On 19/05/2017 4:43 PM, 'Dudley Horscroft'transitconsult@... [TramsDownUnder] wrote:
>

> Was Melbourne's cable tram track in good order despite age because of the low axle load of the cable cars?

>

In general, probably so.
However, my point was more about the electric tramways that replaced the cable tramways being much newer than Sydney for example when the crunch was on in the 1950s.

The cable tramways were just not up to the task of carrying the sort of loading arising from Melbourne's growth and the MMTB was quite clear that they had to be replaced by electric trams.

I have just picked up a treasure trove of documents from a former MMTB employee.
One is a 1920s letter to the MMTB from a well meaning correspondent suggesting that they could avoid overhead wiring in the city area by having the new electric trams towed by cable grip cars in the city!

Mal Rowe - who noticed that another big Aussie city fell for a 'crackpot scheme' with the same aim quite recently.