This book was first published back in 1970 and was written
by
the late Peter Atkinson and Alan Williams. It is considered by
many as the definitive work on the subject matter.
The foreword is written by J H W Salmon, the then General Manager of Hongkong Tramways Linited.
The following is a summary of the book and appears inside its front cover:- (please remember the book was published in 1970!)
"Hong
Kong, the fascinating meeting point of east and west, is a complex
amalgam of Asiatic and European influences. Reflecting this feature to
an especial degree are Hongkong tramways, with their British and
Chinese elements, which have combined to produce this efficient and
popular means of transport in the Colony from 1904 to the present day.
This book tells the story of the trams and of companies and personnel
which have operated them so outstandingly over the years despite many
hazards, of which typhoons, a passenger boycott, strikes and a foreign
occupation may be cited as examples. Today they carry 164,000,000
passenger a year over some nine miles or route: loadings rarely
surpassed anywhere in the world. The cars follow each other in
seemingly endless array through the main thoroughfares of the City of
Victoria, the island's crowded capital.
The story is begun in
1881, with the earliest proposals for tramways in the Colony. It
thereafter deals with the construction of the electric tramways and
their subsequent history, with separate chapters devoted to rolling
stock, depots and workshops, track and power supply, tickets and fares,
and welfare and labour relations. Other special matters are covered in
appendices.There is also an account of the short-lived motor bus
experiment conducted by the tramways company in Kowloon.
Well
illustrated with photographs, maps, drawings and diagrams, the book
ranges from technicalities of an engineering and traffic nature to
vivid vignettes of the street scenes encountered in the overcrowded and
exotic island, the last stronghold of the once ubiquitous double deck
tramcar. "
An updated edition of this book was published in 2017 and details of this can be found by following this link.
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