Re: sightings

--- In TramsDownUnder@y..., "Roy Winslow" <rwinslow@b...> wrote:

The aborted Bristram project by the former Queensland National

Party Govt

proposed to use substantial sections of former track as an economy

measure.

One downfall of this in the Brisbane context would be the

limitations on

tramcar geometry due to the relatively smaller track centres

carried over

from the horse tram days. OTOH, much of Brisbane's track was in mass
concrete and track replacement continued until 12 months before

closure, so

a lot of the track lurking under the bitumen in Brisbane would

certainly not

be classed as life expired. In 1990, it was estimated that about

half the

system was still under bitumen. It was much cheaper to seal over

the top

than remove the track entirely and the job could be done much

quicker in an

environment where there was considerable community objection to the
replacement of the trams. For instance, the track in Pitt Street,

Sydney,

last used on a Saturday night in 1957 was completely covered over

by nice

new bitumen by the Monday morning, as boasted by the Sydney Morning

Herald!

Roy

Hi Roy,

You are quite correct in the amount of track left, of which a large
amount would still be in good condition, Queen street was not one
though as, it was the first done in concrete in 1933 and was
absolutely wornout when the system was murdered. The rest is far more
recent and, in general, Brisbane track was in excellent condition
right to the end, just being under bitumen would not hurt the rail,
stuff uncovered , like already mentioned, depends on what it was like
when it closed (I would suggest Geelongs' would have been quite
worn), some, like Dallas (and Stockholm) had badly corroded webs and
this has been the cause of their problems.

Cheers
Greg



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