Subject: Greenock & Port Glasgow 40
Maker: United Electric Car Company, Preston
Truck: Brill 21E
Seating: 20
Location: Preston, Dick, Kerr works
Date: 1908

This charming little demi-car was the only new tram supplied to the company from the Preston works, they had standardised on vehicles of Brush manufacture. However, two secondhand combination cars built by ER&TCW arrived from Rothesay in 1916.

This tram is unlikely to have worked to Cappielow, as that where the now-historic football ground is, which has been the home of Greenock Morton since 1879. This tram was not intended to shift crowds!

The company obviously found little use for it as it was advertised for sale as early as 1911. There were no takers and it remained until 1916 but is not considered to have seen much use in the intervening years, with one notable exception.

On August 30th and 31st 1912 celebrations were held to commemorate the centenary of the launch of the Comet, the first steamship to work commercially on the Clyde and one of the very first anywhere in the world. For these celebrations tram 40 was decorated, even incorporating a lighthouse on the roof! Steam power transformed life on the Clyde, enabling quicker and more predictable travel between the many communitites that relied on water transport. The original Comet, sadly, was lost off Craignish Point in 1820.

Photograph from the GEC archive