> On 25 Mar 2017, at 5:42 pm,prescottt@... [TramsDownUnder] TramsDownUnder@...> wrote:

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> There was provision for two tracks at the original Lilyfield terminus so somebody must have had a clue then, but the operation was so quiet it wasn't mostly needed. The stroke of "genius" c ame about in design of the extension to Dulwich Hill. I don't know who the culprit is, whether TfNSW or a consultant.

>


The original Wentworth Park terminus had a single track stub on the up track alignment, that was repeated when it was extended to Lilyfield, and they did the same again at Dulwich Hill.

The “culprit” at the Dulwich Hill terminus was the brief to build the terminus as close to Dulwich Hill station as possible. The original idea was to cut back the cliff face below Bedford Cres, the street above the tram terminus, to make room for two tracks, but that would have limited car parking, and the residents in the street objected to it as well. The option of having a double track terminus around near where the substation is located, near the points for the stub, was rejected as being too far from the station. Both the substation and terminus platform impinge on space for a second track where the old Wardell Rd Jct Down East Fork was in railway times.

The only way to get a double track terminus in there now would be demolish the existing platform and have a pair of stubs with a platform between them at the current location, retaining the current single track past the substation before splitting into the pair of stub tracks. Even then space would be at a premium and a sliver of the Jack Shanahan Reserve would have to be resumed to make room for it.

Tony G