Via the Centennial Park Trust, a little more on the demise of Mount Lang:
http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/27533037 http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/27533037
Sydney City Council encouraging parking and undermining public transport. Well I never!
Mt Lang is in the centre of this 1930s image:
http://blog.centennialparklands.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Mt-Lang-Moore-Park.jpg http://blog.centennialparklands.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Mt-Lang-Moore-Park.jpg
The original 1881 balloon loop is defined by the double row of trams parked from left of the image (between the rows of parked cars), then along Driver Ave in front of the venues where you see one coupled set and one single car and then back to the Anzac Pde ROW at lower left where you see 6 cars (3 sets?) parked on the curve of the loop.
At the top and out of sight at the bottom are the additonal loops opened in September 1906, followed by various sidings and turnouts to make it into a multi-directional matrix of loops.
The main running lines on the ROW are at lower left, with a pair of siding tracks immediately to the right of them. The main lines are now the busway and this will be retained in operation for express buses to the northern CBD (a late decision to compensate for the slowness of the tram). CSELR will run along the location of those sidings. Near Mt Lang they will dip down into a tunnel under the busway and Anzac Pde to head west to Central Station.
And Lake Kippax at the top of the photo did end up surviving council's evil intentions for carparking! No doubt some council worthy was sitting at his desk looking at this photo and contemplating how Mt Lang could be uplifted and dropped into Lake Kippax, it was about the right size. I wonder where Mt Lang is now?
Tony P
---InTramsDownUnder@..., <prescottt@...> wrote :
Just in case somebody hasn't seen it before, Assistant Chief Traffic Manager Patrick Timmony's paper on moving crowds in Sydney:
http://ecotransit.org.au/ets/files/keep/EcoTransitSydney_200104_LoT_Number_1.pdf http://ecotransit.org.au/ets/files/keep/EcoTransitSydney_200104_LoT_Number_1.pdf
Note in the closing paragraph the polite but firm dig at Sydney City Council for introducing car parking at Moore Park. In the previously posted photo, taken around the same time as Timmony's paper, there are some 60 trams visible, just within the frame alone.
http://blog.centennialparklands.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Mt-Lang-Moore-Park.jpg http://blog.centennialparklands.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Mt-Lang-Moore-Park.jpg
The 1943 Sydney aerial shows that Mt Lang was still there then but in its location now is the training oval known appropriately as Tramway Oval. Despite its name, it has been defended stoutly by the rugby fraternity against the incursion of new tramways. To cement that, the Tibby Cotter bridge has been built in the path of any possible invasion of tram tracks into the area to bring patrons closer to the venues. Definitely can't have trams around Tramway Oval.
In the second film clip of the three here, again taken around the same time in the 1930s, you can see how much of a congestion problem for the trams that cars are already causing:
http://aso.gov.au/titles/historical/sydney-tramways/clip1/ http://aso.gov.au/titles/historical/sydney-tramways/clip1/
In the first clip at Randwick you see a most un-heavy rail scene where the crowd is constantly moving from the venue onto the transport without building up into a stationary mass. The racecourse exit was designed with exactly the right number of gates to filter the crowd through at a rate at which they could board trams without waiting. Just brilliant and something we'll surely never see again because apparently we're much cleverer nowadays aren't we?
Tony P