DC using overhead transmission – giving it the distinction of having used three forms of regular locomotive power over the years (i.e. horse, steam and electricity). Trials began on 6 July 1928 and full electric services were introduced on 2 March 1929, using a fleet of eleven double-deck cars built by the Brush Electrical Engineering Co of Loughborough, in Leicestershire. These were the largest ever built for service in Britain and each could seat 106 passengers. Furthermore, they were frequently operated in pairs, giving a total seating capacity of 212 per train. Two further cars were added later, bringing the fleet strength up to thirteen. A four-wheeled petrol-mechanical locomotive was acquired from Hardy Railmotors of Slough, then in Buckinghamshire, to handle the residual goods traffic on the railway, but this proved to be underpowered and was replaced after a few years by a diesel-mechanical locomotive from John Fowler & Co, of Leeds. The Hardy locomotive was retained for a few years and used for shunting the cars in the depot, which was on the site of the former carriage sheds, adjacent to the Rutland Street terminus, and for inspection of the overhead line equipment, but it had been dismantled by 1954, when parts were used in the construction of a replica horse-drawn car to celebrate the line's 150th anniversary. Sale In 1958, The South Wales Transport Company (the principal operator of motor bus services in the Swansea town area and predecessor of the modern-day First Cymru company) purchased the railway from the old owning companies (the Swansea & Mumbles Railway Limited and the Mumbles Railway & Pier Company), having previously been the lessee in succession to the Swansea Improvements & Tramways Company since the 1930s, and the following year went to Parliament with an Abandonment Bill. Despite vociferous local opposition, the Bill became law as the South Wales Transport Act 1959. Closure The railway was closed in two stages. The section from Southend to the Pier was closed on 11 October 1959 to facilitate the construction of a special road to the Pier for the buses that were to replace the trains. Then, at 11.52 on Tuesday 5 January 1960, the last train (a ceremonial special, carrying local dignitaries) left Swansea for Mumbles driven by Frank Dunkin, who had worked on the railway since 1907. Within a very short time of the train returning to the Rutland Street depot, work