Take a tram!
Brisbane once had a fairly extensive street tramway system until 13 April 1969 when it finally closed for good. Those 54 years of loss were celebrated at the Brisbane Tramway Museum Society's museum at Ferny Grove in Brisbane last Saturday with a special twilight operation.
The tram in the photo was the very last built for the network and entered service in 1964. It was the last of a fleet of Four Motor (FM) cars first introduced in 1938 and improved over the years. This particular car was one of eight known as Phoenix cars (you can see the little Phoenix transfer under the motorman's window which were built using certain parts like trucks (bogies in railway terms) salvaged from the devastating Paddington Depot fire of 28 September 1962 when 65 trams were destroyed including 12 FM cars. This final batch named after the mythical bird, the Phoenix which was said to have risen from the ashes of its own funeral pyre. They were numbered 547-554 and this one ran the last "official tram" to Milton Workshops although two final services entered Ipswich Road depot slightly later on that fateful last night.
The fire signalled the final rundown of the Brisbane Tramway system although the nails were already in the coffin as politics in the City Council had already turned against street tramways.
Brisbane is currently building a new "Metro" which unlike all other new tramway and metro light rail systems, many of which have been built or rebuilt around the world in the last 30-40 years even in the USA where they generally met an early demise, even in Queensland where the Gold Coast has an expanding tramway line, but our supposed wonder will instead just be a glorified bus made to look like a modern tram, the ersatz tram! Disgraceful in my book!
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trams_in_Brisbane
Take a tram!
Brisbane once had a fairly extensive street tramway system until 13 April 1969 when it finally closed for good. Those 54 years of loss were celebrated at the Brisbane Tramway Museum Society's museum at Ferny Grove in Brisbane last Saturday with a special twilight operation.
The tram in the photo was the very last built for the network and entered service in 1964. It was the last of a fleet of Four Motor (FM) cars first introduced in 1938 and improved over the years. This particular car was one of eight known as Phoenix cars (you can see the little Phoenix transfer under the motorman's window which were built using certain parts like trucks (bogies in railway terms) salvaged from the devastating Paddington Depot fire of 28 September 1962 when 65 trams were destroyed including 12 FM cars. This final batch named after the mythical bird, the Phoenix which was said to have risen from the ashes of its own funeral pyre. They were numbered 547-554 and this one ran the last "official tram" to Milton Workshops although two final services entered Ipswich Road depot slightly later on that fateful last night.
The fire signalled the final rundown of the Brisbane Tramway system although the nails were already in the coffin as politics in the City Council had already turned against street tramways.
Brisbane is currently building a new "Metro" which unlike all other new tramway and metro light rail systems, many of which have been built or rebuilt around the world in the last 30-40 years even in the USA where they generally met an early demise, even in Queensland where the Gold Coast has an expanding tramway line, but our supposed wonder will instead just be a glorified bus made to look like a modern tram, the ersatz tram! Disgraceful in my book!
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trams_in_Brisbane