Re: The last Wellington track relic

Hi Brent
The trams only travelled in a bi-directional direction. All other
trafic traveled in a southerly direction along Kent Tce. Northerly
vehicles used Cambridge Tce. It used to be a bit of a surprise for
visitors to our fair city, meeting trams coming the wrong way along
Kent Tce.

Evan


--- In TramsDownUnder@y..., "Brent Efford" <brent.efford@t...> wrote:

I can't keep up with 'today' shots to match the flood of fascinating
Wellington photos from Don and Graeme, but here is one taken on

Tuesday

which might be of interest. It is Kent Tce looking north, i.e. from

the far

end and looking the other way compared with Graeme's recent posting

of the

Fiducia and parked buses. I am standing beside the Queen Vic statue

visible

in Graeme's photo.

In the foreground is the point lever cover for the siding the buses

were

parked over. This is the only visible relic of Wellington trackwork

left*

(if you don't count the Kilbirnie Workshops) and you can see how

the kerb

line follows the old siding - and the space is still used for bus

parking.

Kent Terrace is now one-way south - in tram days it was bi-

directional, as

Graeme's photo shows, although northbound trolleybus services

always used

Cambridge Terrace.

(Funny how what is essentially a boulevard with a wide median has

always had

a different name for each side. Probably a relic of the original

1839 plan

to construct a ship canal through what was then swamp between the

terraces,

to a basin - now called the Basin Reserve. The uplift of land by 2

metres

during the 1855 earthquake put paid to that plan.)

*Wellington's tram rails were lifted in most cases, though I did

see some

rails in a drainage trench in Kilbirnie Terrace a few years ago.

Wellington

paving has always been homogenous kerb-to-kerb, so there is no sign

of an

asphalted old tram right of way between concrete shoulders which

was so

common in Auckland and can be seen in Don's Mt Eden trolleybus

photo.

Cheers,

Brent Efford

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Sell a Home for Top $
http://us.click.yahoo.com/RrPZMC/jTmEAA/MVfIAA/DiTxlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->



Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/