Barrow in Furness Tramways
Barrow Corporation obtained powers for a tramway in 1881. Agreement was reached with the Barrow-in-Furness Tramway Company to construct and operate a 4' narrow gauge steam tramway. Service began in July 1885 with a central line and three branch lines. By the mid-1890s the company was having problems with maintaining the traction units and track, resulting in irregular running. It entered liquidation in February 1896 with an offer made for the Corporation to take over operation in November 1898 - the Corporation declined
In December 1899 the British Electric Traction Company acquired the assets of the company and entered into negotiation with the Corporation to electrify the tramway with a lease extension. A fire destroyed most of the traction units in June 1902 resulting in the service being suspended. In early August the British Electric Traction Company and the Corporation agreed that the British Electric Traction Company would electrify the line with the Corporation having the right to purchase after 7, 14 and 21 years[1]. The British Electric Traction Company agreed to obtain steam traction units to operate the system while coversion took place. The tramway began operating soon after. The trams were again stopped in June 1903 to lay new tracks for electric operation[2]. The first electric service ran in February 1904.
By the end of the Great War the system was in very poor condition and like other tramway operations was struggling financially. The Corporation purchased the system in January 1920. The system continued to lose money and in 1923 the Corporation introduced its first bus service in 1923. In 1932, with the tramway in need of renewal, the Corporation decided to abandon trams, with the last tram running on the 5th April 1932.
Tokens for postal workers are reported from 1903[3]. The tokens are the same style as the Halifax GPO tokens, which were issued after 1898. This indicated that the tokens were discount travel tokens first issued during the period when British Electric Traction Company operated the trams.
The 1½d tokens has the ½ added after production, indicating that it is a modification of a token that was originally intended to be a 1d issue.
| Barrow in Furness Tramways | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
| Source | (Smith-50/A) | |
| Filename | BFT.P01 | |
| Value | 1d | |
| Add Desc. | Large GPO in script | |
| Size (mm) | 30 | |
| Manufacture | Copper | |
| Notes | from about 1900 | |
| ||
| Source | (Smith-50/B) | |
| Filename | BFT.P015 | |
| Value | 1½d | |
| Add Desc. | Large GPO in script | |
| Size (mm) | 30 | |
| Manufacture | Copper | |
| Notes | GPO = General Post Office (Postman) | |