Accrington on Rails - The Tramways: A Complete History - Robert Kenyon

The Sub-Committee have carefully considered the Reports hereto annexed, and which have been prepared by the several Officials responsible therefore after visits made to many Tramway systems, and in the light of information obtained from numerous other Tramways Authorities, and of Manufacturers’ current prices of materials and of actual working results of Tramway systems similar in character to this in Accrington. Your Committee are satisfied that the estimates contained in such Reports are sound, and this conclusion is borne out by the estimates both of cost of construction and result of working, prepared by Mr Stephen Sellon, M.I.C.E., the Corporation’s Expert Advisor during the progress of the Act of last year through Parliament, and who speaks from an experience gained in the construction and working of several hundred miles of tramways representing an expenditure of £16,000,000. System As regards the system to be adopted. The Chairman and Vice-Chairman with the Borough Surveyor and Electrical Engineer had visited Lincoln, and carefully examined the stud system in operation there on a length about two miles of level roadway, and quite apart from considerations of through working arrangements with joint Authorities, they most strongly recommend the Council adopts the overhead system, which is by far the most economical in construction and operation - the main factors to consider. It is much safer than any stud system, and by reason of the fact that adjoining tramways are constructed and authorised on the overhead system, the local tramways must of necessity be the same. Moreover, as a criterion of safety, the Board of Trade give their unqualified licence for the overhead system, but only a licence for short periods for certain alternative systems. Seeing that the whole of the tramway track is at present laid upon a permanent bed of concrete, it would be so great and needless to waste to tear that up to lay down any underground system. For the above and other reasons, your Committee therefore recommends the Overhead System on span wires chiefly, according to the reports of the two Engineers. Carrying out the work As regards this, your Committee recommend that they be at once authorised to obtain tenders for all the cables, ironwork, rails, overhead work, plant and other materials, so that several Contractors should not be unduly hurried, and also that the estimates may be verified by actual tenders. Your Committee recommend that all work in connection with the preparation of the present concrete bed, the alterations and widening thereof and repaving, the construction of the concrete bed and the paving of the additional sections of the tramways, and the laying of the permanent way with welded joint, cables, and the erection of standards should be carried out by day work, under the supervision of the Borough Surveyor and the Electrical Engineer respectively. Your Committee recommends that the tramways on the Burnley Road section should not for the present, be constructed beyond a convenient point near the Hillock Vale Mill. As regards to the order in which the various sections of the tramways should be constructed, your Committee recommend that the new Oswaldtwistle and Burnley Road lengths be commenced on or around March 1 st next, so as to have the whole staff of men at liberty to go on with the reconstruction of the existing tramways by April 6 th next, the expiration of the Lease. That the length of tramways from Church along Blackburn Road to the bottom of Burnley Road should be progressed with, so as to bring the new lengths and the intervening sections to the Depot into operation. Next, in order that the Clayton-le-Moors section should be reconstructed, leaving the Baxenden section to the last, as some consideration will have to be given to the time of the electrification of the Haslingden system. During the period when the lines are out between the Market Hall and the Tramway Depot, no doubt arrangements might be made with the Company to accommodate a sufficient number of Engines and Cars in the Haslingden Depot, so as to keep the service running over the Baxenden section. In arranging the work between the Surveyor’s and Electrical Engineer’s departments, it appears to the Committee very desirable that the electrical work, such as the cable laying and

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