With the news earlier this week that 42 new homes are to be built at the site of the former Silvermills Tram Depot in the New Town, we’ve taken a look back at the first city-wide tram system in the Capital.
Before trams returned to the city in 2014, trams operated in Edinburgh from 1871 to 1956. The first systems were horse-drawn, while cable-haulage appeared in the city in 1888. Electric trams first ran on systems in neighbouring Musselburgh (1904) and Leith (1905), meeting the old Edinburgh cable-trams at Joppa and Pilrig respectively, with passengers forced to change tram when leaving the electric lines. Edinburgh trams finally went fully electric in 1923.
These incredible archive photos of the old tram system, mostly taken in the early 1950s, show just how widespread the network was across Edinburgh before it was scrapped in 1956.
1. On track
Edinburgh tram No. 347, pictured outside Haymarket Station in 1955. Photo: Archive
2. Travelling back in time
Edinburgh trams, Nos 159 and 166, on Service 9 to Granton and Colinton, are seen on the corner of Broughton Street and Picardy Place on March 26, 1955. This is of course the spot where the new tram system stopped at York Place, before the tram line extension was opened this year. Photo: Archive
3. Shops
Up Liberton Brae, on 18 February 1956, car 23 on service No. 7 passes the shops at the junction with Wolrige Road. Photo: Dan Phillips
4. Slateford-bound
Edinburgh tram No. 58, on Service 4, is seen turning at Ardmillan Terrace into Slateford Road in the 1950s. Photo: Archive