History of Hong Kong Trams Renumbering

There are a total of 165 trams operating in Hong Kong, numbered from 1 to 175. Most trams keep the same number throughout their life, but there have been several cases where the tram's number was changed. The exact reasons can be difficult to trace, but they include trams given a new number for a role in a film, and others that were changed to leave behind a bad reputation. 

Here are details of all the changes I've discovered, starting with the earliest I know of from soon after WW2:

Works car 150

Trams became fully double decked in 1925 “Pre-war style”, but single-deck works tram 150 had drawn attention in an off-track accident in 1950, and might be the only proof that single-deckers existed in post-war times. It was probably the former 15 of third-class and was renumbered to avoid the confusion with the double decker 15. On 10 March 1950, works car 150 jumped off the track when passing the scissors crossover near Statue Square, luckily there were no injuries, and eventually another tram assisted to move it back to the track.

Shanghai 22

Tram 139 masqueraded as ‘Shanghai Tramways 22’ in the Shaw Brothers film “Shanghai Surprise”, starring Madonna and Sean Penn. The filming took place on Catchick Street in the morning of 12 February 1986, being the fourth day in the Chinese Year of the Tiger, surrounded by hundreds of passers-by.

100

In September 1989 tram 100, pending for scrapping, was temporarily renumbered 201 (note the faint "100" on the top left corner) and fitted with five 45 gallon water drums as a sprinkler car, maintaining its Chubb advertising with its gates removed. Car 201 was withdrawn at Whitty Street Depot the next year. Interestingly, the new car 100 entered service as car 201 was still operating as a sprinkler car. The new 100 also bore the overall blue Chubb livery. 

202-204

For filming purposes, three cars were renumbered 202, 203 and 204 in November 1990. Car 202 was renumbered from 56 (temporarily chalked on the fender), and was repainted in typical 1950s-style (“Post-war” style), with a small fleet number above the headlamp. One of those was appeared in the film 阿飛正傳 Days of Being Wild. However, it is not known which cars masqueraded as 203 and 204.

44, 144

In Chinese tradition the sound of ‘four’ (sei) in Cantonese, is almost a homophone with the word for ‘death’. Apparently advertisers did not want such connotations upon trams where their products would be promoted. Hong Kong Tramways hence decided in 1992 and 1993 to renumber trams 44 and 144 to 165 and 166, respectively.

When 165 was pending scrapping in 2016, a chalked ‘44’ was found at the bottom of the bulkhead, indicating its identity. As for 166, the vanished number “144” is hidden in the front lower deck of current car 166, which number can be seen on the fare box. There were never trams numbered 164 and 167, as ‘164’ sounds like “continuously die”. Some advertisers even dislike number 164 as it seems to echo the date of the 1989 Tiananmen Square issue. 167 sounds like “continuously jump-off the tracks”.  

63, 71, 85 and 134

Since year 2000 onwards car numbers 63, 71, 85 and 134 have been missing. One possible explanation is that Hong Kong Tramways regarded these trams as ‘unlucky’ due to their accident records. Car 63 jumped off the track and collided with a bus along Kennedy Town Praya, near Sai Cheong Street on 24 April 2001; 20 passengers were injured. A fatal accident occurred with car 85 on 22 April 2002 and another fatal incident at Whitty Street Depot in summer 2005, accelerated its “disappearance”.  

There are no details about the accidents involving 71 and 134, which apparently prompted their vacancies. Car 71 was "gone" in 2002 and probably rebuilt as works car 300 (scrapped in March 2024). The above "unlucky" cars did not dismantle directly but put to renumbering - 63 was renumbered as 5, car 85 was renumbered to 61 and 134 was renumbered 124. Hence, the original bodies of 5, 61 and 124 were scrapped. New numbers 171, 173, 174 (initially nos. 1, 2 and 3) and 175 seem to have replaced the aforementioned vacant numbers.

The mystery of trams 12 and 30

In June 1987 tram 12 was the first car to receive a new body and new underframe from local industry. This replaced the ‘post-war’ body built in 1952 that had gone to Vancouver in 1985 for the Expo there. Meanwhile, tram 30 of 1988 had been used experimentally with full-height gates instead of the traditional half-height gates. For some reason tram 30 was reported as ‘scrapped’ in 2002 and the vacancy has lasted for a few years. In fact, the original 1987-body of tram 12 was scrapped in 2002, a tiny black written number was noticed on the lower right-hand corner of the dash. While tracing the identity of tram 12 a hidden ‘30’ was found under the bench, as well as a chalked ‘30’ on the bulkhead of 12 prior to its scrapping in 2016, indicating this should be the original 30.

Trams 29 and 88

Around Millennium Year it was noticed that the body of 29 was discarded at Whitty Street Depot whilst a ‘new’ 29 had replaced it in public service from an unknown identity. In October 2006 the discarded body of 29 was stripped down (with roof box number erased) and rebuilt as the ‘new’ 30. In other words, ‘new’ 29 is possibly the former 888, a dummy car built in 1996 used for fire evacuation exercise and temporary meal car. 29 has recently scrapped in April 2024.

In March 2014, car 30 crashed and was soon returned to service after repairing, but then withdrew and stripped down in the depot. A few months later a ‘new’ 30 was seen in the street and the only proof given that it was renumbered from 88 was the painted number on the flat top of the roof at the rear end. A chalked ‘29’ was found on the bulkhead of car 30, which was eventually rebuilt as TramOramic 68. To make way for the tour tram, former 68 was renumbered to 81 in 2015. Moreover, a new air-conditioned 88 with hopper vents was built in the summer of 2014 and went in service on 6 June 2016, and replaced the former 171 of 2002, prototype of the first air-conditioned tram having full enclosed windows.

Intriguingly, 123 and 158, both involved in overturned accidents in 2017 and 2019, are still using. Signature 158 renumbered 59 after repairing (a tiny marked "158" was noticed on the auto-flap gate stand behind the discarded 59), and a new 158 was built afterwards.

Further number changes

Here are some exceptions to the renumbering that are not related to tram accidents.

New Signature trams are without fleet numbers on the roof. In 2015 Signature 43 was rebuilt in line with Iconic tram 15 ending an adverts promotion. Tram 15 was discarded and the former 43 renumbered to 15. In addition, to make way for a new truck set no. 100, Signature 43 was soon renumbered to 100, thus former tram 100 was renumbered to 43. At the rear end of the roof the marked ‘100’  still can see beneath the new painted ‘43’.  Afterwards, a new 106 in place of the one scrapped, was in fact renumbered from former new 101 built in 2013.

As to car 48, the only tram re-paneled in 2010, rebuilt as Tram No. 18 and a ‘new’ 48, renumbered from 21, resumed service (a tiny "21" was marked on the destination screen panel). In 2018 car 46 was swapped with 110 for testing the LED panel, which eventually launched as "Bright Ring Tram" in 2019.

As of mid-2024, trams 9, 29, 48, 73 and 97 are temporarily not in service, of which 9 was modified as a Giant Moving Billboard Tram 300 for the 120th Anniversary of Hong Kong Tramways.

The overall renumbering record is as follows: 

For those with ( ) indicates former numbers.

Best regards,

Joseph,
Hong Kong Trams Culture Preservation Society