Wolverton and Stony Stratford Tramway: 100 Years Since Closure

Monday 3rd May 1926 marked the beginning of Britain’s first ever General Strike. This resulted in three million workers downing tools in support of miners who had been locked out of work by their coal-mining bosses for refusing to accept lower pay and longer hours.

Many railway and tramway employees also came out on strike and, in the case of two already ailing tramways, their action in doing so precipitated their premature and unplanned abandonment.

The older of the two tramways was the steam-hauled Wolverton and Stony Stratford Tramway that was first opened on 17th May 1887. This narrow gauge (3’ 6”) tramway was built in rural Buckinghamshire in order to transport hundreds of workers from Old Stratford and neighbouring villages such as Deanshanger to Wolverton, home to the London North Western Railway’s important carriage works. An adjacent printing works was another major employer in the area.

In order to convey large numbers of people as efficiently as possible at very specific times – coinciding with the start and finish of the working day – the company ordered five very large double-deck tramcar trailers from the Midland Railway Carriage and Wagon Company in Shrewsbury. Three of these were enormous 44 foot (13.4 metre) long vehicles capable of seating 100 passengers that were often used in rakes of two or three at a time. These were the largest tramcars in Britain at the time and were probably among the largest ever built, at least until the Swansea and Mumbles Railway’s massive electric tramcars (seating 106 passengers) appeared on the scene in 1929.

The other two trailers were more modest in size, with seating for 80 and 50 passengers respectively. The smallest of these was the only one to have upholstered seats and was presumably confined to the quieter periods between the working shift times.

Two steam tram 0-4-0 locomotives were initially ordered from the Munich-based Krauss locomotive works.

 

Their large canopies and impressive looking oil lamps gave them a distinctively continental appearance, but they proved to be seriously under-powered for the loads they were expected to pull. By 1900 both had been replaced by a pair of more conventional looking tram locomotives from Leeds-based Thomas Green & Sons. These were supplemented by an additional 0-4-0 saddle tank locomotive that was supplied in 1922 by the local Stafford-based firm of Bagnall.

 

Although the tramway was well patronised at first, the one shilling per week worker’s fare that the company had agreed to was not enough to ensure its profitability This resulted in its voluntary liquidation in 1889, just over two years after its opening. It reopened under new ownership and management two years later, though the extension to Deanhanger, which had failed to generate the freight that was expected, remained closed and was dismantled.

Unfortunately for the tramway, the invention of the ‘safety bicycle’ in the late 1880s provided its clientele with a cheaper alternative means of transport. Two decades later, an even more serious form of competition appeared in the form of motorbuses. The onset of the Great War brought some short-term relief as fuel was rationed and buses requisitioned, but once peace was declared in 1919, the company once again went into voluntary liquidation.

It was then bailed out a second time when the LNWR took over the line and carried out much-needed renewal of the permanent way. Many LNWR employees at Wolverton works still relied on this line for transport. The new Bagnall locomotive was also added to the rolling stock fleet in 1922.

In 1923, however, responsibility for the tramway passed from the LNWR to the London, Midland and Scottish Railway, as part of a wider amalgamation of Britain’s railway companies. By this time, the tramway was again losing money due to renewed competition from motor bus operators. So, when the tramway staff elected to walk out on the first day of the General Strike on 3rd May 1926, the LMSR decided not to re-open the line. This put an end to a quite unique tramway, and the last of its type to remain in operation.

One of the large trailers survived into preservation after two lower deck halves that were being used as sheds in the area were salvaged and restored by volunteers at the Milton Keynes museum, which is just outside Wolverton.

 

With thanks to Museum Volunteer Jim Dignan for producing this article.

 

Image references:

Image 1: Charles E. Lee, ‘The Wolverton and Stony Stratford Tramway’, The Railway Magazine, Vol. 98, No. 616, August 1952, p. 549 (Tothill Press, London).

Images 2 – 7: National Tramway Museum collection

Image 8: Jim Dignan