Trolly car towed behind trams | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Trolly car towed behind trams

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, didn't trams on HK island tow a trolly car behind?  When did that practice discontinue and why?  As far as I could remember, there weren't any serious accidents occured when the trollys were in use, so I assume safety was NOT the issue. The trollys almost  increased the occupancy by more than 50% and helped ease the congestion tremendously.    

Forum: 


1965 Due to passenger demand, single deck trailer was introduced. The trailer was attached to the back of ordinary tramcar and designed to serve first class passengers only. The maximum capacity was 36 persons for each trailer. 

1966 As trailers were well accepted by passengers, 22 single deck trailers were deployed in the fleet during 1966 - 67. Although trailers played a significant role in the tramways, they were finally withdrawn from the service in 1980s.

[Wikipedia: they were not economical to run - requiring a separate conductor - and used to de-rail frequently."

http://www.hktramways.com/en/museum/index.html

Photos of those trollys must be scarce because yours was the first one I could find.  Even the archives link that you provided, I failed to find any other photos depicting the trollys.  Admittedly, I really liked those trollys which the seats were roomy and there was NO standing allowed so no one could hovering over my head or crowded me in (I was a kid then).

Surprised to learn that there were frequent derailments which I could recall. I bet you the double decker buses are much more dangerous all the way around.

Correction to my previous posting:  It should read, "I could NOT recall any frequent derailments."

I wish there was an "edit" and/or feature in this forum.

Some tram trailers can be seen on this page:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/malawirail/sets/72157594439605326/

As far as I can remember, they were noisy and slow and required the presence of an extra conductor. Later to cut costs, the trams like the buses went into one man operations without the presence of a conductor.

there is an edit feature, but i suspect you need to have registered to use it. Also, once someone replies to your post, the facility to edit is turned off on that post.

Thanks, I will look into it.

Yes,  I still remember the conductors on the trams.  I also remember several ppl were arrested for impersonating the conducts to collect fares from passengers.  Funny!

Philk:  You were absolutely correct that once I signed in to post a message, there is an option to edit.  TX!

The first trailer was in service in 1964 and modified to a double decker in 1979. There was an accident on trailer-hauler in 1966. The last trailer was built by HKT in 1967.

Regards, Joseph

Found this one on flickr:

Typical view of Wan Chai in 1970s-1980s
Typical view of Wan Chai in 1970s-1980s, by HKLray

 

Tram and trailer
Tram and trailer, by Andrew Suddaby

I took this photograpoh in August 1981.  I was looking West with the police flats on the right.  Victoria and Murray barracks were on the left.