The roadside steam tram in Holland generally fulfilled the same function as the rural light railway in Britain and Ireland. There used to be a time when literally hundreds of miles of tramway track stretched out through the flat Dutch landscape, often within the tree line on the verge of a secondary road. Some tramways however were on a separate track bed of their own.

Much as in Britain, competition from road carriers forced many tramways to close or reduce services from about 1930. Motor fuel shortages during the war years saw many steam tram services reinstated, but during the late 1940s and early 1950s most lines closed down. The last to go was the 3'6" gauge Rotterdamsche Tramweg Maatschappij (RTM) to the south of Rotterdam. This, although badly damaged by the floods of 1953, soldiered on with a reduced network until 1965, introducing diesel railcars and, on the goods side, benefiting from yearly sugarbeet harvesting campaigns. Preservation started in the late 1960s.

The preserved RTM 3'6" gauge line near the village of Ouddorp is about 60 minutes by car from Rotterdam across the Haringvliet estuary barrier, or, alternatively, north on the coastal route from Flushing. The RTM preservation society found a more welcome location there after a protracted struggle with the town council of Hellevoetsluis where they used to operate out of the original RTM harbour station. A new line along the Grevelingen sea wall to a bungalow park is about 5 km in length. Apart from steam, the line has the only surviving narrow gauge diesel railcars in Holland, and a large number of original goods vehicles.

Several locomotive-type 0-6-0 engines of the 3'6" gauge Rotterdamsche Tramweg Maatschappij have survived, and three are in working order on a preserved line about an hour's drive from Rotterdam or Flushing. The RTM, in common with other narrow gauge lines, used a vacuum brake. The preserved engines were built by Orenstein & Koppel in 1915-1920 and often used to work heavy trams with up to 10 bogie carriages. They have inside cylinders, which is an uncommon feature for a narrow gauge engine, but quite usual in Dutch tram engines.

Several typical Dutch bogie carriages have been preserved as running in pre-war years. Dutch steam tramways did never go in for compartment carriages like main line railways, or British light railways. The saloon carriage with end platforms was more or less standardised. Goods stock consisted of more conventional four-wheel or bogie wagons and vans rather like Belgian metre gauge or Irish 3ft gauge stock. Where the tramway was more like a rural light railway, it was richly endowed with goods stock. The RTM even had container wagons in order to facilitate transhipment to its ferries and its isolated systems on the islands in the Southwest. One of these was restored in the late 70s by sponsorship of a modern day container company. In addition, some tramways even sported travelling post offices!

The RTM used to have a large complement of enclosed-type tram locomotives, very similar to the standard gauge example shown below. This one came from the line between The Hague and Delft, and operated on the Rotterdam municipal system during the year 1989, until it was banned due to smoke complaints.

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