Tramcar, 1898 LT.1958.43.a
“There upon the garden seats, on the car roofs, sat Mr and Mrs Room and Kitchen…Mr and Mrs Crescents are there too, though one might not have expected such grand folk in a ha’penny tram.
From the Glasgow Echo, 1894
I work with horses and I know it must have been hard work keeping all those horses looking so smart and handsome and their harness shiny and clean!
Horse drawn transport always seems romantic - I must've read too many Jane Austen novels. I suppose the reality wasn't anything like as pleasant.
Overcrowing and expensive tickets – has public transport in Glasgow really changed? Would you rather go back to the days of the horse-drawn tram?
What was the last year that horse drawn Trams were used? Answer from Glasgow Museums:
The tram lines in Glasgow were all electrified by the end of 1901.
Coming along Main Street last night I saw a car shamefully overcrowded going to Govanhill and the poor horses unable to draw the car.
It was just the time when all the workmen in the district were going to their work, and...it was utterly impossible to keep the men off the car. [A tram conductor defends himself against charges that his tram was overcrowded]
In the evening, when you leave your office, and join your car, you have naturally no desire these snell nights to brave pneumonia and influenza on the top. Inside it is comfortable and lightsome. You unfold your evening paper and settle down…
I may be considered a boor, but, when I am in a car which is filled, I never rise to give a place to a lady. By coming in she does wrong to the other passengers and to the poor horses, which are obliged to carry more than they ought.
…the woman is wondering if this bloated old codger will offer his seat. Should you do so, you have a merry time. Every time the car stops you sit down violently in someone’s lap; every time it starts you grasp firmly an adjacent nose.
We are really decent law-abiding people…we do not spit on cars, we stand to give the ladies our seats – at least if they carry babies, or are young and pretty.
For the last few years that remain before mechanical haulage becomes general, thousands of horses may be employed, and as I have said, the public can do much to relieve the strain on them in pulling heavy cars up inclines. They need not, for example ask a car to stop in the middle of the gradient, but might quite well walk to the top and join a car there.
Horses are always to be thoroughly groomed before being turned out, harness sponged and cleaned and hoofs oiled.. .Strappers must endeavour to treat the horses kindly and gently and anyone found beating or otherwise ill-treating any animal will be subject to instant dismissal.
I find travelling less expensive than formerly…the ride is much smoother, much more comfortable than on the top-heavy bus. Sitting outside or inside the tram-cars I can read my Evening Times with comfort.
