Middlesbrough, Stockton and Thornaby Electric Tramways
Owner Imperial Tramways Company Limited
Opened 13th July 1898 (electric)
Operator Imperial Tramways Company Limited
Taken over 3rd April 1921 (Middlesbrough Corporation) - lines within the corporation boundary
Taken over 3rd April 1921 (Stockton-on-Tees and Thornaby-on-Tees Corporations) - lines within the corporations' boundaries
Length 9.61 miles
Gauge 3ft 7ins
Button description Elaborate script initials, 'ITCL', within a raised rim
Materials known Brass; nickel
Button Line reference [116/83]
Comment The button opposite was originally ascribed (in Button Lines, the journal of the British Button Society) to the 'Ipswich Tramway Company Limited'; however, this company did not issue its staff with uniforms (see link), so the attribution is almost certainly incorrect. A much stronger possibility, though still to be conclusively proven, is that it is an issue of the Middlesbrough, Stockton and Thornaby Electric Tramways, and its predecessor, the Middlesbrough and Stockton Tramways, both of which were wholly owned and directly worked by the Imperial Tramways Company Limited. Magnification of a studio portrait of an MS&TET conductor (see link) tentatively suggests that the buttons may indeed have borne script initials.
As part of its plans to build the electric tramway, the ITCoLtd, closed two of its local tramway concerns, the horse-drawn Middlesbrough and Stockton Tramways and Stockton and District Tramways; the latter used steam traction in Stockton and horse traction in Darlington, the systems in these two towns being completely separate.