Re: New Plymouth Tramways

Bill,

The body of New Plymouth Birney #8 survives in poor state at QEPT
(Wellington) awaiting a possible (but unlikely) restoration. The truck from
the only scrapped Birney in OZ (M&MTB #218) (a St Louis type instead of the
usual Brill 79) went to NZ originally for the NP car but I believe it has
since gone onto Christchurch to go under Invicargil Birney #15.
Unfortunately, none of the other lovely "Boon" cars survive as far as I
know.

Greg

On Tue, 25 Sep 2001 18:04:29 +1000, you wrote:

With those two photos of trams in New Plymouth, perhaps someone can
enlighten us on some basics of the system- opening, closure,
number of routes, number of cars, etc.

Opened circa 10/3/16, closed circa 23/7/54, replaced by trolley and
diesel bus.

10 cars and four routes... Fitzroy (to 23/7/54), Port (to 23/7/54),
Westown (6/10/50), Liardet Street (to 1/3/37).

Cars 1-4 Boon single truckers, 5,6,10 Boon bogies, 7-9 single truck
Birneys.

It was the last new "fully functional" tramway system in NZ, and
claimed to be the smallest municipal tramway system in the world.

Also, do any cars survive?

A fush and chupper will have to answer that! <grin>

I have in my collection (somewhere) a photo of a Birney body in NZ
circa early 1970s, but I don't know it was an Invercargill or New
Plymouth car, and I don't know if it still survives.

Cheers,

Bill

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