Colchester Tram Edwardian Greeting Birthday Card by Transport Artist Malcolm Root

The Colchester Tramway opened in 1904, with a fleet of 16 trams, to provide modern transport through a town which dated back to Roman times. The trams, supplied by Dick Kerr & Company, had booms made by the British Electric Wagon & Carriage Co at Preston, mounted on Brill 21E trucks

In the picture, tram no.10 is seen ascending Lexden Hill in the afternoon, on its way to the tram terminus. In Colchester, the trams worked out of a depot in Magdalen Street in the centre of town. Trams were a quiet, economical and pollution-free mode of transport, the disadvantages being the multitude of wires and the rails, which could be hazardous to older motor vehicles. The trams of Colchester were replaced from 1928.