The earliest trams were single-decker horse-drawn trams, but later purchases were double-deckers, operated by
Leeds Tramways Company. The last of these ran in 1901. Steam trams were also used until full electrification. Throughout most of the twentieth century, the tramway used a mixture of bus-style and
balloon trams, both in double-decker formation. The system of collection by trams from the overhead wiring was unusual in that it used bow collectors rather than poles, obviating the need to turn the pole round at each terminus. Even when other cities were abandoning their tramways in the 1940s, Leeds continued to modernise its system. Two prototype modern single-deck trams (somewhat similar to those used in continental European cities) were built in the early 1950s, receiving a purple-and-cream livery for the coronation, and operating on route 3 to Roundhay in 1953 – perhaps because this followed a segregated track along Roundhay Road to the popular attraction of Roundhay Park. These two were a conventional air-and-magnetic-braked vehicle (601) and an
all-electric "vambac" car (602). The latter now resides in the Crich tramway museum along with an earlier experimental single-deck tram purchased from Sunderland. This was rebuilt as Leeds number 600 around the time 601 and 602 were built, but was painted in a red-and-cream livery. In the early 1950s (1951), Leeds purchased 90
"Feltham" secondhand trams (dating from 1931), from
London Transport. By this period, Leeds tramcars were normally painted in red. ==Closure==