Hi Tony,
Ron Murray, one of the early SPER members [like me] had a Jowett Javelin saloon car. Re the Sunbeam motor cycle. Did these have a shaft drive instead of a chain ?
My first wheels was an Italian Lambretta motor scooter. I bought it in 1949 from the Sydney hardware store Nock and Kirbys near the north end of the Queen Victoria building at George and Market St. Sydney. The Lambretta had a 125cc two stroke engine [needing oil with the petrol] and also shaft drive. The horn sounded like a sick locust and when stopped at an intersection at night, the headlight faded to a dim yellow.
At various times the Lambretta took me to Wollongong [both ways via Bulli Pass] and also for a weekend to photograph trams in Newcastle [see attachment]. On that trip, I travelled via the old Pacific Highway through Gosford, Swansea and Adamstown. I stayed overnight at the Newcastle station RRR and parked the scooter at the signal engineer’s office which still stands near Platform 4 with a big gap in the building for buses.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1948_Lambretta_B_scooter_(5957287960)_cropped.JPG 1948 Lambretta B scooter (5957287960) cropped.JPG
The demise of the Lambretta ended on a rainy day
when it skidded on the wet tram line in Pacific Highway near the Mater Hospital at North Sydney. It did a wobble like you see at Phillip Island moto GP and I ended up on the road with the scooter’s front assembly wrecked.
My next vehicle was an 850cc Morris Minor which was more stable. On an overnight car rally I drove it over the Mt Panorama circuit at Bathurst during a snowfall. I toured over various Sydney tram routes including Neutral Bay in the Morris Minor [see attachment].
At one time I bought a tram gong at Randwick Workshops and fitted it in the roomy engine compartment with a button operated solenoid to sound sly ‘dong dongs’ in appropriate tramway locations. Ben Parle also had a Morris Minor and he also fitted it with a tram gong. The favourite place to stop was at night [after AETA meetings] in Eddy Avenue under the tram bridge at the Pitt St end. At appropriate quiet times I would give two dongs on the gong. The frequent result was that the signal for the turn from Eddy Avenue towards Railway Square was cleared by the Rawson Place signalman for the ‘phantom’ tram which never appeared. Tram fans were a bit wicked in those years.
Noel Reed. ‘Guilty your worship’
From:TramsDownUnder@... [mailto:TramsDownUnder@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Friday, 13 October 2017 6:00 PM
To:TramsDownUnder@...
Subject: Re: [TramsDownUnder] Geelong - the Tramway Centre
As usual, these terrific Geelong pics have more of interest than immediately meets the eye.
The car in the bottom left of the picture is none other than the rare and unusually advanced for its day Jowett Javelin, one of the many could-have-been-awesome products of the postwar British car and motorcycle industry. The Javelin’s motorcycle equivalent is probably the BSA made Sunbeam S7/8, intended to be a “BMW beating luxury tourer”, but wasn’t up to it :
Great Motoring Disasters: Jowett Javelin | Motoring Research https://www.motoringresearch.com/car-news/features/great-motoring-disasters-jowett-javelin/
About Sunbeam Motorcycles https://www.stewartengineering.co.uk/sunbeams.asp
Tony G
On 13 Oct 2017, at 12:02 pm, Mal Rowemal.rowe@... [TramsDownUnder] TramsDownUnder@...> wrote:
Geelong's 'Tramway Centre' was at the intersection of Moorabool and
Ryrie St where there was a double track H crossing.
Today's pic looks south across that intersection - towards Belmont. The
double track ends immediately after the intersection.
Also shown is one of the two traffic lights unique to Geelong - this set
with a sign advising a Melbourne style 'hook turn'.
Mal Rowe - no stranger to hook turns
<Bogie-cars_City-stop_MooraboolSt.jpg>
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Posted by: Tony Galloway arg@...>
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