most of the line was double tracked, but about 1000 feet of line in the High Street were single-tracked.
powerhouse: "...situated at the top of the hill on the east side of the High-street and
have a substantial frontage, composed principally of red and white brickwork relieved by
plinths, pillars, etc, of worked stone...The outside dimensions of the premises are about
130 ft long by 30 ft wide...The narrow and irregular character of the site would not permit
of the premises being built at right angles to the road, and hence they are unsuitable for
traffic purposes. Indeed, there can be no doubt that the site of the building is very
unsuitable..."
J Bucknall Smith, A Treatise Upon Cable or Rope Traction
grip: Single-jaw side grip.
gauge: 3'6"
cars: dummy & trailer trains. At least some trailers were double-decked.
turntables: cross overs
crossings: none
notes: The Highgate Hill Cable Tramway was the first cable tramway in Europe. It was meant to demonstrate the Hallidie system.
W W Hanscom, a San Franciscan, was originally engaged to design the line. He gave up and was replaced by William E. Eppelsheimer, who had designed the pioneering Clay Street Hill Railroad and created the grip currently used by San Francisco cable cars. The actual construction of the line was done by J Bucknall Smith, who went on to write the most important contemporary work about cable tramways, A Treatise Upon Cable or Rope Traction. I have quoted him extensively in this section.
The street was not suitable for cable technology because of excessive curvature. "The permanent way does not in all cases occupy the centre of the road; this variation was made in order to ease the curves, which are all more or less objectionable to the cable system." -- J Bucknall Smith.
The company was not a financial success. Service stopped after an accident in December 1892. The line opened again in 1897, and operated until August 1909.
Highgate Hill was the place where Dick Whittington decided to turn back and stay in London. The line ran near the famous Highgate Hill Cemetery, burial place of Karl Marx, Charles Dickens' family (but not Dickens himself) and other famous people.
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| Another view of the model Highgate Hill train at the London Transport Museum. Photo by Stuart Jenkins. |
Thanks to Stuart Jenkins for providing photographs of and information about Highgate Hill.
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London - The Tower Subway
London's Tower Subway ran under the Thames from Tower Hill to Pickleherring Street (great name) on the south bank. The tube through which it ran was built by engineer Peter William Barlow and his assistant, James Henry Greathead. Greathead developed the Greathead Shield, an iron cylinder about 8 feet in diameter with a square door at the front to allow the miners access to the clay work face. The miners used hand tools to dig away the clay in front of the shield, and then hydraulic rams pushed the shield forward. Then iron tunnel lining was bolted into place to form a tube.
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"Interior of Carriage" on the Tower Subway. From The Illustrated London News, 1870. |
The tube was not suitable for steam traction and electric traction was not sufficiently developed, so it opened with cable traction on narrow gauge rails. The cable system used a single car permanently attached to an an endless cable, which was driven by a stationary steam engine at one terminal. An 1881 book quoted below says that the car used a grip which could take and let go of the cable, but other sources disagree. The book may have been thinking of contemporary cable railway technology. The Tower Subway opened on 02-Aug-1870, but it was not reliable and the tube was converted to a pedestrian walkway by November, 1870.
When Tower Bridge opened in 1894, the tube walkway was closed to the public and the tube was used as a water pipe conduit. Today it also carries fiber optic cables.
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from Old and New London: A Narrative of Its History, Its People and Its Places
By Walter Thornbury, Edward Walford - 1881 - page 123
The Thames tube is 7 feet in clear internal diameter, and it originally carried a railway of 2 feet 6 inches gauge. On this railway formerly ran an omnibus capable of conveying twelve passengers. The omnibus was constructed of iron; it was light, but very strong, and ran upon eight wheels, and was connected with a rope of steel wire by a means of a gripe that could be at any time tightened or relaxed at pleasure, and at each end of the tunnel this wire ran over a drum worked by means of a stationary engine. If the carriage was stopped in the centre of the tunnel, the beat of the paddles of the steamers above could be heard, and even the hammering on board ships. In time there will be subways at Gravesend, Wollwich and Greenwich; and it has also been proposed to form one from St. George's Church in the Borough to Cannon Street. The Tower suway is now only used for foot-passengers, at a charge of one halfpenny. |
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from London and Its Environs by Karl Baedeker - 1889 - Page 126 On the S. side of Tower Hill is the Tower Subway, a tunnel constructed by Barlow in 1870, passing under the Thames, and leading to Tooley Street (corrupted from St. Olave Street) on the right (Southwark) bank. This gloomy and unpleasant passage consists of an iron tube 400 yds. long and 7 ft. in diameter, orignially traversed by a tramway-car, but now used by pedestrians only. A winding staircase of 96 steps descends to it on each side (1/2d.). The subway was made in less than a year, at a cost of 20,000l. |
In 1886, Greathead used a larger version of his shield to dig a tube for the City and South London Railway under the Thames near London Bridge. Greathead proposed cable traction for the City and South London, but it was built as an electric line and was the first successful tube railway.
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from The Air and Ventilation of Subways
By George Albert Soper - 1908 - page 3
The pioneer deep tube subway under city streets was the City and South London and was opened for traffic in 1890. It is about three miles long and, like practically all deep-lying roads, is composed of two metal-lined tubes running side by side. This road has been very successful, carrying in the first year of operation about 2,400,000 passengers. It was the first important city subway to be operated by electricity. The original intention was to use an endless cable for moving the trains. |
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from The Romance of Modern Engineering
By Archibald Williams - 1908 - page 196
The City and South London Railway, extending under the Thames from the Monument to Stockwell, a distance of 3 1/2 miles, was begun in 1886 by Greathead. Its promoters originally intended to operate it by an endless cable, but during its construction electric traction developed sufficiently to be applied to this first of tube railways. The tunnels, running parallel, are 10 feet 2 inches in diameter. |
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Llandudno, Wales - Great Orme Tramway
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Great Orme Tramway car 5 (Saint Silio) rolls into Victoria Station. Photo by Martin Schönherr. All rights reserved. August, 2002 Picture of the Month. |
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A stretch of single track on the lower section of the Great Orme Tramway. Photo by Martin Schönherr. All rights reserved. |
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Great Orme Tramway car on the lower line. |
The seaside town of Llandudno lies on the coast of North Wales between the Great and Little Orme headlands. Llandudno became a popular resort town during the Nineteenth Century. Promoters decided that a cable tramway to the top of Great Orme would be a big draw.
The tramway, which operates only from March to November, consists of two funiculars, the lower line and the upper. The lower line, which opened on 31-Jul-1902, starts in Llandudno at Victoria Station. The first half of the lower section is single-tracked through the streets of Llandudno with the cable in a conduit. There is a switch at the mid-point where the line splits to a passing loop and then to gauntlet tracks. This keeps the cable centrally attached to each car away from the other. This is the only street-running funicular outside of Portugal.
The two lines meet at Halfway Station, where passengers transfer from the lower section to the upper. The upper line, which opened on 08-Jul-1903, is a counterbalanced funicular with an automatic passing loop in the middle. It has all gauntlet track except for the passing track. The upper section runs entirely on private right of way and uses an endless rope, attached off-center on each car. The upper section terminates at Summit Station, which is part of the Great Orme Country Park Visitors' Centre.
The gauge of each section is 3'6". The cars carry trolley poles and a wire runs above the entire line, but the poles and wire were for communication between the cars and the winding house, rather than for power. Wireless radios have been used since 1990.
The cables were steam-driven until 1957 when the winding house at Halfway Station switched to electric power. The cables and tracks run through the two car houses at Halfway Station.
Cars 4 (Saint Tudno) and 5 (Saint Silio) work the lower section. Cars 6 (Saint Seiriol) and 7 (Saint Trillo) work the upper section. Work cars 1-3 were scrapped before 1930. The cars have trolley poles on their roofs. These were used for communication. Communication has been wireless since 1991.
On 23-Aug-1932 the system had its only fatal accident. Car 4 became detached from the cable while descending the lower section. The car derailed and killed the operator and a 12-year-old passenger.
On 30-Apr-2000, the two cars on the upper line collided at the passing loop and 17 people were injured. The accident was probably caused by a problem with the automatic switch. The upper line reopened for the 2002 season.
The tramway is now owned by the Conwy County Council.
Special thanks to Martin Schönherr for sharing his beautiful photos. Visit his website.
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Great Orme Tramway car on the lower line looking down towards Llandudno. Note the cable slot and gauntlet tracks. |
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Car 7 on the upper section of the Great Orme Tramway. Photo by Martin Schönherr. All rights reserved. |
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A dramatic view of the passing loop on the upper section of the Great Orme Tramway. Photo by Martin Schönherr. All rights reserved. |
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A cachet issued in 1972 for the 70th anniversary of the opening. |
Visit the Great Orme Tramway official site.
Read Walter Rice's article "The Great Orme Tramway: The Cable Car of Wales".
The Great Orme Summit complex, was once owned by middleweight champ Randy Turpin.
Danger Ahead has a preliminary report on the 30-Apr-2000 accident.
