Mexborough & Swinton Tramway
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The Mexborough & Swinton Tramways Company was a tramway system in South Yorkshire, serving Manvers Colliery, Wath upon Dearne and towns of Rotherham, Rawmarsh, Swinton and Mexborough.
The company was owned by the National Electric Construction Co which ran other networks in England. The company became the Mexborough & Swinton Traction Company in 1929 after introduction of trolleybuses on all its routes only to become part of the British Electric Traction Group in 1931.
[edit] The Network
The Mexborough and Swinton operated a standard gauge 4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) network from the Rotherham boundary to the old toll bar at Denaby which opened in 1907.
In 1915 the company opened two trolleybus routes, the first ran from Mexborough town centre to Manvers, the second route ran from the old toll bar to Conisbrough. The line to Conisbrough was only two miles away from Doncaster Corporation's tramways. Manvers is the only locality in England to have had a trolleybus before a tramway.
When first opened in 1907, the tramway was worked on the Dolter stud collection system, but was converted in August 1908 to overhead trolley. The reason for using the Dolter system was the unsightliness of conventional overhead wiring. Current was supplied from metal studs placed between the rails that became live with the passage of the tram, then were meant to become dead. The studs at Mexborough repeatedly remained live and the Board of Trade eventually ordered operations to cease and the trams were stopped for the few weeks it took to replace the system by overhead wires.
Mexborough & Swinton's lines were in contact with other tramway companies' line in two localities. It met the Dearne District Light Railways at Woodman Inn, in Swinton, and the Rotherham Tramway at Rotherham Bridge.
[edit] Rolling stock
The tramway passed beneath two low bridges at Rawmarsh and Swinton. The sixteen Mexborough trams and Rotherham trams, used for through joint service to and from Rotherham, were fitted with low-height top covers.
The tramways were replaced by twenty single-deck trolleybuses in 1928 and 1929. The fleet later grew to 39 units, but were all replaced by double-deck motor buses. Operations were taken over by Yorkshire Traction in 1969 and Stagecoach in 2006.
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| Tramways in South Yorkshire and Humberside (Closed systems) |
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Barnsley and District | Dearne District | Doncaster | Grimsby | Grimsby & Immingham |
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