G’day Mal & All,

Pedantically speaking, these are really electric tram crossings which for the first of its years had cable trams routed across the right angle.

These crossings would have been installed when the first electric tram conversion reached the intersection.
The only drawing that I have seen for such a crossing, is the one at Fitzroy and Grey St in St Kilda where the Electric Street Railway crossed the Esplanade cable.
These crossings were a serious bit of gear, due to the fact that the provision of the cable tunnel split the whole construction in half.
The rails were all supported by beams / channels.
A drawing of a cable H crossing would have been most interesting.

Most of the other City intersections would have been altered / converted when the second direction was electrified.

Market Street routes were converted to buses and it was not connected to the electric system & William Street until during WW2.
Due to the war, resources may not have been available to alter the crossing..

Hoping that this provokes more thoughts

Regards
Kevin

From: Mal Rowe
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2018 4:52 PM
To:tramsdownunder@...
Subject: [TramsDownUnder] Cable track and Electric trams

On 12/12/2018 0 8:46 , Mal Rowe wrote:

> It's the only example I can think of where a piece of cable tramway

> was re-used for electric trams.

On 12/12/2018 12:50, Tram Gunzle wrote:
But not the only one built by the M&MTB to electric tram standards - can you think of another ?

I'm assuming you mean the track in Lonsdale St connecting the Carlton and North Carlton routes with West Melbourne route - which got to be used for electric trams because the Carlton / North Carlton routes were replaced by buses.

The one that I have in mind (for I cannot recall others) was unique in Melbourne for another reason, mechanical in nature - another *Puzzle for you * !

Would that be the grip opening being on the 'wrong' side?

Mal Rowe - guessing