Rainworth - Kaqlinga was 73 , Toowong - Grange was 75

Keith Tidey
tramdriver#mail.com

-----Original Message-----
From: schreibmaschiner mike.johnson@...>
To:TramsDownUnder@...
Sent: Thu, Feb 4, 2010 9:12 am
Subject: [TramsDownUnder] Re: New member - Brisbane photo

rod smith wrote:

> I nominate Bardon for your photo: route 74 was Stafford - Bardon after the route closures following the Paddington fire.


It was 74 Stafford-Bardon before the fire, too.

The fire was the excuse to close four routes without warning on Christmas Eve:

Toowong
Bulimba Ferry
Rainworth
Kalinga

Pre the fire, Rainworth and Kalinga were through-worked, while Toowong ran to Grange and Bulimba Ferry ran to Ashgrove.

As Ashgrove and Grange were not affected at the time, they were interworked from then on as Route 76. The numbers that dropped out were 73 and 75. I think the latter was Rainworth-Kalinga but I am sure someone will have a list rather than a distant memory.

And yes as I said earlier, that tram is at Bardon terminus, which was in a quiet back street in the foothills of Mt Coot tha. My wife and I drove up around there a year ago for the first time in decades, and there is absolutely no sign at all now of the old tram line. The tracks remained in situ for years out there, I remember following them in the early 1970s.

Ashgrove-Grange closed in 1968 and was the first conversion of the full tram-to-bus program launched by the vandal Clem Jones, who cheered the night Paddington depot burned. The closure of Ashgrove-Grange led to a tram and bus strike that continued for weeks, sadly not over demands to keep the trams, but to ensure all tram conductors were given other council jobs when the trams were replaced by one-man buses.

mike

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