That is a very evocative picture Mal. Manly lines closed in 1939 and in 1941 my father took me to Sydney for a few days. Needless to say the trams were a highlight to me (a mystery to him). We had a double decker ride to Manly (first seat, upper deck) and I was quite upset at seeing reminders of the trams by the tarring over of the rails. My father however did point out to me the huge curve the trams used to take climbing from the Spit. (Goggle has a number of photos of it).

Bill J

From:tramsdownunder@... [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Mal Rowe
Sent: Sunday, January 6, 2019 2:11 PM
To:tramsdownunder@...
Subject: Re: [TramsDownUnder] Re: When is a Tram'?

On 06/01/2019 06:33, Prescott wrote:

Ronald, a Tramway is either enclosed by a roadway or has a roadway on one side, but separated by marking, structures or other space. I would need to know the name of this enabling Act to check it, but I think that such a statement would only apply to the line west of Darling Drive. East of that it would be a Tramway.

Defining a tramway is an old chestnut! Many of the trams in Sydney and some in Melbourne would not be tramways under the definition above (e.g. Royal Park in Melbourne and many of the beach access tracks in Sydney).

Several railways in Australia were called tramways for various legal reasons (Camden, Koondrook, Silverton, etc.etc.)

I looked at some of the Victorian legislation and didn't find a legal definition - perhaps others can advise me.

One definition that came up from a Canadian source made some sense.

It's at: https://thelawdictionary.org/tram-ways/

and says:

"Rails for conveyance of traffic along a road not owned, as a railway is, by those who lay down the rails and convey the traffic."

Mal Rowe - attaching a picture of a former tramway (or is it?) seen on a guided tour by none other than Ronald B