Re: The last Wellington track relic

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

On having looked again at the photo. I have to admit you were right.
The cars did head north along Kent Tce. It must be my age because for
the life of me I do not remember the cars heading that way. But of
course I was a bit muddled by the traffic in Wellington when I first
came here. After all I did try driving from Cuba St towards Taranaki
St along Dixon St.

Deepest Apologies.

Evan

That's interesting! I was relying on the position of the buses in

Graeme's

photo as an indication that rubber-tyred traffic followed the tram
directions. (I did not first live or drive in Wellington until four

years

after the trams closed).

I wonder why the tram tracks were laid in that way? There were many

examples

of wrong-way or off-centre running in NZ originally, but most of

them were

corrected from the 1920s (when motor traffic became dominant)

onwards when

the lines were relaid or duplicated. I would have expected those

tracks to

be candidates for that treatment.

Cheers,

Brent Efford


-----Original Message-----
From: Evan Collett [mailto:evancollett@p...]
Sent: Thursday, 10 October 2002 3:04 p.m.
To: TramsDownUnder@y...
Subject: [TramsDownUnder] 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

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