Wolverton and Stony Stratford Tramway

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Wolverton and Stony Stratford Tramway
Locale	England
Dates of operation	1886 – 1926
Track gauge	3 ft 6 in (1067 mm)
Length	4½ miles
Headquarters	Wolverton

The Krauss steam tram

The Wolverton and Stony Stratford Tramway was a narrow gauge street tramway that ran between Wolverton in Buckinghamshire and Deanshanger in Northamptonshire via Stony Stratford (Bucks) between 1886 and 1926.

1 History
2 Locomotives
3 Memorabilia
4 References
5 See also

[edit] History

The tramway was built initially to connect the town of Stony Stratford with the London and North Western Railway's (LNWR) Wolverton railway works (and Wolverton railway station two miles to the west. It opened in 1886.

A 2½ mile long extension was opened in 1888 to serve nearby Deanshanger but the tramway company quickly ran into financial trouble and declared bankruptcy in 1889. The line was purchased by a syndicate of Bedford businessmen who reopened the Wolverton to Stony Stratford section in 1891. The Deanshanger extension never re-opened.

In the early 1920s the line was taken over by the LNWR who purchased a new Bagnall tram locomotive. After the LNWR was merged into the London Midland and Scottish Railway the line was soon closed, in 1926.

The line was unusual for a British street tramway being entirely worked by steam locomotives; indeed it was the last steam worked street tramway in the United Kingdom.

[edit] Locomotives

Builder	Type	Date
Krauss	0-4-0 tram	1886
Green	0-4-0 tram
Brown	0-4-0 tram
W.G. Bagnall	0-4-0ST	1922

[edit] Memorabilia

One of the carriages (significantly larger than a Routemaster double-decker bus) is on display at the Milton Keynes Museum on Stacey Hill (southern edge of Wolverton) and a variety of memorabilia is on display.