Gday Peter,All
Hope to see you soon at BTM
Agree about getting a gun Connie,they saved minutes in the peak
A pleasure to work with,sadly there wernt to many at Camberwell
or Malvern,Kew Connies were better,some of the Women were the best
What I disliked were drivers who didnt care,ran late and were looking for
a shunt at Latrobe St,
Composition blocks made a huge difference to braking,35 lbs was good for
a service stop and 1ST with sand,locked the wheels so 4th wasent needed
I remember when the extra car on most roads during the day was put in and
that helped,esp on Cambers,but the Board took one Tram of many roads after
8PM making the sheduled time from 12 mins to 15 mins
I was then at Malvern and those were some of my best driving days as on
East Malverns after 8PM hitting the Balaclava Stn Clock,taking 7 mins
from Franklin St to Flinders St one had to go like a cut cat to hit the
clock on time,this I often didnt do,a real challenge
Woopee,fly out to East Malvern,then leave 2 down and hit Balaclave Stn
clock on time and then fly into town if not blocked by a slow Glenthuntly
driver, I loved it
Toorak and Glen Iris was nearly as good
I wouldnt drive trams in Melb today as OHS and traffic lights have taken
the fun out of tram driving as well as some nasty drunk,druggy passengers
It would be too hard to resist using the 550 HP modern tram perfomance
for speed when I got a chance,the W were 160 HP,one hour rating,but I
got a SW6 to 50 MPH running in from Wattle PK,according to a loutish
man when stopped at Riversdale level crossing who said.I didnt know
a Tram could go so fast. I dunno how accurate his speedo wss
Dragging the road was one thing I always hated and to reduce boredon on
Cambers before the faster times aftet 8PM,I sometimes drove on the hand
brake,It kept me warm in winter
Cheers, Mick
On 23/03/2024 5:54 pm, Peter Bruce wrote:
> Mick and all, composite brake shoes made life less stressful and I can't speak for other depots but sometime in the early '70s we got an extra car on each road in the weekday off peak thus an extra 12 minutes every round trip so route 1 went from 84 minutes to 96, route 15 from 96 minutes to 108 and route 12 from I think 60 minutes to 72, this didn't solve all timekeeping problems but it certainly helped, I'd go along with much of what Mick wrote, motor traffic was so undisciplined and obstructive that a certain amount of bastardry was called for as was hitting the gong really hard and having a good eye for clearances all the while trying for a smooth ride and keeping an eye on sectional running times. If your mate was a gun you would have a good week and run to time, safety first always. It was hard on a lot of the older drivers who had been at it 6 days a week for years, in my 10 years at South Melbourne I only recall two retirements and they were both ex cable gripmen, a protected occupation during the war, others went off medically unfit, light duties or back on the bag. Some died before retirement including my driver trainer "Lucky" Taylor a great workmate who had recurring bouts of malaria or its effects, not sure which or maybe both, acquired during the New Guinea campaigns. The consequences of the Depression and the second war certainly contributed to the toll on health among the older blokes.
>
> Regards to all,
>
> Peter Bruce.
>
> On Sat, 23 Mar 2024 at 01:27, 'Mick Duncan' via TramsDownUnder tramsdownunder@...> wrote:
>
> Gday Richard,All
>
> Assertive driving in the 60s was the only you would get through
> Camberwell Jcn
> in the peaks quickly before the traffic lights came
>
> Creep up,gong, creep up again,gong hiss,just keep moving slowly till
> the cars got out of your way.The poor old controller copped a few arcs
> unless you cut the second notch before cutting off so the linebreaker
> would open before the controller copped the the cut off arcs
>
> Some times it got so bad the Braid acted as Cop till a Cop arr
> from Camb
> Cop Shop,most Cops gave the Trams a fair go
>
> When in a narrow St at lights,with parked cars on the other
> side,and if
> you were a bit late when every second counted,I watched the lights of
> the intersecting road and when the lights on the other street went
> Red,count 4 seconds and take off,the tram would be moving just as the
> Green came up and beat the cars trying to pass you as one would
> try to
> pass you and maybe do a right turn in front of you
>
> The 4 second rule still applies on many lights
>
> Other tricks to keep time were to release and apply brakes,hiss
> hiss, to
> hurry pass at stops and cut a notch against the brakes to wake up
> a slow
> Connie
>
> Working with a good Connie,we did a shunt in 20 sec
>
> Those were the days
>
> Can any other Drivers share their tricks to try and stay on time
>
> Cheers, Mick
>
> On 19/03/2024 8:21 pm, 'Richard Youl' via TramsDownUnder wrote:
> > Nevertheless most Sydney drivers are ‘Nervous Nellies’. I have
> encountered just the odd one who would drive as assertively as
> myself. Incidentally I Never had a fall on any tram I drove, but
> did not muck around either.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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