Portsmouth Corporation Transport 1901-1986 CONTENTS Portsmouth Corporation Transport - Fleet History 1901-1986……………………. Page 3 Portsmouth Corporation Transport - Tram Fleet List 1901-1936………………… Page 13 Portsmouth Corporation Transport - Trolleybus Fleet List - 1934-1963…….. Page 19 Portsmouth Corporation Transport - Bus Fleet List 1919-1986.…………………. Page 26 Cover Illustration: No. 118 (ORV993) a 1958 Leyland PD2/40 with Metro-Cammell 56-seat bodywork. (LTHL collection). First Published 2016 by The Local Transport History Library. With thanks to Mike Beamish and Brian Pask for illustrations. © The Local Transport History Library 2016. (www.lthlibrary.org.uk) For personal use only. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or otherwise for commercial gain without the express written permission of the publisher. In all cases this notice must remain intact. All rights reserved. PDF-074-1 2 Portsmouth Corporation Transport 1901-1986 The first recorded instance of public transport in Portsmouth would appear to be a horse-bus service that commenced plying for hire in 1840. It ran between Southsea and North End via a circuitous route through Old Portsmouth and the Hard, the fare being 6d (2½p), a considerable sum in those days. By 1857 horse-bus services operated from Grove Road to Portsea and Landport hourly, and from Portland Street to the Railway Station connecting with each scheduled train, and by the end of the decade routes from the Thatched House to the Cambridge Hotel, and from the Dockyard to the Royal Marine Artillery Barracks at Eastney were operating. In May 1865 the Landport & Southsea Tramways Company opened a single-track line (using step rails, replaced in 1875 with grooved rails) from the joint London & South Western Railway and the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway station at Landport, via the town centre, to Clarence Pier at Southsea, Britain's first statutory street tramway. The line was originally intended to provide a connection with the Isle of Wight ferries and the unusual gauge (4ft 7¾in) was chosen to permit the through working of railway wagons, which, in the event, never seems to have taken place, although it did determine the gauge of the tramways that followed. The original rolling stock probably consisted of just two, two-horse single-deck tramcars, sufficient to work the one-mile route. In September 1874, the Portsmouth Street Tramways Company opened a much longer single-track route from North End (where the Company had a depot), via Kingston Crescent and Commercial Road to Landport Station, from there it ran parallel to the 3 Portsmouth Corporation Transport 1901-1986 Landport & Southsea line via Cambridge Street, High Street and Broad Street terminating at the Point (where the Company had a second depot). Another Company, the General Tramways Company of Portsmouth, opened its first line on 18th March 1878. It ran from High Street along Alexandra Road to the Landport & Southsea line, which it then joined to run along Kings Terrace, Jubilee Terrace as far as the Pier Hotel, where it branched off along Southsea Terrace, Castle Road and Osbourne Road to the Queens Hotel. By 1883 the Provincial Tramways Company Ltd. (established in London in 1872), who already owned the Portsmouth Street Tramways Company, had purchased the other two competing companies and amalgamated them into one single company, under the PST name. The system was extended throughout the following years and by 1890 the tramway reached Hard by the Harbour, East Southsea, Fratton, Buckland and Cosham. Although details of the rolling stock are sketchy, it would appear that, by 1894, the fleet had reached number 69, and at least one Lifu steam tram was operated. Manufactured by the Liquid Fuel Engineering Co., of East Cowes, it was a large top-covered (but with no upper-deck glazing), oil-fired, tramcar, which operated from 1896 to 1901. Whilst the network of tramway lines was being constructed and expanded, a number of horse-bus services flourished. The Portsmouth Street Tramway Company itself operated a number of services, as did Andrews Safety Buses, a Cardiff concern, which ran on a route between Kingston Road and Havelock Park amongst others, but was eventually purchased by the PST in 1888. Routes worked by single-horse vehicles 4 Portsmouth Corporation Transport 1901-1986 included North End to Cosham, prior to the construction of the tramway; Cambridge Junction to Havelock Park, and Edinburgh Road to the Dockyard. Two-horse buses worked from Cambridge Junction to Eastney Barracks, via Elm Grove and Albert Road, and between the Dockyard and Beach Mansions, as well as assisting with traffic on the Edinburgh Road to the Dockyard route when required. Some of the routes were subsequently combined to give a service between Edinburgh Road, the Dockyard and Eastney, a route largely followed by the first Corporation motorbus in 1919, although the horse-bus route had ceased operation by 1904. The Portsmouth Corporation Tramway Act of 1898 empowered the Corporation to purchase the lines of the Portsmouth Street Tramways Company that lay within the borough. On the 1st January 1901 Portsmouth Corporation exercised its option, leaving the Company with just a short stretch of track from the boundary at Hilsea to Cosham. Preparations had been made for this event and the parent company (the Provincial Tramways Company) had obtained an order to extend the system from this point. The Portsdown & Horndean Light Railway formally opened on 2nd March 1902, running between Cosham and Horndean, via Portsdown Hill, Widley, Purbrook, Waterlooville and Cowplain (where the depot was sited). The overhead electric line was mainly single-track and services commenced with Nos. 1-9, British Electric Car, open-top, double-deck, tramcars, joined later by five similar vehicles (Nos. 10-14). Portsmouth Corporation was given the running powers over the first mile of the nearly six-mile route, although the Company had no reciprocal rights and it was not until 1924 that they first ran into Portsmouth. 5 Portsmouth Corporation Transport 1901-1986 The official opening of Portsmouth Corporation's system took place on the 24th September 1901, after extensive reconstruction and conversion to electric traction. The basic routes remained those worked by the PST's horse trams (which continued to work the Hilsea to Cosham section until May 1903) with one or two minor alterations; the first electric tram route opened being between North End, the Town Hall and Clarence Pier. Extensions to the system were opened in 1909 and 1913. The initial order for 80 tramcars (Nos. 1-80) was placed with the Electric Railway and Tramway Carriage Works (ERTCW) and these were delivered during 1901 and 1902. In 1904 Portsmouth Corporation rebuilt four (Nos. 81-84) of the former horse cars purchased from the Portsmouth Street Tramways Company, which had been new in 1880, for further service. One of these (No. 84) still survives in preservation. Further new cars were added in 1907, when 15 open-top balcony cars (Nos. 85-100) were delivered, and in 1920 when 12 totally enclosed English Electric cars (Nos. 105-116) were purchased. Although there had been attempts to establish the motorbus in Portsmouth, including a short-lived service operated by small 'waggonettes' between the Hard and Fratton Road early in the 1900's and an attempt by the Isle of Wight Motor Bus Company to establish several routes using Milnes-Daimler vehicles in 1906, none of these schemes came to fruition and were eventually abandoned. A proposal had been put before Portsmouth Corporation in 1906 to augment the existing tram services with motorbuses, and was revived again in 1911, but, on both occasions, the Council, wary of other ventures in the town that had failed, decided that the economics of bus 6 Portsmouth Corporation Transport 1901-1986 operation did not justify their introduction. In 1919, however, the Council again turned its attention to the use of buses as feeder services for the trams and an initial order for ten Thornycroft J chassis was authorised. They were delivered in the summer of 1919 and commenced operation on a new service between Devonshire Avenue and St. Mary's Road on August 11th of that year. They carried Wadham open-top, double- deck, 34-seat bodywork and were numbered 1-10. At the same time private operators, such as the Portsmouth & District Motor Services Ltd., which commenced a service between Eastney and Cosham, and the Southsea Tourist Company, which ran a town service from North End to Clarence Pier, attempted to establish themselves in the area. It was competition such as this that persuaded the Corporation to conclude an agreement with the Provincial Tramways Company in 1924 to allow their tramcars to run through to the Town Hall from 1st August, which was later extended to include Clarence Pier and eventually South Parade Pier. Up until then the Corporation bus fleet had remained static at ten vehicles, but in the summer of 1924, twelve more vehicles arrived. Five (Nos. 11-15) were Guy J chassis with 'toastrack'-style bodywork by Wadham, with seats for 15, purchased after a visit to Bournemouth where a successful seafront service using similar vehicles was in operation. They were used for summer duties along the Esplanade, a function they performed until 1939. The remaining vehicles were on Dennis 50-cwt chassis (Nos. 16-22) with Strachan & Brown bodywork. They operated on a new route, initially as a temporary measure whilst the Council considered a new tramway link, but eventually ran permanently, connecting South Parade and Cosham. The following year twelve more Dennis 50-cwt chassis (Nos. 23-34) were purchased, this time with Dennis 7 Portsmouth Corporation Transport 1901-1986 bodywork, originally with the intention of operating as one-man vehicles, but subsequently conductors were used.