Re: Brisbane question
roy winslow
Tuesday, September 4, 2001 5:11 AM
I am sure the many thousands of Brisbane tram rider thanked the common sense of the designers for only having 'small' windows in a tram design that ran in such a hot and sunny climate. Just think how hot it can get under a Tangara window in the summer- and they have air con!
Enough of the 'ugly small window log splitter stuff' already! They ran rings around any other Oz tram type in all aspects that matter...
On the matter of resilient wheels- Melbourne went with them for about 20 years until the 1970's. Indeed they had their own design, rather than use the 'off the shelf' ones used by BrizVagas. Trolley Wire recently had a really good article on proposals to modernise the Syd tram fleet with such things, but never got off the ground. It would be interesting to know if BCC would have continued with resilients into the 1970's, or whether they would have abandoned them due to cost.
The M&MTB was, as far as I know, in good shape with a large fleet of
reasonable cars which had a standardised layout with which passengers were
very familiar.
There were no major route extensions or new routes being seriously
contemplated so their fleet at the time was quite adequate size.
Sounds like those Brisbane cars were on the ball but the M&MTB wasn't
committed to many of the improvements the Brisbane cars had such as
resilient wheels which some cars had but which were later taken off the
road, presumably because the M&MTB could not see benefit (to them) for the
cost.
I think those Brisbane cars would have looked very ugly to Melburnians.
Unacceptably ugly. I've been living in Melbourne for 25 years and if you put
a Melbourne car next to one of those wedge splitter front end Brisbane cars
with the tiny windows...
And I'm sure that by 1970 the M&MTB would have been looking for and hoping
to get modern trams to upgrade the whole system in the eyes of the
travelling public.
Bob Murphy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Matthew Austin" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2001 1:57 PM
Subject: [TramsDownUnder] Brisbane question
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Enough of the 'ugly small window log splitter stuff' already! They ran rings around any other Oz tram type in all aspects that matter...
On the matter of resilient wheels- Melbourne went with them for about 20 years until the 1970's. Indeed they had their own design, rather than use the 'off the shelf' ones used by BrizVagas. Trolley Wire recently had a really good article on proposals to modernise the Syd tram fleet with such things, but never got off the ground. It would be interesting to know if BCC would have continued with resilients into the 1970's, or whether they would have abandoned them due to cost.
I wonder if there would have been any reason to bother.[email protected] 09/04/01 01:01PM >>>
The M&MTB was, as far as I know, in good shape with a large fleet of
reasonable cars which had a standardised layout with which passengers were
very familiar.
There were no major route extensions or new routes being seriously
contemplated so their fleet at the time was quite adequate size.
Sounds like those Brisbane cars were on the ball but the M&MTB wasn't
committed to many of the improvements the Brisbane cars had such as
resilient wheels which some cars had but which were later taken off the
road, presumably because the M&MTB could not see benefit (to them) for the
cost.
I think those Brisbane cars would have looked very ugly to Melburnians.
Unacceptably ugly. I've been living in Melbourne for 25 years and if you put
a Melbourne car next to one of those wedge splitter front end Brisbane cars
with the tiny windows...
And I'm sure that by 1970 the M&MTB would have been looking for and hoping
to get modern trams to upgrade the whole system in the eyes of the
travelling public.
Bob Murphy
----- Original Message -----
From: "Matthew Austin" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2001 1:57 PM
Subject: [TramsDownUnder] Brisbane question
Hi all,
Does anyone know if Melbourne entertained the possibility of picking up
Brisbane equipment when the system closed. I've heard bits an pieces over
the years about the a Melbourne-Brisbane link which saw exchanges of ideas
(and Brisbane points at Malvern depot), but I wonder if it would have been
worth the M&MTB's while to pick up some FMs at bargain-basement prices. I
agree, the FMs were a most advanced design. Of course, the system should
never have been destroyed, especially less than five years before the oil
crisis of the 70s...
Matt
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