The Inside Track
Edinburgh history enthusiast, Andy Arthur, takes us on a journey back in time to the last days of the old Edinburgh and Leith tramway network
On the 16th November 1956, at around 7.20pm, the last of the old electric trams in Edinburgh and Leith set off on their final journey. A specially painted and illuminated car – no. 172 – had been touring the network for the previous week in an odd celebration of the future. Edinburgh, Leith and Musselburgh’s tramway networks had grown steadily since the first line in 1871. Right up until the outbreak of war in 1939, the Corporation was still planning for its expansion. However, after the war, the network had very quickly gone through a politically-motivated crash course in running down in the three years from 1953-56. The last service to run was no. 23, from the Braids to Shrubhill depot via. Morningside Station.
In the three years to 1956, Edinburgh’s tram network was cut back from 28 routes to just 2 after the Council’s decision in 1951 to abandon the trams. The peak year was 1948, when 330 cars worked from five depots. The system was deliberately run into the ground and shut down at the peak of its efficiency and popularity. Contrary to popular narrative, it wasn’t clapped out; maintenance during the war was good, new rolling stock had been built and 1948 was a record year for passengers.
The Corporation shut down tram routes by “busification”; it had bought in large numbers of new buses, and they replaced the trams routes as they were withdrawn, running the same routes and numbers. Buses initially enjoyed a surge in use; but they were never as popular or convenient and people quickly abandoned them for personal cars. Despite the heroic efforts of Lothian Buses to run a quality bus service over the last 30 or so years since deregulation, they have never recovered their share of the market.
Over that short three year period, hundreds of trams were driven unceremoniously over the rails to Maybury to be hauled onto low loaders and taken by road to Connel’s in Coatbridge to be cut up.
After the line to Corstorphine was lifted, cars were loaded in north Leith, and when that too was cut back they directly left the gates of Shrubhill depot on the lorry.
In the ultimate indignity, the tram cars bodies were first set on fire to burn out the wooden components prior to salvaging the metalwork.
As soon as the services over a section of route were cancelled, the cutters came in to pull down the overhead wires for scrap. Shortly after they would come and lift the rails, or even just tarmac directly over them in some cases. One of the issues facing the tramway network was that it had the liability for repairs and maintenance of the carriageway on which the tram tracks were laid; this meant it not only had to do its own maintenance but was also facing a greater burden as a result of the increasing weight and volume of private motor vehicle traffic using the roads.
The trams very nearly got a temporary stay of execution due to the Suez Crisis (Glasgow did get a deferral in their run down for this reason), but the Council’s mind was set and not for changing. 16th November 1956 was to be the day. Here is a gloomily atmospheric photo of one of the last scheduled services on route 23, leaving Granton Square in the chilly murk of a cold November evening. The car looks bright and warm in contrast.
Special yellow ticket rolls were used in the final week with “LAST TRAM” printed on the back. The trams flew pennants from their current poles. Everyone and their dog took a final ride and requests were taken for invites on the last run.
A specially painted and illuminated car, no. 172, had been touring the network for the previous week in an odd celebration of the future
On the final day, a restored horse bus (not a horse tram) appeared, hauled by two horses from the St. Cuthbert’s Cooperative Association’s delivery stable. Special tours were given and the crew wore vintage uniform.
By this time, services number 23 (Granton Square to Morningside via the Mound) and 28 (Newhaven to Braid Hills via Pilrig Street and Lothian Road) were all that remained, and ran as usual that day. People patronised them as usual, as if it was all a bad dream and they would wake up and get the tram again tomorrow as they always had done.
At 8 minutes past 6, an ominous figure appeared at Granton Road Station. It was a bus, running the first bus-replacement service 23. Trams continued to run as usual for the next hour and 21 minutes though. At 7.29pm the last service tram ran only as far as the Mound.
The remaining cars on the network and at Tollcross depot then turned out their lights and rolled their route and service numbers blinds to show a blank screen and headed quietly to Shrubhill depot for the last time. A pool of cars headed the other way to Braids terminus to start the special final runs. Ten cars made the run up to Braids, including that in the special “last week” livery. A further car, no. 217, left from Morningside Station “carrying town councillors and their invited guests“.
Huge crowds lined the route, and people came from far and wide to the Mound to see the convoy go down the hill. Buses had to be diverted and the trams were halted as the crowds were managed. The horse bus lead the way, pulled by a pair of white horses. The BBC were present. A brief ceremony was conducted at the foot of the Mound, when the Lady Provost handed over specially inscribed control keys to the crew of tram 217 carrying the councillors. They then ran onto Shrubhill, unceremoniously ejected their passengers, and rolled on into the depot by Dryden Street.
The crowds are reported to have been well behaved and there was no surge of souvenir hunters, but many people put pennies down on the tracks in order that they were flattened by the last trams. The switch was pulled in Shrubhill at 9.40pm and the traction current was turned off for the last time. The Scotsman ran an evening editorial wondering if “electric traction might not return again in time“. And out into the night went the gangs of workmen, and pulled down the cables on Princes Street, dug up the boarding islands. Early the following morning they started loading the final cars onto the scrappies’ lorries. Only one, No., 35, would survive to be preserved. For many years it lived in a small transport museum at Shrubhill Depot, but has now passed on to the Crich Tramway Museum.
So why was a popular, comprehensive and seemingly good quality system run down with quite such enthusiasm? There are a number of factors, a big one of which was money. The Ministry of Transport would not give or lend or allow the Corporation to borrow for required capital works.
But another was will. Despite having cut his teeth on the Edinburgh trams, the General Manager W. M. Little had gone to St. Helens Corporation in 1941 – who had closed their tramway in 1936 and replaced it with a combination of diesel and electric trolley buses. He returned to Edinburgh in 1948, chomping at the bit of a bus-first future.
It was Little, the man in charge of the Corporation’s trams, who put forward a proposal in 1950 recommending that no further extension be considered and 25% of the route and services be replaced by buses. And Little had an ally in the form of Cllr George Learmonth Harkess, newly elected in 1949 to the Liberton ward for the “Progressives” .
Despite being a funeral director by trade Harkess found himself propelled into the chair of the Transport Convenor. Despite immense popular and press opposition, Harkess and Little between them conspired to carry the dominant Progressives with them and vote for scrapping.
Huge crowds eagerly lined the route, and people came from far and wide to the Mound to see the convoy go down the hill