Return of the tram to Rochdale

Today sees the return of the Tram to Rochdale, terminating currently at the Rochdale Train Station stop on Maclure Street. A day earlier and one hundred and twenty eight years later when the tramway opened to Royton on the first of March, 1885. 
This was not the first tram. Steam trams came into operation in the area in the 1880’s. Rochdale’s trams ran on a narrow gauge of 3ft 6ins, rather than the standard 4 ft 8ins.  Rochdale’s first steam tram ran from the Wellington Hotel (now the Nile Night Club) to Buersil, then returned and made its way to Littleborough, on 7th March 1883. The trams were run by a private company – the ponderously named ‘Manchester, Bury, Rochdale and Oldham Steam Tramway Company.’ By 1902 the Rochdale Corporation had begun to operate electric trams, their first route opening on 15th May, 1902. By 1905, after the Corporation had bought out the Tram Company, the whole system was electrified. The last section to be electrified was that to Littleborough – which had been the first section to have steam trams in 1883.