Re: Re: little systems and big systems
Bill Bolton
Friday, June 28, 2002 12:29 PM
On Fri, 28 Jun 2002 03:13:54 -0000, Andrew wrote:
According to "Great British Tramway Networks", 1962, Glascow was the
largest system in the British Isles and at maximum extent operated
134.75 route miles of track, with fleet size reaching a maximum of
1208 cars in 1948.
According to "Tramways of Sydney", 1979, the "street" mileage of the
Sydney system reached it maximum extent of 181 miles in 1923 and this
is unfortunately the only refeerence in the book to total mileage. I
think in this instance the term "street" milage is used to
differentiate the steam tramway operation on some railway lines which
would have been taking place at that time and was specifically
excluded from the figure. Street mileage in this case can be
reasonably equated to route milage.
The "Tramways of Sydney" is however more forthcoming on fleet size,
which reached a maximum size of 1535 in 1934 and did not fall below
Glascow's maximum fleet size until 1952. According to "The Last
Tram", 1962, Glascow had 510 cars remaining in 1958, while "Tramways
of Sydney" shows 694 in the Sydney fleet at that time.
I haven't been able to find a *route* mileage figure for Montreal, but
"Montreal's Electric Streetcars" indicates that *track* mileage peaked
at 320 miles in 1933 and was down to 260 by 1950 and 205 by 1955. The
maximum number of cars in Montreal was 1250 in 1918 with 950 remaining
by 1950, 650 in 1955 and under 200 by 1958. While it is not totally
clear, the implication in the book is that Montreal was a larger
system than Toronto until at least post WWII.
Excepting North Sydney, all the isolated parts of the Sydney system
were gone by 1950 but apart from some truncation of a few longer
lines, such as Ryde, the remainder of the Sydney system generally held
up quite well through the middle 1950s and it wasn't until circa
1957/58 that big reductions occured.
Cheers,
Bill
Bill Bolton
Sydney, Australia
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For example, Toronto in the early 1950s, was it not bigger than
Sydney? And were either of them bigger than Glasgow at that time?
According to "Great British Tramway Networks", 1962, Glascow was the
largest system in the British Isles and at maximum extent operated
134.75 route miles of track, with fleet size reaching a maximum of
1208 cars in 1948.
According to "Tramways of Sydney", 1979, the "street" mileage of the
Sydney system reached it maximum extent of 181 miles in 1923 and this
is unfortunately the only refeerence in the book to total mileage. I
think in this instance the term "street" milage is used to
differentiate the steam tramway operation on some railway lines which
would have been taking place at that time and was specifically
excluded from the figure. Street mileage in this case can be
reasonably equated to route milage.
The "Tramways of Sydney" is however more forthcoming on fleet size,
which reached a maximum size of 1535 in 1934 and did not fall below
Glascow's maximum fleet size until 1952. According to "The Last
Tram", 1962, Glascow had 510 cars remaining in 1958, while "Tramways
of Sydney" shows 694 in the Sydney fleet at that time.
Montreal ditto?
I haven't been able to find a *route* mileage figure for Montreal, but
"Montreal's Electric Streetcars" indicates that *track* mileage peaked
at 320 miles in 1933 and was down to 260 by 1950 and 205 by 1955. The
maximum number of cars in Montreal was 1250 in 1918 with 950 remaining
by 1950, 650 in 1955 and under 200 by 1958. While it is not totally
clear, the implication in the book is that Montreal was a larger
system than Toronto until at least post WWII.
And when did the baton pass to Australia? Surely it went directly to
Melbourne, for Sydney was well into its decline by 1955/6.
Excepting North Sydney, all the isolated parts of the Sydney system
were gone by 1950 but apart from some truncation of a few longer
lines, such as Ryde, the remainder of the Sydney system generally held
up quite well through the middle 1950s and it wasn't until circa
1957/58 that big reductions occured.
Cheers,
Bill
Bill Bolton
Sydney, Australia
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