Post #28

I have been able to make this post with thanks to a friend Kevin, a United aircraft engineer who was recently posted for a few weeks on a work roster. During his time there he was able to have a look around in free time and one of the visits was to the St. Kilda Tram Museum. My last trip to Adelaide the capital of the state of South Australia was possibly 50 years ago when all I had was a trusty Bolex 8mm movie camera. The results of this trip are in the big pile of movie film yet to be sorted out one day.

Adelaide - photo Kevin Waid

 

1950's electric tram network - Wikipedia

 Back in the 70's all that existed of the tramway network was a line that ran from the city to the bayside city of Glenelg. A lot of the line was in reserved track and the main infrastructure was a flyover of the main railway line. Any only the H type cars painted silver with red lining were running. But the foresite of retaining this section of tramway later led to extensions through the city to other locations. The H cars have all gone from the main system replaced by more modern units.

I am not familiar with where the following Kevins photos were taken so just enjoy them.

Virtually every capital city and various regional towns in Australia have either light railways or museums for viewing electric traction. And not forgetting the city of Melbourne that never abandoned their immense system, you could spend a lot of time travelling over it.
 Another location Kevin went to was the St. Kilda Tramway Museum, ironically at St. Kilda. It has certainly come a long way since my last visit, again I will put up a selection of his photos. Amongst the Adelaide trams there are also examples from Melbourne, Sydney and Ballarat a regional Victorian town.

 And to top it all off Kevin brought back a gift of some items they had for sale. They were two different types of employees metal passes and possibly buttons maybe off a jacket. On the metal passes the initials MTT appear that stood for the Municipal Tramways Trust the company that were responsible for operating the tramways. Established in 1906 that company lasted until December 1975 and then operated as the State Transport Authority. As they say out here: "They are going straight into the pool room" (A quote from the movie The Castle)

 I have been doing some model work on the layout, not a lot at this time but just some scenic work around the trolley stop, a fence has been erected to stop passengers falling down onto the floor. I feel as if I am working on a colouring in book, slowly chipping away to get it all finished. So here are a few photos of the progress:

Until next time..........