Last Sunday...Part 1

Last Sunday I went out to lunch with some school friends. After lunch we visited the Brisbane Tramways Museum at Ferny Grove. We were ready for some fun, some nostalgia and a lot of reminiscing! And we were not disappointed on any of those counts...

We purchased our tickets from the office which looked suspiciously like one of those temporary (demountables) blocks that schools used to have...even down to the louvre windows!

But there was no time to look at the displays as the first lot of tram rides were starting.

An old tram stop...

Some different tram stop signs...for the safety zones I think...

The first tram we rode was built in the early 1900s and the workmanship was beautiful...timber and coloured glass and even some little kerosene lanterns.

Our driver was Kevin and he filled us in with all the history of each tram...then he drove the tram up the hill and then back down...talk about 'pedal to the metal'...he raced each of those trams up the hill and we of course were giggling with delight...

A closer look at those glass panels...

Those early trams were a bit of a struggle to climb up into...we commented that it must have been difficult for ladies of the day with their long dresses...this next tram was built  circa 1910...wouldn't want it to rain?

This is the third tram that we rode in and it dates back to the 1920s. It is a shorter tram than usual; designed that way so it wouldn't bottom out on the run up Edward St in the city...

The fourth tram ride of the day was in a tram that was quite familiar from my childhood...the so called 'drop centre' trams.

 See the sign in the photo below? You could smoke in the tram as long as you were behind that black line painted on the ceiling...

We were shown the 'people catcher' on the front of this tram. If a person fell under the tram (after too many ales perhaps?) the bar at the front would be tripped and release the 'catcher' that would scoop the person up and stop them being run over by the wheels.

Some information about drop centre trams...

But I must show you some of the advertisements we saw in these trams...

The last type of tram we rode in was from the Phoenix Class; so named as these trams were built from chassis etc retrieved from the infamous Paddington Depot fire of 1962 when 65 trams were destroyed. Foto Fanatic; Your Brisbane's Past and Present blog wrote a great post about this fire here, and even included a news' video.

Here, Kevin drives Tram Car 554 out of the shed, ready for us to hop on...

These trams were the swish 'new ones' when I was a child...the seats were much nicer and the windows were easier to open etc...and you didn't get wet if it rained! lol

I've forgotten our conductor's name but I must mention that he is wearing the navy blue uniform that DH first wore when he was a tram conductor in his late teens. The uniform changed to an olive colour not long after DH started.

 My friends and I love to take photos of our group and yesterday was no exception...

And every time the tram rides went past the old bin of the type that used to be at various points around Brisbane, especially near tram and bus stops, I said I must get a photo of that...and I did! I loved those bins as a child...maybe I was a bit strange! lol

Next post I'll write about another Brisbane tram that went overseas when our trams were scrapped as public transport.