The tracks in Lygon Street and at the top end of Russell Street were dug up in 1962. Here are a couple of photos of it happening. I'm not sure how much of the line was done then.
David Walker
On 05-Jan-19 3:15 PM, David McLoughlin wrote:
> A question about what became of the cable tram tracks in Johnston Street, Melbourne. Known as the Collingwood line, it closed in April 1939 and was replaced at the time by buses.
>
> Were the cable tracks dug up or covered over? I believe they were there for many years after the cable line closed, because, according to schemes I have seen maps of, the MMTB planned to electrify them and extend the line via Kew to Bulleen as, I understand, the next major project after the Bourke Street conversion in 1955-56. Keeping the tracks in situ meant no act of Parliament was needed for electric tracks.
>
> But Bolte was elected in 1955..... and the bus via Johnston Street and Kew to Bulleen remained, joined to the Port Melbourne bus that replaced the cable tram to there that was closed in March 1937 (I believe the MMTB also intended to convert that line to electric services, pre-Bolte....).
>
> I am minded to raise this question because of a photo posted on the TDU FB group of cable tracks still in place in Lonsdale Street in 1962. I remember my father showing me cable tracks being dug up somewhere when I was a small child, and these might have been the Lonsdale St ones, as they were removed in 1963 which would have been about right in time and place (he often took me to the state library when I was even very youngl, and that is one block from Lonsdale Street). But they might also have been the Johnston Street tracks, if they were removed at a similar time, assuming they were removed.
>
> The FB post on Lonsdale St also reminded me of Mal Rowe's photo from 2007 of the old cable tracks in Abbotsford Street North Melbourne (last used in July 1935) being exposed by roadworks:
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> https://tdu.to/51176.msg/Cable_track_AbbotsfordSt_19May2007.jpg?fbclid=IwAR3eqVlAyWKVrSQbRGTGrU-B5MWHLTWdoy4SE_WzYXdlRaQEmLcoXMVpEM0
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>
> --
> david mcloughlin, New Zealand
> "Be careful what you wish for..."
>
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