Re: Destination City

--- In TramsDownUnder@y..., "adyoung63141" <dayoung007@h...> wrote:

I guess we should be eternally grateful that the book went through

5

editions, each better than the last. I guess we have no business
bemoaning the fact that the anonymous author/authors (to me at any
rate, I don't know them) aren't going to do any more updates or new
editions. Instead we should all be giving him/them (Her/them?) a

tip

of our collective hats with thanks for a job well done.

But human nature being what it is, we want more. Don't we?

Well, I do.andrew,my brothere,l.bounds is one of the owners of

haddon.please write to him c/o.l.bounds 29 melby ave
balaclava.3183.vic.a.s.a.p.a/cno email.jeff

My first trip to Melbourne was in 1997. The last time I ever
experienced a tramway system of that size, other than for Brussels

and

Vienna, was the first time I went to Glasgow in 1952. Then I was a
child, and no adult around me knew anything much about it, beyond
having the wit to find me a place where we could buy a timetable.

Back

home in Leeds I studied that timetable for ever, comparing it with

the

still-dense but puny-by-comparison Leeds system.

Vienna and Brussels I was better prepared for, coming to both with
maps and some background material. Brussels especially remains for

me

a large and fascinating system, modernized considerably since I

first

encountered it 35 years ago, though sadly somewhat contracted and
without the supplemental Vicinal narrow-gauge routes.

So, the first time in Melbourne, I was prepared. Destination City
edition 5 was a bible, the maps (xeroxed) I carried in my pocket
throughout my stay and the text was invaluable in rounding out the
day, explaining what it was I'd seen so far as cars were concerned

and

of considerable help as a guide, though I know it wasn't intended

to

be so.

More than that, it made sense of the cars at Bylands which to an
otherwise uninformed outsider almost all look the same.

I'm taking my next trip to Melbourne in August, but without
Destination City 6. For me and for many other visitors, it is a

loss,

although clearly of the millions of tourists Australia sees each

year,

the fact that a few dozen trammy weirdos aren't as well informed as
they might be is no big deal. It is a shame nonetheless, but at

least

I shall still have edition 5 to bring with me.

Not that Poms or Yanks (and I'm a bit of each) have anything to be
complacent about. Where is the equivalent 1-volume book on UK, or
North American trams/light rail/heritage?

Nowehere, that's where, though I myself did perpetrate a thing

called

"Veteran and Vintage Transit: a guide to North America's mass

transit

museum, tourist trolleys" etc (still available from me or Archway
Publishing at PO Box 410903 St. Louis MO 63141-0903 USA at $24 US
including air-mail shipping to OZ or NZ)which still has its uses.

It's

a little out of date, but not much, especially when it comes to
W-class cars here in the US.

Similarly, if you can get hold of the defunct Light Rail Annual and
User's Guide (latest edition 1994) edited by Mac Sebree and the

late

Richard Kunz and published by the defunct Passenger Train Journal,
you've got a good start as to what's going on in the US, Canada and
Mexico, but again a bit out of date.

As for the UK, and there's a lot going on there, there's nothing in

a

one-volume form and it's time there was.

I wonder why this has happened? Probably the effort is too great

and

the return too meager. That was the case with the Light Rail

Annual, a

well-done thing that lasted 3 years, it was the case with my V&V

and I

guess it must have been the case with Destination City. The fact

that

the last 2 still have a little new stock still available several

years

after being published strongly suggests lack of demand for such
things.

What a pity.

Will Bylands be open and operating Sunday August 18? Failing that,

how

about Haddon and who should one contact for permission to visit?

A. D. Young

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