Re: Australian tramcar publishing folklore
Bill Bolton
Monday, August 26, 2002 1:03 AM
A number of the somewhat poetical expressions sometimes found in the
Sydney books can, I think, be traced back to the '40s and '50s where
there was an Australian railway/tramway magazine (defunct by the '60s
when I discovered a few back issues of it for sale at the book shop at
SPER), the name of which now escapes me as the few copies I had were
lost years ago in a house move. Anyway, the magazine carried a regular
column with name something like "Uncle Bob Remembers" or similar. The
stories were of "Uncle Bob's" experiences as a Sydney tram driver.
I only ever saw a few issues and I only recall one of the stories now,
but in short form it basically involved a poorly performing single
truck car on the Pitt & Castlereagh St Circular Quay to Railway
Colonnade "merry-go-round", with the story resolving by a test on the
grade out of Circular Quay which showed the wheel hubs revolving within
the tyres which were working loose. The stories were well and
colourfully told with several neat turns of phrase, at least some of
which seem to me to have passed into the Sydney tram fan vernacular.
Another explanation is that perhaps Uncle Bob was just using the normal
Sydney tramway jargon/expressions which have been passed down through
multiple paths to the present day.
Cheers,
Bill
Bill Bolton
Sydney, Australia
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Sydney books can, I think, be traced back to the '40s and '50s where
there was an Australian railway/tramway magazine (defunct by the '60s
when I discovered a few back issues of it for sale at the book shop at
SPER), the name of which now escapes me as the few copies I had were
lost years ago in a house move. Anyway, the magazine carried a regular
column with name something like "Uncle Bob Remembers" or similar. The
stories were of "Uncle Bob's" experiences as a Sydney tram driver.
I only ever saw a few issues and I only recall one of the stories now,
but in short form it basically involved a poorly performing single
truck car on the Pitt & Castlereagh St Circular Quay to Railway
Colonnade "merry-go-round", with the story resolving by a test on the
grade out of Circular Quay which showed the wheel hubs revolving within
the tyres which were working loose. The stories were well and
colourfully told with several neat turns of phrase, at least some of
which seem to me to have passed into the Sydney tram fan vernacular.
Another explanation is that perhaps Uncle Bob was just using the normal
Sydney tramway jargon/expressions which have been passed down through
multiple paths to the present day.
Cheers,
Bill
Bill Bolton
Sydney, Australia
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Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/