Last updated 02/07/2007

R.o.B Tramways

Croydon's Horse Tramways

Including:

Croydon Tramway Co.

Croydon & Thornton Heath Tramways Co.

Norwood District Tramways Co.

Croydon & Norwood Tramways Co.

Jarman's Electric Car

The Luhrig Compressed Gas Motor

The Connelly Oil Tractor

With the expansion of Croydon and its growing importance it was soon becoming obvious to influential parties that traffic and the movement of people within the town was becoming difficult. When first opened along with the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway in 1841 what is now East Croydon station was well out of the town in fields, the town clustered around what is now known as the 'old town' and the parish church. Though the town's growth took it closer to the station a means of transport was still required to get people from A to B and as Tramway fever was sweeping the country due to the introduction of the 1870 Tramways Act eight years earlier it was decided that the town could do with some tramways to connect it with the surrounding area. This resulted in the formation of the Croydon Tramway Company (CTC) incorporated on 8th August 1878 by an act of parliament allowing them to build several tramways.

• Red Deer to Green Dragon on the Brighton Road
• North end to Thornton Heath pond along London Road (sometimes referred to as the Croydon & Thornton Heath Tramways Company)
• Oakfield road to Milton Road along part of Whitehorse road, Northcote road, Selhurst as far as Princes road
• Oakfield road to Milton road via St James Road (soon abandoned)

• Along Brigstock road up to Thornton Heath High Street and continuing along the remainder of Whitehorse road.
• From North End along George street, down Cherry Orchard road, and part of the Lower Addiscombe Road to Clyde Road stopping outside the SER Mid Kent Extension station of Addiscombe.

The two extensions opening between 1881 and 1882, the car depot for all routes was at Thornton Heath Pond on the London Road, today's A23. The Addiscombe branch employed single deck vehicles.  When the tramway opened there was a loop at Crown Hill to allow trams to pass, though the track did not continue further westwards or join the other two tramways another passing loop provided at the Dingwall road/George street junction close to East Croydon station. The original East Croydon station survived until 1992 when it was replaced with today's suspension style station due to the deterioration of the bridge. At the same time the Norwood District Tramways Company (NDTC) was formed gaining permission to construct tramways to serve both South Norwood and Woodside, to the east of Croydon the Act of incorporation passed on 24th July 1882 with the company given powers to construct Tramways and though work did start on these tramways they were abandoned before they could be completed. The routes being:

• From Thornton Heath High Street to Clifton road via along Whitehorse lane
• From Princes road to the Croydon/Penge Boundary along Selhurst road, south Norwood High Street, and Penge road
• Clyde Road to Norwood High Street via the Lower Addiscombe road, Spring Lane, Woodside and Portland Road

On 2nd August 1883 a new tramway company was incorporated to merge the CT and the NDTC the new company the Croydon and Norwood Tramways Company (CNTC) taking over their powers and property which consisted of 8 miles of tramway open and 7 1/2 miles under construction for the Croydon routes and 4 1/2 for the Norwood routes, the act also went on to allow the new company to build extensions:

• From Red Deer to Godstone Road in Purley along the Brighton Road
• Along Windmill road
  

The act also allowed 16 more passing places to be made on the older tramways which were mostly single track. The new routes to South Norwood, one via Selhurst road the other from Addiscombe and Woodside both opened on 15th December 1883 the Penge Road, Windmill Road and the route from Red deer to Purley were never opened as Horse tramways. The Addiscombe route to South Norwood required the sole use of single deck cars from 1885 with the opening of the SER Woodside & South Croydon the Railway crossing over the road and tramway by way of a low bridge. 1887 saw a shock move made by the company, the Croydon routes were doing well but others sections were not resulting in the planned closure of the following sections:

• Addiscombe to South Norwood via Woodside
• The Clifton Road section
• Most of the Whitehorse Road

An act of Parliament in 1889 was passed to authorise the abandonment of the three routes and for the liquidation of the CNTC which was re-incorporated as the Croydon Tramways Company (CTC). The original 1883 CNTC Act of incorporation had allowed for the use of steam or mechanical traction to be used on all of the routes a matter that the resurrected Croydon Tramways Company were eager to make use of seeing a variety of trial runs of varying tramway locomotive types, and not of the steam variety either. In 1891 a Mr Jarman carried out trials along the London Road Tramway to Thornton Heath using a Croydon four wheeled horse tramcars converted to use the accumulator form of electric traction. The car was a double deck open top with knife board seating on top, remounted on a stronger under-frame to take the extra weight and allow room for the electrical apparatus and traction motor which was mounted under the frames. The accumulator system saw accumulators or basic rechargeable battery stored under the seats on the car and charged at the tram depot, the accumulator connected by wires to a control that regulated the current to the traction motors. The problem with this system being that there was a loss in the current taken from the accumulator especially under heavy loadings which could not be re-created until the car was re-charged. The car which had the legend JARMAN'S ELECTRIC CAR above the saloon windows was operated at night along the tramway apparently in secret until it entered service in December 1891. While the trials were taking place the Electric Tramcar Syndicate Limited formed to advance the use of electrical mechanisms especially in the tramway field, furthered the work of Jarman. The result was another conventional style tramcar with garden seats on the top deck and again on reinforced under-frames this car working with battery-electric propulsion entering service on the London Road Tramway from the January of 1894. This car possibly used a dynamo to charge its chemical batteries as it travelled along and operated until March of that year when it was withdrawn due to problems with spillage of battery acid and fumes from the sulphuric acid the batteries stored underneath the longitudinal saloon seats.

Another tramcar trialled on the Croydon to Thornton Heath tramway in June 1893 was powered by compressed coal gas on the Luhrig principal and again introduced by the Electric Traction Syndicate Limited which was to become the 'British Electrical Street Tramways, Limited' and with its success it entered regular service. The 18 foot long, 5 1/2 ton car was of conventional appearance and able to carry 28 passengers at any one time. The motor and the three gas reservoirs, each initially pressurised to 120 lbs per sq inch and able to hold enough gas for an 8 mile journey, were located under the seating which was in conventional 2+2 style. The trams controls were located at either end of the car so turning round of the vehicle was not necessary at termini which consisted of a hand brake and the control for operating the clutches controlling the gearing. When the lever was placed in the centre position the drive was disengaged but to one side or the other either low speed or high speed were engaged, the car not to exceed 8 MPH. The motor which had two cylinders was of the Otto type, specifically designed for the use on tramways, the ignition for the motor cylinders provided by an electrical charge, the exhaust passing in to a condenser, the pistons driving either end of a crank shaft driving on to one crank the cylinders lying on their sides facing one another. At the end of the crank shaft, closest to the side of the car, was attached a flywheel a pinion at the other end which was geared in to a wheel on the first motion shaft which was located under the floor. From the first motion shaft to pinion either of which can engage the second motion shaft depending whether the driver has selected low or high speed the low speed selection giving no more than 4 MPH the high speed 8 MPH. each pinion had a friction clutch, formed of two discs with a ring of Beechwood between them, the second motion shaft geared to the axles by pitch chains. When travelling in the reverse direction the first motion shafts direction was reversed by way of intermediate wheels and claw clutches. Though when the car was in operation the motor was not to be turned off there was a governor which cut off the supply to one of the cylinders when the loadings were light, worked from the same lever that operated the clutches. The charging station or re-fuelling point for the car was at the Thornton Heath depot of the Croydon & Thornton Heath Tramways Co. where an eight horse power Otto gas engine drove a compressor, the gas taken from the gas company's mains supply the gas works on Factory Lane at Waddon Marsh was then stored in a 25 feet long, 4 feet diameter reservoir at 150 lbs per sq inch. Feed to the tram was by way of a pipe from the reservoir to the tramcar charging point, the method the same used to charge gas cylinders for lighting on the railway coaches of the time, the plant was able to cater for five of the gas cars the suggestion made that this was the number that would be initially ordered for use on the tramway with another five ordered at a later date with the provision of another compressor and reservoir. It was reported in the Times newspaper during the trials that the tram was able to climb the 1 in 23 gradient with a section of 1 in 16 to Thornton Heath Railway station at a good speed and was able to stop on the descent within its own length by use of the conventional brakes, a curve of 35 feet radius was also traversed with ease even though it was on a 1 in 27 gradient. The initial cost of the car was compared to work out as equal to the purchase of one horse tramcar and 11 horses, with gas costing 1d (1p) per mile while horses cost 3 1/2 d per mile the saving on operation at 2 1/2d per mile. An improved version of this principle was used on another tramcar but on the London Road to Brigstock Road route in 1894.  

A  horse tram on London road C.1890

A trial of another type of vehicle took place in 1893 using the Connelly Oil Tractor which had previously out on the tramways of Greenwich. The Croydon trials were carried out between Poplar Walk and Thornton Heath as this route, described by Mr John S Comrie, was considered to afford 'a very varied and severe test , as , in addition to loops or passing places inseparable from a single line, there are several sharp curves and gradients, the most severe being one of 5%.' The internal combustion engine providing power was located in a separate tram locomotive with cylinders driving two overhead cylinders the pistons of which drove a crank shaft, the whole able to generate 12 brake horse power the mineral oil stored in a reservoir on the locomotive. (Technical Bit if you want to skip it) Cooling water for the cylinders reached a temperature of 43 degrees Centigrade the heat from the water used to warm the oil so that the oil vapour could be used to power the pistons once the water had passed through the pipes to the water reservoir it was cool enough to be once again used for cooling the cylinders, the cooling system entirely enclosed. Ignition of the vapour was by way of an electrical charge provided by a small dynamo, the charge stored in an accumulator which also lit the car at night. As the engine rate could not be varied gearing was used to regulate the cars speed which in this case was a 30 inch disc mounted vertically on the end of the Crank Shaft a friction pulley 12 inches in diameter able to be moved up and down the shaft, the pulley able to be moved up and down on its shaft and when motion is required the pulley is brought in to contact with the disc revolving the pulley and the shaft transmitting the motion through to the gears driving the car. The pulley able to be positioned up and down on its shaft by the driver bringing the pulley closer to the centre of the disc for more power or moving it up the shaft to the outer edge of the disc for speed. Upon starting the pulley would be close to the centre of the disc to produce a slow rate of movement and as the car gains speed the driver would move the pulley up its shaft towards the rim of the disc for running, for slowing or stopping the pulley was lowered back to the centre of the disc where if necessary it could be removed from contact with the disc which would continue to move. As the engine could not be reversed reversing gears were used to allow the vehicle to return in the opposite direction. (End of Technical bit). A fuller description of the vehicle is available in the book 'Tramways: Their Construction and Working' by D Kinnear Clark who quotes an article from the Times Newspaper of 20^th March 1893 and other sources. The car was used for fourteen hours a day for seven days making 350 trips covering just less than 508 miles and carrying 4182 passengers along the tramway with an economical fuel consumption of 70 gallons of oil. The journey considered almost silent and without any smell from the product of the combustion. The Times reporter describes the car as 'taking gradients and sharp curves well, maintaining the Board of Trade regulation speed of 8 miles an hour easily, and evidently capable of higher speed'. Other sources of Mr Kinnear Clark, who travelled on the tram, say that the gradients of 1 in 20 were covered at an average speed including stops of 4.65 MPH and that the car which carried forty people 'starts and stops on gradients without difficulty or shock.' The report by Mr Comrie stating that starting and stopping could be achieved 'in 15 seconds, without shock to passengers.' Another source reported that one weeks trail of the motor mostly in the afternoons and evenings of December 1893 'to suit the requirements of the Croydon Tramways Company' saw the vehicle travel for just over 291 miles carrying 1465 passengers consuming 48 1/2 gallons of oil the time in operation adding up to just under 65 hours with a speed of 4 1/2 MPH the speed restricted by the horse traffic, the source suggesting that without any restrictions the car could have reached 16 MPH.  On one occasion the vehicle even hauled a car weighing 2 1/2 tons with 46 passengers on board with ease and that shunting was simple. Cars operating that route would run about 72 miles per day with the occasional visit to the depot to change horses, the Oil powered tram not needing to do so and continuing all day as its tank held 14 gallons of oil which was more than enough for a days operation.