Our postcard is of the official opening ceremony of the Pontypridd Urban District Council's electric tramway on 6th March 1905. It is outside the council's offices and shows car 8 with two others of the same type. The card was published by Thomas Forrest and Sons of the Cambrian Studio, Pontypridd in March 1905 and our copy was posted shortly after the event.
The 3ft 6in gauge tramway in Pontypridd began life as the Pontypridd & Rhondda Valley horse tramway, which had opened in 1887. The Pontypridd section was taken over by Pontypridd UDC and rebuilt in 1904. The Rhondda Valley section was bought by the Rhondda Tramways Co., which started running in 1908. Pontypridd expanded their tramway to Cilfynydd giving a total of just under five and a half miles of route. Although the two tramways met at the Trehafod boundary, through running did not take place until 1919 and only lasted eight years.
Pontypridd UDC had 25 double-deck and 6 single-deck trams, with a maroon and cream livery. The main depot was Glyntaff (at Treforest), with a smaller depot until 1920 at Trehafod, where the single-deckers operating that route at the time were shedded. Tram 8 and the two others in our postcard view were from the batch of six open-top 46 seat double-deck cars (7-12) built in 1904 by the Brush Electrical Engineering Co. Ltd. of Loughborough. They had Brill 22E maximum-traction bogies, two 37hp GE 58-4T motors and BTH B18 controllers.
Traffic volumes deteriorated and in 1930 the Cilfynydd-Treforest route was replaced by trolleybuses. Motor buses later took over the Trehafod route with the tram system closing on 30th August 1931. The Rhondda Tramways closed three years later. The trolleybuses were replaced by motor buses in January 1957.
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