known experiments with steam trams were in 1881 when he arranged with the Wigan Tramways Company to try out a steam locomotive he had designed for tramways. A Wilkinson engine weighed about eleven tons, carried 160 gallons of water and had a bunker capable of carrying nine cubic feet of coke. It was a vertical engine with a vertical boiler. The cylinders were of small bore and acted upon a crankshaft through which motion was communicated to the four coupled wheels by cog-wheel gears. Exhaust steam was not condensed but was superheated in a patent contrivance in the firebox whence it escaped to the atmosphere through the chimney. Over 200 Wilkinson engines were built between 1881 and 1886, however, the early popularity of this design outstripped the production capacity of the Wilkinson firm, and other companies manufactured them to the Wilkinson patent. Despite their general reliability, they were not as successful as other manufacturers and production practically ceased in 1886. A Wilkinson engine cost between £600 and £1,100, and an estimate of the running costs (wages, fuel, water, stores, housing, repairs, maintenance and depreciation over 20 years) is around 6d per mile. In 1885 a double deck, top covered, bogie tram had been purchased from Starbucks specifically for operation behind the steam tram. The tramcar had two small oil lamps fitted into the bulkheads and inside it was so dark at night that the conductor had to use a portable lamp clipped to his belt. The tram’s upper deck had back to back ‘knifeboard' seating running the length of the vehicle and whilst the passengers were protected from smoke and soot by the roof, the sides were open from the modesty rails upwards. The tramcar had a coloured signal light outside and a cord running the length of the saloon, connected with a gong on the engine, for signalling purposes. Steam trams relied upon their weight and adhesion for propulsion and as the town streets were badly paved, dirt, stones, manure and water got into the rail grooves. Water boys and track cleaners were employed to clean out the rail grooves with long iron bars, which they dragged along the rails, it being essential to ensure the wheel flanges ran fully in the grooves, to allow the wheel tread to grip the track. The specification of performance was strict, the vehicle had to be silent, had to emit no smoke