Subject: Hastings Tramways 41
Maker: United Electric Car Company, Preston
Truck: Brill 21E
Seating: 22/22?
Location: Preston, Dick, Kerr works
Date: c.1906

The whole Hastings tram fleet was supplied by the works at Preston, comprising sixty-five trams in three batches. 41 was the first car from the second, 1906, batch of twenty.

The Hastings system initially ran in two sections as there were objections from properties along the sea front about the visual intrusion of overhead wires. This was eventually overcome, reluctantly, by the use of the Dolter stud-contact system but this led to many problems and it wasn't really suitable for such a salt-laden environment. For a period petrol generators were tried but eventually overhead lines were erected in the early 1920s.

It appears that 41 was the first tram to run through between the two parts of the system on 18th December 1906, but it is unlikely that the stud contact equipment is fitted at the time of this photograph. A more visible aspect of the stud-contact system was a trolley pole retention bracket which has not yet been fitted. This was simply a hooked iron rod which stuck up at the left-hand end of the upper deck, with the top about head height.

Hastings trams were abandonded on 15th May 1929, replaced by trolleybuses.

Photograph from the GEC Archive, taken by E. Hoole