Our view is from Valentine's Series card 41086. The photograph was taken in 1903, close to the date of the opening of the tramway. It is located at the first terminus of the tramway at Blantyre with the tram carrying the original Hamilton fleet name.
The tramway started service on 22nd July 1903 under the name of the Hamilton, Motherwell and Wishaw Light Railways Co. Ltd., in which the British Thomson-Houston Co. (BTH) had a share-holding. Almost immediately the name was changed to the Lanarkshire Tramways Co. and the livery was changed from light blue and off-white to green and white. The brown colour on the postcard, and on several other cards of this era, is incorrect and is in the imagination of the publisher.
The first route was from Low Blantyre through Hamilton and Motherwell to Wishaw. It was later expanded to Larkhall, Cambuslang, Bothwell, Uddingston, Bellshill, New Stevenston and Holytown. By 1914 the system was 28½ route miles, mostly single track with passing loops, to 4ft 7¾in. gauge matching the Glasgow system which it met at Cambuslang and Uddingston, but never had through running, and operating 76 trams.
Tram 4 was one of a batch (1-25) built by the British Electric Car Co. Ltd. (BEC) of Trafford Park, Manchester in 1903 for the opening of the tramway. Each had BEC type SC60 4-wheel trucks, two General Electric 27hp GE58-6T motors and BTH B18 controllers. They were open-top with 24 seats on the lower deck and 32 on the upper.
By the late 20s the tramway was facing serious bus competition, the company themselves operating some of them, and trams were gradually withdrawn, with the last car (no. 86) running on 14th February 1931, replaced by company buses with the name now changed to the Lanarkshire Traction Company.
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