Dudley, Stourbridge and District Electric Traction Company
 Preserved tramcar No 5 at the Black Country Living Museum | |
| Operation | |
|---|---|
| Locale | Dudley, Stourbridge |
| Open | 26 July 1899 |
| Close | 1 March 1930 |
| Status | Closed |
| Infrastructure | |
| Track gauge | 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) |
| Propulsion system(s) | Electric |
| Depot(s) | Stourbridge Road, Amblecote |
| Statistics | |
| Route length | 21.24 miles (34.18 km) |
The Dudley, Stourbridge and District Electric Tramways Company operated an electric tramway service between Dudley and Stourbridge and also other lines in the neighbourhood between 1899 and 1930.[1]
History
On 2 April 1898 the Dudley and Stourbridge Steam Tramways Company was purchased by British Electric Traction[2]
A programme of modernisation was undertaken and the service was converted for electric traction. The first electric service ran on 26 July 1899.
Extensions were opened as follows:
- 19 October 1900 from Queen’s Cross in Dudley to Five Ways at the end of Cradley Heath High Street
- 7 December 1900 the Kingswinford branch
- 1 November 1902 Stourbridge to Lye and The Hayes
- 13 December 1902 Stourbridge to Wollaston Junction
- 19 December 1904 Old Hill to Blackheath
On 29 September 1902, the company took over ownership of the Kinver Light Railway for the sum of £60,000 (equivalent to £5,874,513 in 2015).[3]
On 1 July 1904 ownership was transferred to the Birmingham and Midland Tramways Joint Committee, a subsidiary of British Electric Traction.
On 1 April 1924 the company took over some of the routes of the South Staffordshire Tramways Company.
The depot was situated in Amblecote on corner of Stourbridge Road and Collis Street. It was 4 track shed opened in October 1905. It was expanded with an additional 2 tracks in 1908, and a further track was added around 1914. It closed in May 1926 and used as a tram store until 1930.
Closure
Route closures occurred on the following dates:
- 1926 Dudley to Kingswinford, Stourbridge to Kingswinford, and Stourbridge to Wollaston
- 1927 Stourbridge to Lye, and Old Hill to Blackheath
- 1929 Dudley to Cradley Heath
- 1 March 1930 Dudley to Stourbridge, and Dudley to Wednesbury.
Survivals
Four vehicles are known to have survived:
- 5 (built 1920) Information with photograph
- 36 (built 1901) Information
- 75 (built 1919) Information
- 102 (built 1920) Information
References
- ↑ The Golden Age of Tramways. Published by Taylor and Francis.
- ↑ The Electrical review: Volume 40
- ↑ UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Gregory Clark (2016), "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)" MeasuringWorth.