Enoggera...trams and intersections...and a NZ connection!

I just happened to notice a photo of the suburb of Enoggera on a former student's Pinterest board. H lives in the UK now but lived in Enoggera in her early years. The photo showed the now infamous (scene of many accidents over the years and now a well-known bottleneck during peak hour) Wardell-Samford Rd intersection but the image was from the 1960s.

Facing inbound: In the late 1960s the street scene at what locals always referred to as the Enoggera Tram Terminus...

The next photo shows a tram stopped just the other side of the intersection at the Terminus and the conductor is getting the tram ready for the return journey to Chermside.

The tram service was extended from Newmarket to Enoggera in 1949...it was a big day for the locals when the first trams trundled through! The trams were scrapped in early 1969...so just 20 years :-(

First tram to Enoggera

Over the years this road became incredibly busy as areas that had been farming or bushland  were opened up for housing farther out....

Facing Inbound; not peak hour

The former state government announced some grand plans for solving the traffic issues of this intersection before the last election in 2012. When the newly elected government announced that the state was 'broke' locals thought that the plans would be abandoned. Then in December 2012 the temporary fencing went up...

On the other side of the intersection the fencing surrounded those shops on the righthand side of the photo and a whole block of homes amongst all those trees....

Then in August 2013, the houses and shops on the righthand side outbound went...the roadworks were to begin...

Photo taken from beside where this old corner building (small photo below) had been. (Originally this was the Enoggera Post Office with 2 flats upstairs) 

Facing outbound...on this day the shops and homes on the other side of the intersection are still standing but most of the trees have been cut down. 

This work will obviously continue for quite a while as it would be classified as major roadworks.

Now I can't write a post about trams and Enoggera without sharing the following...

In 2004 DH and I were holidaying in New Zealand's South Island and one day we were driving to Ferrymead Heritage Park at Christchurch. As we got closer to the park we had to stop while an old tram carrying tourists crossed over the road...

In an amazing coincidence I noticed that the destination board said 'Enoggera'...unbelieveable! The No 72 Enoggera tram was the one that DH and I caught when we were children and here we were in NZ and an Enoggera tram passed us by! 

So the first thing we did after paying our entry fee to the park, was to find that tram and have a ride!

Here it comes...

See the destination board?

We chatted to the driver who told us that the tram had been bought for the museum quite a few years ago. After our ride, this lovely man took us on a tour of the large sheds where the restoration work takes place...and he took our photo...

We were rapt!