Waiting for peak hour! - a photo on Flickriver

            Preserved trams at the Brisbane Tramway Museum Society premises in Ferny Grove, Brisbane. From left to right, Four Motor (FM) tram 429, the first FM tram no. 400 (recently restored) and older drop centre tram no. 341. Space and costs are always at a premium but it worries me that if there was a fire, precious trams would be lost for good. Not so outrageous really given Brisbane's history and the total destruction of the Paddington Tram Depot and 67 trams on 28 September 1962 which included many trams of both types seen here.

"Brisbane's tram system

Brisbane established its first horse tram in 1885. It's a hilly city, so this must have been tough for horses. Electric operation was introduced in 1897 with some imported trams, but local construction soon began. From 1907, single truck ten-bench trams were introduced, and in 1908, the two bogie dreadnought commenced service.
In 1923 the tramways were brought under one management, the Brisbane Tramways Trust, but two years later, the Brisbane City Council took over. It immediately set about modernising the fleet. The dropcentre tram appeared that year, and in 1938 the new streamlined FM was introduced.

By 1952, the network had expanded to 109 route kilometres (199 km of track). Ten years later, Brisbane trams were still going strong, despite the fact that trams had disappeared from many other Australian cities, and in spite of being under the control of a fiercely anti-tram Lord Mayor. Mayor Clem Jones, a member of the Labor Party, had views on public transport which were directly opposite to most in his party. He was quoted as saying that his ideal was for the working man to be driving his own car, not catching a tram.

But disaster struck. On 28-Sep-1962 Paddington tram depot just happened to catch fire, and burnt to the ground, destroying 65 trams. Old Dreadnought trams were pressed into service, and 8 replacement (Phoenix) trams were built, but Jones began to close lines almost immediately. Final closure came in April 1969.

One of those "Alice Through the Looking Glass" experiences that one often has when looking at Queensland politics has come again. The former National Party (conservative) State Government portrayed itself as pro-public transport, and the (then) opposition Labor Party as anti-PT (a la Clem Jones, 30 years ago), a claim which has a credibility problem anywhere else in the country. It proposed a new tram system for Brisbane, BrizTram, as an election stunt, but few people outside Queensland expected that it would ever be built afterwards (and perhaps few in Queensland either). But that government did not survive the election, and the new Labor Government has killed off the proposal. The Nationals can still claim that they are pro-public transport (since they did not have to follow through), and that Labor is anti- etc. etc. Everyone is happy. But there are no trams."

Taken on: April 16, 2023

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Trolleys

Trams

car barn

Brisbane Tramway Museum Society, Ferny Grove, Brisbane

Drop Centre Trams

Four Motor, FM trams

Brisbane Trams « less

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