Photo © Paul Haywood. Please do not re-post without permission.

London United Tramways 18 was a 30/39 seat Hurst, Nelson car on Peckham maximum traction bogies dating from 1899.
The Peckham trucks came from their factory in New York and, because British Thomson-Houston had yet to establish UK production, the electrical equipment was manufactured by General Electric, Schenectady. This batch of 100 cars was also Hurst, Nelson's first major tramcar order. They were all fitted with this rather basic top deck cover circa 1910.
Note the "broken" staircase, designed by LUT Chairman James Clifton Robinson, which made usage safer and gave an improved sight line for drivers, but the short canopy gave them no protection from the weather. This design was adopted by other operators, including the Metropolitan Electric Tramways, but no patents have been traced. It is seen at "The Hussar" terminus, Hounslow, and it had been hoped that this line from Hammersmith would have become London's first electric tramway, following a ground-breaking ceremony at Brentford by LUT Chairman James Clifton Robinson in March 1899. However, because of protracted delays caused by Kew Observatory's concern about the tramway's ground currents affecting their instrumentation, the line did not open until 6th July 1901, three months after the first line opened between Hammersmith and Acton.

This unused postcard has been heavily edited at some stage in the production process. The overhead wires, the trolley pole and the tops of the distant traction poles have been erased and the visible fingerprints are ingrained on the printed image. Perhaps the image had been intended to be "colourised" so the publisher removed them to make the skyline easier for colouring? However, the once-common, but now very rare, sewer ventilation pipe remains fully visible.

Photo from Commercial postcard, Paul Haywood collection, taken c.1910, Staines Road, Hounslow

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