Cowboys Ted, Cowboys. The Light Railway/Tramway Bubble of the 1880s

Sponge Bob

Baronial Guarantees under " The Tramways Act, 1883."

"No sooner was the act passed than many energetic individuals set themselves to the promotion of numberless schemes for opening up the more inaccessible parts of the country by the construction of tramways and light railways. Many of these schemes had little substance in them, and were apparently started more with a view to the profit of the promoters than to the good of the public."


But thanks to these "numberless schemes" a railway later came to be built from Tuam to Claremorris and another from Claremorris to Colooney and there it remains to the present day. However those schemes required a further Act of Parliament and the removal of the baronial guarantee.



This piece was written in 1884


http://www.tara.tcd.ie/bitstream/2262/8684/1/jssisiVolVIIIPartLXII_556560.pdf




Baronial Guarantees under " The Tramways Act, 1883.

"ANYONE who has watched the progress of business at the last spring
assizes in Ireland, must have been struck by the interest exhibited
in, and the time and attention devoted to the question of the construction
of tramways in accordance with the provisions of the
Tramways Act of 1883. No sooner was the act passed than many
energetic individuals set themselves to the promotion of numberless
schemes for opening up the more inaccessible parts of the country
by the construction of tramways and light railways. Many of these
schemes had little substance in them, and were apparently started
more with a view to the profit of the promoters than to the good of
the public. Persons who had been aware that tramway legislation
had been going on for over twenty years with regard to Ireland,
were rather surprised at the sudden interest now exhibited in the
subject. The cause of the change, however, lay in the fact that
under previous acts all the risk and expenses of constructing, maintaining, and working the lines had to be borne by the promoters
themselves, while the act of last session introduced the important
principle of allowing baronial guarantees to be given for such purposes.

In a paper read before the Statistical Society in May, 1882, Mr.
John A. Walker gave a useful and interesting epitome and review
of the tramway legislation since the Act of i860. He also added
some suggestions as to how advantage should be taken of this legislation,
and how the benefits which it was intended to bestow should
be secured. The difficulties which stood in the way were twofold—
first, to obtain the order in council permitting the construction of
the line, and, second, and more serious, to obtain the capital wherewith
to work it.

Mr. Walker suggested three methods by which the latter difficulty might be got over.

One—to get a number of
gentlemen interested in opening up a certain district to become security
to a bank for a sum sufficient to construct the line and provide
a reasonable amount of rolling stock.

Another, to get a contractor
with plenty of capital, to pay him a good price in shares, and let him
finance the scheme.

The third and better plan was to obtain a
baronial guarantee.

The act of the past session recognizes the principle
of the last method, and hence the activity exhibited in every
part of the country by tramway promoters. Much disappointment
has however been expressed in various directions at the unwillingness
of grand juries to give the necessary guarantee, and in many
instances even to approve of the schemes submitted to them. The
opposition offered by ratepayers has been, in the majority of cases,
successful. This has resulted from the doubt that naturally has
arisen, whether the proposed line will pay the dividend at 4 per cent,
or 5 per cent, asked for, over and above the expenses of working
and maintaining the undertaking. When grand juries reflected that
few even of the most successful of Irish tramway and railway lines
have been able to pay a similar dividend on their capital, they might
well pause before they involved themselves, and the ratepayers whose
interest they represented, in such a liability. Thus—of forty Irish
railway companies included in the Board of Trade returns for 1882,
upwards of twenty-three paid no dividends at all on their ordinary
capital, while nine paid under 4 per cent., and only eight exceeded
that amount."



<snippage>

"Naturally, numberless companies will be found willing to undertake any scheme, no matter what its ultimate prospects of success, if a certain return is guaranteed them. Five per cent, will be paid no matter what is
earned, and it is needless to say that under such a state of affairs the
zealousness and constant vigilance so characteristic of private undertakings will in all likelihood be altogether wanting. These considerations will show that the grand juries, in exhibiting a disinclination to give baronial guarantees to tramway schemes, were only acting with reasonable caution and commendable foresight."


Reasonable caution was no longer required once the Treasury Grant replace the Baronial Guarantee in 1889 under the Light Railway ( Balfour ) Act.

corktina

whereas in 1883 there was probably no better way to provide rural transport, within a couple of decades, an alternative that was both more flexible and cheaper was available and yet 100 or so years later, here we are with vested interests trying to re-open one of these lines without even the slim reasons that were there to build them in the frst place.

gobnaitolunacy

Although his tramway work pre dated the Act mentioned by the OP (he would have taken advantage of the earlier 1870 Tramways Act I imagine), thought I'd add a link to this colourful character, for his Irish tramway involvement...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Francis_Train

'Although his trams were popular with passengers, his designs had rails that stood above the road surface and obstructed other traffic'