|
Steam Buses
"The
Edinburgh area ... was the scene of some of the earliest experiments
with steam driven carriages, such as those of Burstall and Hill of
Leith."
Queensferry Road
"James
Naysmyth had successfully demonstrated his on the
Queensferry Road for a few months in 1827."
Edinburgh & Leith
"There was a revival
of interest ... in the late sixties.
RW Thomson ... had
been designing designing light traction engines ... built for him by
Messrs Tennant & Company.
These machines of six
horsepower and weighing under six tons had india-rubber tyres and
were being successfully used in 1870 to haul substantial loads in
the docks and elsewhere. ...
A Ritchie thought
this machine might be an improvement on his horse buses between
Edinburgh and Leith ... and he had a passenger carrying trailer
built ... carried on a single axle ... seated 21 passengers inside.
44 passengers could be carried on top and were protected - in some
measure - by an awning."
Portobello
"When the outfit had
been tried with success, Mr Ritchie was prevailed upon to run it on
the Portobello route and this service started on 2 June 1870..
Andrew Nairn ...
produced a somewhat similar traction engine, a three wheeler of 8
horsepower with hemp tyres and he was nw at work on an omnibus
incorporating this engine. ... carried 18 passengers inside 32 on
top ... Contemporary reports refer to [it as] 'Pioneer'.
This machine was
either rebuilt or replaced by a ten-ton 'Pioneer' in 1871 ...
hired by a bus proprietor named Johnson ... [who] put it to regular
public service on the Portobello route on 2 June that year.
It ran twelve trips a
day for four months until it caught fire."
Edinburgh & Leith
"Another steam bus
appeared in April 1872, designed by Leonald J Todd of Leith.
This was a four-wheeled machine seating 20 inside and 50 on top ...
bearing the name 'Edinburgh', was operated between the West End and
Bernard Street."
Source:
'Edinburgh Transport - The Early Years' (DLG Hunter), pp.11-12,
Publ. James Thin, The Mercat Press, 1992
Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh:
November 25, 2012 |