Bessbrook and Newry Tramway
Owner Bessbrook and Newry Tramway Company
Opened 1st October 1885 (electric)
Operator Bessbrook and Newry Tramway Company
Closed 10th January 1948
Length 3.03 miles
Gauge 3ft 0ins
Button description Pattern of button currently unknown
Comment Early photographs clearly showing staff wearing uniforms with metallic buttons (see link), however, none have come to light, suggesting that they were either plain, or that they bore a monogram or device that is not readily identifiable as an issue of the company. In later years, informal attire seems to have been the norm.
Although formally called a 'tramway', the Bessbrook and Newry was to all intents and purposes a centre-rail electric railway. It is chiefly famous for being hydroelectrically powered, and for a short stretch of road crossing where, for obvious reasons, it used overhead electric pick-up, the first regular use of this means of supply in the British Isles.