What stopped steam buses taking over the streets of Launceston?

Many people looked to steam and electric carriages as an alternative.

These innovations didn't run away with the passenger, or throw them, or cover the streets with smelly excrement.

Feed and agistment for mechanical carriages were cheaper, they went faster, and damaged roads less.

In fact, cars and buses would have come much earlier if they hadn't been lumbered with heavy taxes, speed limits, and required flagmen walking ahead.

After completion of Duck Reach in 1895, reliable power made electric trams feasible, except that they required a system of tracks to be built.

This delayed their introduction.

Meanwhile, the smoke and slow heating-up problem of steam carriages had been solved with the invention of the Clarkson kerosene-fuelled steam engine in England.

Its "ingenious mechanism" (as The Examiner observed) vaporised the fuel and mixed it with air prior to entering the burner. Perfect combustion could be achieved with no smoke or smell.

Water piped through 600 narrow tubes was rapidly converted to steam to power the double high-pressure cylinders, creating a silent power train and smooth, powerful and fast locomotion.

A steam omnibus ran in Launceston over the summer racing carnival of 1904-5, proving the viability and reliability of a service.

The following June the Launceston Motor Omnibus Co was formed at the Mechanics' Institute by James Barclay, Charles Dempster and others.

They bought the existing bus, commissioned Fred Paine to build another, and began erecting a headquarters in Brisbane St, near Wellington St.

In September 1905 they commenced a service running to Newstead, ordering two more buses from England.

Unfortunately, a strike over there delayed the arrival of the new vehicles, while they had no spare parts for the two existing ones.

Still, things seemed to be going well enough.

The second two buses arrived in 1906 and the service expanded.

At the end of the year a new manager was appointed from Melbourne - Mr AFJ Steele.

Shortly after, however, the company ceased operations.

Why was never explained, though people muttered about maintenance issues preventing a profit.

In September 1907 the last of the company's four steam buses joined its fellows, sold to Melbourne.

"Horse buses appear now to have undisputed possession of suburban traffic until the arrival of the trams," said The Examiner.

The Launceston Motor Omnibus Co Ltd finally wound up in June 1908.

The "undisputed possession" of the streets by horses only lasted for four years.

In 1911 our first electric trams entered service.

Despite a major innovation in the 1920s, enabling steam buses to power up from cold in just 40 seconds, trams would dominate the Launceston passenger market for the next 36 years.

Until diesel buses began on the Trevallyn route in 1947.