Cork Electric Tramways And Lighting Company
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The Cork Electric Tramways and Lighting Company operated a passenger tramway service in Cork between 1898 and 1931.


History


Origins

The Cork Electric Tramways and Lighting Company was a subsidiary of
British Thomson-Houston British Thomson-Houston (BTH) was a British engineering and heavy industry, heavy industrial company, based at Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Originally founded to sell products from the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, it soon became a manufac ...
, a major electrical contracting company. The contractor for the permanent way was
William Martin Murphy William Martin Murphy (6 January 1845 – 26 June 1919) was an Irish businessman, newspaper publisher and politician. A member of parliament (MP) representing Dublin from 1885 to 1892, he was dubbed "William ''Murder'' Murphy" among the Iris ...
, who later became chairman of the company. The power station was built by Edward Fitzgerald (later Sir Edward Fitzgerald, 1st Baronet) and the engineer for the system was Charles Hesterman Merz. The gauge of the tramway was gauge, selected to allow trains from the narrow gauge Cork and Muskerry Light Railway and the Cork, Blackrock and Passage Railway to connect using the tram lines. Services started on 22 December 1898, when the company had 17 cars in operation. Over the Christmas period, weekend traffic was heavy and there were some minor accidents and injuries, including some passengers who, having been celebrating Christmas, fell from the tramcars.


The Burning of Cork

There was substantial disruption to services and destruction of some tramcars during the
Burning of Cork The burning of Cork () by British forces took place during the Irish War of Independence on the night of 11–12 December 1920. It followed an Irish Republican Army (IRA) ambush of a British Auxiliary patrol in the city, which wounded twelve Au ...
in December 1920. The events which occurred to the driver, John Hurley, conductor Alex Garvey and passengers on tramcar no 3 were recorded in the ''Cork Examiner'':
"Passengers by the last tram to St. Luke's Cross, which left the Statue at 9 p.m. on Saturday, had a rather eventful journey. The car had got about 60 or 70 yards beyond Empress Place police barracks when a number of men in police uniform, carrying carbines and accompanied by Auxiliaries in plain clothes, held it up. They ordered all the passengers off at the point of revolvers. Male passengers were somewhat roughly handled and then ordered to line up for search. Some few were inclined to run and a voice rang out: "I'll shoot anyone who runs." All then stopped but some shots were fired in the air while the searches were being conducted. In some cases when the search was completed the person searched was ordered home, getting a bit of a rough send-off. The tramcar was then broken in by the police and a rifle shot was discharged, the smell of powder permeating the air. The tramcar was brought back to the Statue by the driver and conductor who when it neared there were ordered off. It was later set on fire and completely destroyed."


Closure

The tram operations were permanently discontinued on 30 September 1931, falling victim to the increasing popularity of bus services operated by The Irish Omnibus Company, and the takeover of the tram company's electricity plant by Ireland's Electricity Supply Board (ESB).


Fleet

The company ordered the first 18 tramcars from Brush of Loughborough in 1898. Subsequent orders of 11 in 1900 and 6 in 1901 took the fleet to a maximum of 35. The livery was bright green and cream.


Routes

The three cross city routes radiated out from the statue to Theobald Mathew in
St Patrick's Street St Patrick's Street () is the main shopping street of the city of Cork (city), Cork in the south of Ireland. The street was subject to redevelopment in 2004, and has since won two awards as Ireland's best shopping street. St Patrick's Street is ...
and were: *
Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...
to Douglas *Summerhill to Sunday's Well * Tivoli to
Blackrock BlackRock, Inc. is an American Multinational corporation, multinational investment company. Founded in 1988, initially as an enterprise risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager ...
. The track was double through the main streets, up the Summerhill and along part of the Western Road, and short stretches of other routes. On the rest it was single with fairly frequent passing loops.


Legacy

The tramway generating station at Albert Road now houses the National Sculpture Factory and the adjacent tram shed - complete with inspection and service pits (with tram rails still in place) - is also still intact and in use as a commercial premises.


Greenway

The Blackpool to Douglas route has been converted to a section of the Cork Harbour Greenway.


References

{{reflist 900 mm gauge railways in Ireland Tram transport in the Republic of Ireland Railway companies established in 1898 Railway companies disestablished in 1931
Cork Electric Tramways and Lighting Company The Cork Electric Tramways and Lighting Company operated a passenger tramway service in Cork (city), Cork between 1898 and 1931. History Origins The Cork Electric Tramways and Lighting Company was a subsidiary of British Thomson-Houston, a ma ...