Re: Wn Aotea Quay and Northland TB's
Graeme Bennett
Monday, September 30, 2002 9:55 PM
Aotea Quay......
It was a very early "conversion", but it had never been run by trams.
The run to Roseneath was opened on 20th June 1949 followed by Aotea
Quay in May 1950.
I can't supply the closing date atm. ( Help...David Jones ?? )
My photos were mainly taken from 1959 to 1963.
Re Northland......I never had much to do with this route, although
when working for the WCCT at Kilbirnie as a trolleybus mechanic
working the usual 7.30am to 4.00pm, it often happened that I was
asked to help out the emergency shiftmen when they had a man down.
I would have to work at Kilbirnie, Wakefield St or Karori, parking
and rescuing and towing breakdown buses, changing carbons and any
other smallish jobs.
In the mornings we would do the earth testing as each bus ran out.
Shiftmen had to be available the entire time TB's were on the road.
The best shift for me was the 0500 Karori shift.
I would get all of the eleven buses pumped up and try to warm them up
with that very inadequate windcreen demister !!!!
Ten buses were required for the run out, with one spare.
Following the successfull departure of all my charges, I would be
left with the last bus.
If this was not required for attention at Kilbirnie, it would have to
sit there until next runout, but moved up to front position.
Wellington trolleys had one Archilies heel............
The all important batterys, vital to the low volt circuits were
charged by a generator mounted on the mainmotor which only operated
when the bus was moving.
Therefore a standing TB for any length of time could suffer from flat
battery, having received no charge.
So, dear reader, I devised a simple fiendish and very satisfying (
and legal !! ) method of making sure the Karori trolley would not
suffer from this problem.
As soon as all my tasks were done, I departed in the spare TB on an
out of service return trip from Karori to Northland.
The route was all still operational, but I don't think a full service
was running.
As Evin Collet comments, the turn up to the Northland tunnel was very
sharp and one had to be very carefull.
Should the bus have been required at Kilbirnie, it would be my task
to drive it all the way there, and during the day arrange for another
bus to replace it.
WGB
In TramsDownUnder@y..., "Donald Galt" <galtfd@a...> wrote:
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It was a very early "conversion", but it had never been run by trams.
The run to Roseneath was opened on 20th June 1949 followed by Aotea
Quay in May 1950.
I can't supply the closing date atm. ( Help...David Jones ?? )
My photos were mainly taken from 1959 to 1963.
Re Northland......I never had much to do with this route, although
when working for the WCCT at Kilbirnie as a trolleybus mechanic
working the usual 7.30am to 4.00pm, it often happened that I was
asked to help out the emergency shiftmen when they had a man down.
I would have to work at Kilbirnie, Wakefield St or Karori, parking
and rescuing and towing breakdown buses, changing carbons and any
other smallish jobs.
In the mornings we would do the earth testing as each bus ran out.
Shiftmen had to be available the entire time TB's were on the road.
The best shift for me was the 0500 Karori shift.
I would get all of the eleven buses pumped up and try to warm them up
with that very inadequate windcreen demister !!!!
Ten buses were required for the run out, with one spare.
Following the successfull departure of all my charges, I would be
left with the last bus.
If this was not required for attention at Kilbirnie, it would have to
sit there until next runout, but moved up to front position.
Wellington trolleys had one Archilies heel............
The all important batterys, vital to the low volt circuits were
charged by a generator mounted on the mainmotor which only operated
when the bus was moving.
Therefore a standing TB for any length of time could suffer from flat
battery, having received no charge.
So, dear reader, I devised a simple fiendish and very satisfying (
and legal !! ) method of making sure the Karori trolley would not
suffer from this problem.
As soon as all my tasks were done, I departed in the spare TB on an
out of service return trip from Karori to Northland.
The route was all still operational, but I don't think a full service
was running.
As Evin Collet comments, the turn up to the Northland tunnel was very
sharp and one had to be very carefull.
Should the bus have been required at Kilbirnie, it would be my task
to drive it all the way there, and during the day arrange for another
bus to replace it.
WGB
In TramsDownUnder@y..., "Donald Galt" <galtfd@a...> wrote:
On 29 Sep 2002 at 16:26, graeme bennett wrote:Lucky shot this one on a cold winter's morning at Aotea Quay.
So, when was the Aotea Quay line built and when did it close?
And do you by chance have a(n approximate, even) date for the photo?
Thanks,
Don
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