Fantastic video thanks tresstleleg, love watching all your videos. I used to spend my evenings as a child watching the Ashgrove/Grange (route 76) go past on Waterworks Road and so disappointed they were taken off. Glad I'm living on the Gold Coast with the great G: Link.
Thanks for your comment. I’m also on the coast and regularly ride the tram. While it is a good service, I feel it is spoilt by long winded announcements often played too loud on some trams. I tried to do something about it this week, but the official answer amounted to being fobbed off. Pity a few others don’t complain.
Wonderful film and sme great memories of 1960's Brisbane. I travelled on the tram for work from Clayfield to the Valley for years until I could afford a car!
Well you can thank Clem Jones for their scrapping. And the present mob in City Hall are making sure trams stay banished. What could be more ridiculous than a bus (Non) Metro?
@@tressteleg1 Sadly, it is now 50 years since the system was shut down. Clem Jones engaged Texan urban planner Wilbur Smith who recommended scrapping the trams and building freeways and other car friendly roadways (as per American practice in the fifties/ sixties), which has only led to increasing traffic congestion and urban frustration. I am glad that I "'escaped " Brisbane and moved back north .
When you want to reach a certain goal, and blame somebody else in the process, you hire a consultant who will give you the answer you want. Sydney did the same by hiring London transport in the 1950s, and you know what they had just achieved!
London transport had just scrapped their trams. Nobody would believe they would tell somebody else they should keep theirs. I have no doubt that Wilbur Smith already had a clear track record showing they always recommend tram replacements. So you know you will get the answers you seek. No bribery required.
Wonderful film bringing back memories of long ago. Memories have not faded. A bad decision to abolish trams - look how the Melbourne tram system has prospered.
As a Melbournian this era is mesmerizing to watch. Have been to Brisbane a few times over the years and never knew or ever even heard that Brisbane used to have Trams. It seems very sad looking back at that fantastic footage and those Trams - particularly that hill. :-)
Mykothy All big cities in the world once had tramways and quite a lot of smaller places as well. Rockhampton even had steam trams from 1919 to 1939. Brisbane in fact had electric trams years before Melbourne did but like most cities in the English speaking world, trams went out of fashion starting in the 1930s and continuing into the 1970s. Not many tramways close these days.
@@tressteleg1 It is known fact that trams are the most popular form of public transport. A great shame that Brisbane did away with them. One of the biggest mistakes (I think it was) Clem Jones ever made. As to Melbourne, they can thank my fathers cousin, Maj-General Sir Robert Risson, for keeping them. He was head of the Melbourne Metropolitan Tramways Board at the time, and there was a push down there to remove them, and as I understand it he went and had a good part of track network cemented in to make it harder and costlier to remove.
Unfortunately I don’t think anyone has ever done a survey investigating WHY people prefer riding trams. As for Melbourne, no doubt Sir Robert’s staunch belief in trams was a definite factor in their retention but if the government were determined to get rid of them, that would have happened. Some fans have said that one reason trams survived was that the prominent National Party in the Victorian state government would not spend the money on purchasing new buses for the city of Melbourne, and that it was cheaper to retain the trams. Whatever the reasons, Melbourne is fortunate to have retained its tramway.
And it had it's own electricity department as well and it ran at a profit, they had workshops spread across Brisbane, now they sell em off to their mates
Politicians will do anything with just short-term gains even if long-term is bad, just to buy votes. I think we are seeing a bit of that at the moment as well.
My main thought about Clem Jones is that he should’ve died 40 years earlier. Nevertheless by the 1950s and 60s, English speaking countries saw trams as being an old-fashioned idea which held up the traffic so whoever was in power sooner or later would have scrapped the trams to make Brisbane look modern. But of course Melbourne gets the last laugh having remained old fashioned in those dark years.
Race day traffic was chaotic - people all over the place, trams and cars. Surprisingly few people were hurt and probably noe was killed. A safer more sensible time where people took responsibility. The beautiful gentle giants glided with their unique sound round the Brisbane streets. We who rode on them will always miss them.
Great video tressteleg1. Even though there have been a great many changes in Brisbane most locations are still recognisable. I like the shot of Galloways Hill close by where I worked for several months in 1966 and also the Thomas Dixon shoe factory at West End where I also worked. I do remember when I was waiting for a bus home at North Quay I saw the taking down of the old Victoria Bridge that would ave been late 1969.
@@tressteleg1 You can add me to that list also. Great videos of the Brisbane trams which I actually did get to ride a few times as a young feller in late 1968 when visiting from Melbourne. Just as well I did because they were gone the next year. Can't believe how fast the last 50 years have flown. Cheers from.an Aussie expat in Indonesia.
I can’t give a precise answer but it is unwise to number transport routes anywhere 1 2 3 4 etc. It was not unusual to have short workings on some lines in the peak hour. So if the outer terminus were 70, a shortworking could be 71, for example, while if a line is extended, it could be 73, 75 or whatever and with all being in the 70s, riders are less likely to be confused than if the shortworking number were far removed from the normal terminus. Melbourne is the same.
You can thank Clem Jones for that. Unfortunately however, replacing trams with buses was fashionable in the English speaking world from the 1930s to sometime in the 1970s, more or less.
True, different owners. And of course there are a few other exceptions to that rule. But the vast majority of systems in the English speaking world were gone by 1975.
Excellent video. Unfortunately, I completely missed out on riding the Brisbane tram system. My first trip to Brisbane was in August 1973. I did manage to ride a Brisbane tram at the Loftus tram museum in Sydney.
+ Thanks. I’m happy how it turned out. Having been to Melbourne the year before, I was somewhat impressed with Brisbane. Trams flew around curves whereas Melbourne trams shuddered slowly around corners. And Brisbane also had resilient wheels, silent helical gears and led with fluorescent lights which were being retrofitted to earlier trams. 548 at Loftus captures some of the atmosphere,
Yes ,I think we had a number of superelevated curves on the system here. There was one on a sharp bend in Wynnum Road,Norman Park near Balmoral Cemetary were some years ago the traffic lanes were reconfigured so they would follow the line and bank of the tramlines underneath to improve cornering for motorists.
+Russell Anderson Unfortunately starting in the 1930s and especially in the English speaking world and in France, trams were considered old-fashioned, noisy etc. So the trend was towards ‘modern flexible buses’ being adopted. It was not until the early 1980s that especially the USA and France realised the folly of their earlier decisions as buses could not cope and people don’t seem to like riding them anyway. However the standards of today make the construction excessively expensive and slow and meaning that former systems like Sydney and Brisbane had in the past will never come back unfortunately, And there is no will to build anything in Brisbane anyway at present.
Not many people now would recognize that electric train towards the end, it was owned and run by the SEA, Southern Electric Authority to haul coal wagons from a siding at Murrarie [Queensport] to the Bulimba Power Station at Gibson Island to feed the powerhouse coal fired boilers and the power supply for the train was fed from the power station, it is now the VISI board recycling centre there
@@tressteleg1 There was a boatyard/ caravan park across Doboy Creek from the power station and all the canvas annexes used to rot out because of the soot come from the boiler chimneys
+Colonel Leon Yes. I am sure other viewers will be interested although the video does show 548 and the caption says that it is now at that museum. I have been a member of it since 1964.
The fleet and system was deliberately run down with much of the modern trams lost , several hundred in one of the huge depots about 1962. The last ten new trams, Phoenix class were put together in 63-64, but basically a lot of old reserve trams of the 1915 era, race and cricket specials were back in service for the 62-68 years diminishing the attraction. Loadings on the system were huge, in say 63-4 it would have 4 X the total tram patronage in all NZ cities in 1944 peak patronage . Auckland's system was minor with completely obsolete trams in comparison. By 1955 Brisbane system was completely relaid in concrete block mounting with modern trams running, far more modern than Melbourne. Part of the reason Melbourne never abandoned teams, is it was considered too disruptive to ever take the system out, combined with the fact Melbourne was still in 1936 in 1976 and the trams had only replaced cable cars on most Melbourne routes in 1930-1940 so Melbourne was the last big city to introduce old fashioned traditional trams, 50 years after NY and London. But Melbourne trams had more modern electric systems than any other tramway from the start and it was the old electrics which often condemned many great tram and trolley bus systems. It was a factor even in the closure of the Wellington trolley bus system in 2017. The decline and destruction of Brisbane's great team system was more straightforward. Pure criminal Philistine vandalism by the local political leaders.
It was the American consultants Wilbur Smith who Clem Jones engaged to make a transport plan for Brisbane. They of course considered trams to be obsolete and freeways and road widening to be the future because public transport in the U.S. was fast becoming a thing of the past. How wrong they were with trams making a comeback all over the World. (Most European cities wisely didn't follow the U.S. path)
+Mauro Morganti Thanks! It’s great that you rate it that highly but I would not charge even if I could. Comments like this of yours make the hours of work worth while. In the pipeline at present are movies of the opening weekend and train parade for the Brisbane rail electrification opening 1979, and quite a few scenes of Tait trains in Melbourne. However vintage Aussie movie is fast running out. Anyway if I don’t share it, all the video and movie film is likely to go to the dump when I die.
i'm from melbourne originally. and never been to brissy. i did enjoy watching this. i note the electric loco called a steeplejack. if i could think of an apt nickname for the loco at 20:35, it reminded me of a clown's shoe. i wonder what the drivers called it.
I always thought that design of logo was called a steeple cab. As for the other shoe-like loco, I have no idea if the crews had a nickname for it. After all, that was 50 years ago now.
i do think the steeple cab loco name is fair enough. the clown shoe shaped loco may have a practical reason for its shape. it wasn't designed by raymond lowy. it looks like a clown shoe to me.
@@tressteleg1 It was used to haul coal wagons from the station at Murrarie or Queensport to the coal fired power station at what they call Bulimba power station, the railway line is still there and is just on the southern approach to the Gateway Bridges, therail line also ran down to Austral Pacific where a lot of fertilizer traffic was handled but the electric locos were purely for coal handling to the power station, see my other comment here
Remember the days when trams used to rumble around Perth. Still, when you've got overhead lines and tram tracks they were probably seen as an inconvenience. The rise of the motor car also had something to do with this. Melbourne is a more multicultural and sophisticated city.
Unfortunately from especially the early 1950s, replacing trams with ‘modern flexible buses’ was the fashion, no doubt prompted by London just having done so. Some say the Victorian Government of those days was to stingy to buy new buses so let itself be stuck with the trams - thankfully!
At that time, some described Brisbane as a large country town. It certainly had more of that feeling. Scrapping trams anywhere does nothing to improve the patronage of public transport. Many former tram users end up driving their cars rather than putting up with buses. And yes, The cop uniforms were brown and I think may still be in the Northern Territory.
Fortunately, construction of the tram tracks for the Olympics has already been completed years ago, by grownups. Thanks to their foresight, the tracks are still in good condition, only needing to be cleaned off. A few passes with an asphalt milling machine will remove the thin layer of bitumen that has been dumped over some of them.
@@p0g0ela Unfortunately today’s “light rail engineers“ (or excuses for such) without even looking at the old tram lines would declare them totally unfit for “modern light rail vehicles“ (which are merely a mild development from the trams of the year) and successfully convince gullible governments that grossly overbuilt concrete track full of reinforcing steel is necessary to carry their new babies. Certainly Sydney was the victim of gross overbuilding with extremely deep concrete poured under some sections of track.
@@tressteleg1 Let's give our engineers the benefit of the doubt. There is good reason for what may be seen as "overbuilding" of tram tracks. Trams everywhere are always in danger of being attacked by wealthy self-serving anti-tram forces who seek to profit by taking control of the valuable public roadway space and by moving tramway systems out of their way, so they can install their own diesel-driven rubber-tired products into the space vacated by the trams. For example the "red car" in Los Angeles, but nowhere a more glaring example than right here in Brisbane, where in 1969 in spite of substantial public protest, the local government allowed the city's trams to be removed from service. There were some early efforts to even remove the tracks from the streets as well. However, thanks to the foresight of the early Brisbane engineers, the tracks were so heavily constructed that their would-be removal proved discouragingly costly and difficult, and it was decided to merely pave over them with a relatively thin layer of bitumen. As a result, here we are today, some fifty-five years later and ready to have our trams returned to us, so thanks to those early Brisbane engineers who dared to overbuild we are blessed to have some eighty-five miles of our track still preserved in place, and only waiting for the Wirtgen to come along and clean them off. Sounds like Sydney may stand to reap a similar benefit at some time in the future. Regards.
@@tressteleg1 Use of a lot of steel and concrete may seem like overbuilding, but here in Brisbane at least it serves a purpose: it helps to protect our tracks from being removed.
@ All that the concreted tram track provides is a solid road base for the bitumen layer on top. The so-called experts that build today’s “light rail” will laugh at any suggestions that the old tram track be reused as the “light rail” requires ‘stronger track’, or so they claim. The tram track in Anzac Parade Kensington was relaid in concrete just a few years before Sydney closed, and those tracks were dug up and replaced by the present “light rail“ tracks on Sydney’s L3 line to Kingsford. Some of that removed rail ended up at the Sydney tram Museum. Personally I believe that the old track should be reused when in good enough condition, but today’s “experts“ will always find a way around that.
@@tressteleg1 I don't think we will be needing any "modern light rail vehicles." I think we envision a parade of Brisbane's regular old style trams coming out Caxton street to the opening ceremony, with each tram carrying the athletes from a competing country, flags flying, etc. I hear that many of those countries are wanting to get their own trams back. Imagine the excitement !
@tressteleg1 Yeah he made absolutely terrible decisions and I do not know why he was praised. He destroyed the best source of transportation for the city in favour of cars. Which are objectively worse for transportation, but are also so incredibly dangerous and pollutive. Dooming our city to turning into a giant parking lot/highway. It is a real shame honestly.
@@Matt_JJz Unfortunately in the English speaking world, scrapping trams in favour of buses was the ‘modern’ at that time and for a few previous decades. Nevertheless it was Jones who did it. I don’t know why so many people see him as a saint.
@tressteleg1 It is real tragic, but luckily in Australia many cities are rebuilding their tram networks, with better and higher capacity trams than what we had before! I hope Brisbane will in the near future too.
@@Matt_JJz I don’t know about many. Canberra and Gold Coast are first timers, while Adelaide has made some modest extensions but no more are in the wind at present. The best Brisbane could do was built a so-called Metro using nothing but electric buses. A video of that will appear shortly. Brisbane city Council like the LNP in general has no interest in rail vehicles.
Beautiful work! You don't just see the Trams, you also get to see the long-vanished shops and cars. Do want some royalty-free music (100% UA-cam acceptable) to go with it? I could make you a custom-length track, in a variety of styles.
Yes the city has changed, not just the absence of the trams. Rarely is there appealing music on any occasional video which I may watch, so I leave mine silent so viewers can listen to their own music of choice. Nevertheless the ‘average viewer’ watches for less than 10 minutes.
Sorry, what I meant was "Where was it on the footage". I know it well from travelling on it in 1966 and living in Ashgrove in 1985 as well as having 2 of my children living in The Gap. It must have been a squeeze getting trams down the old narrow Waterworks Road.
+Barry Campbell Unfortunately I took no movie of the Ashgrove line. At the most, I have just one or two photos. I only made three short visits to Brisbane, the last being the last three days of operation so it was not possible to film everywhere. Additionally, in today’s money, the film cost at least $11 per minute to take. That is why scenes tend to be short. Maybe the line is covered in another video somewhere.
For some years, at least in the 1940s an 1950s they wore silver paint. But it took a lot of work to keep them looking good. So late 50s or early 60s it was decided that grey sort-of looks a bit the same, so the change was made. Adelaide H class were also silver but a few went grey about 1970 before the old Brown colour was used again. I preferred silver.
You can’t have looked very hard. Unless you refer to the open centre sections. That was the Air Conditioning in the 1920 and earlier. The climate is quite mild compared to most places in the world. There are canvas blinds when it gets cold or wet.
Well we can thank Clem Jones for their demise but as tram scrapping in the English speaking world was the modern thing to do in those days I suppose that sooner or later some other fool would have done the same. You are lucky to have experienced them. I suppose you have been to the Ferny Grove Museum.
I don't know if the tram will back in Brisbane Metro to run on tram lines and when will be held for new trams and line too and also does anyone know or not if will go ahead this year or near future? Cheer ;)
In Brisbane there is no interest at all by the present city council to have trams running anywhere. The so-called planned ‘Metro’ is little more than double articulated diesel buses running on existing busways. The Gold Coast Tram is 65km away but does not impress the Brisbane council even though some citizens are calling for trams.
I can see why the decision to get rid of Brisbane Trams came about. Austere colors, poor infrastructure, little by way of clear signage and poorly maintained, ancient rolling stock. All probably due to government policy to be rid of trams over the previous decision making years... Almost every major city in the industrial West are nor regretting the removal of trams in the past and are spending BIG to rebuild some sort of system. Sadly, the visionaries of the past who put sensible tram systems into cities growing and building into the future no longer exist and those in charge are more interested in feeding at the trough, profiteering and self aggrandizement than in city building.
Frank Kopke It was the lord mayor of Brisbane, Clem Jones, who many people hate for closing the Brisbane Tramway. Former tram riders loved the buses so much that many instead drove their cars and those that could, caught the train. That increase in patronage was probably a factor in electrifying the suburban railways just 10 years later. When you have the infrastructure, it can be modernised but once it is gone, it is usually gone forever.
Thanks for this video. Liked Brisbane back then. Was a much more civilised time.
Yes, a quieter and easier way of life then.
Fantastic video thanks tresstleleg, love watching all your videos. I used to spend my evenings as a child watching the Ashgrove/Grange (route 76) go past on Waterworks Road and so disappointed they were taken off. Glad I'm living on the Gold Coast with the great G: Link.
Thanks for your comment. I’m also on the coast and regularly ride the tram. While it is a good service, I feel it is spoilt by long winded announcements often played too loud on some trams. I tried to do something about it this week, but the official answer amounted to being fobbed off. Pity a few others don’t complain.
@@tressteleg1 I agree about the announcements, that’s for sure.
Well a previous email did say that when I am riding a tram with speakers too loud, I should phone and complain then and there. 1800 064 928
Great memories here, thank you! Love most of your videos but usually watch them on the TV and not able to 👍👍
That’s fine. You are wise to use the TV as their screens seem to give a sharper picture compared with computer and portable screens.
thank you great memories, on the trams
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Wonderful film and sme great memories of 1960's Brisbane. I travelled on the tram for work from Clayfield to the Valley for years until I could afford a car!
😊👍. 🚙🚗 enemies of good public transport.
Choo choo trains! I was about 5 and I remember what was one of the last trams leaving near Bulimba state school. Thanks for this.
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I was born in Brisbane, still live in Brisbane and like many others I miss the trams very much.
Well you can thank Clem Jones for their scrapping. And the present mob in City Hall are making sure trams stay banished. What could be more ridiculous than a bus (Non) Metro?
@@tressteleg1 Sadly, it is now 50 years since the system was shut down. Clem Jones engaged Texan urban planner Wilbur Smith who recommended scrapping the trams and building freeways and other car friendly roadways (as per American practice in the fifties/ sixties), which has only led to increasing traffic congestion and urban frustration. I am glad that I "'escaped " Brisbane and moved back north .
When you want to reach a certain goal, and blame somebody else in the process, you hire a consultant who will give you the answer you want. Sydney did the same by hiring London transport in the 1950s, and you know what they had just achieved!
@@tressteleg1 Presumably, these "consultants" received some nice inducements from the car industry etc? ... or where they misguided??
London transport had just scrapped their trams. Nobody would believe they would tell somebody else they should keep theirs. I have no doubt that Wilbur Smith already had a clear track record showing they always recommend tram replacements. So you know you will get the answers you seek. No bribery required.
Wonderful film bringing back memories of long ago. Memories have not faded. A bad decision to abolish trams - look how the Melbourne tram system has prospered.
Really nice footage, the cars, shops, street scenes, the fashion, the old buildings, signage,houses. Thx for posting.
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I was a hoon in that time and drove all round Brissie but I didn't see my car - great doco with good memories Thanks
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As a Melbournian this era is mesmerizing to watch. Have been to Brisbane a few times over the years and never knew or ever even heard that Brisbane used to have Trams. It seems very sad looking back at that fantastic footage and those Trams - particularly that hill. :-)
Mykothy All big cities in the world once had tramways and quite a lot of smaller places as well. Rockhampton even had steam trams from 1919 to 1939. Brisbane in fact had electric trams years before Melbourne did but like most cities in the English speaking world, trams went out of fashion starting in the 1930s and continuing into the 1970s. Not many tramways close these days.
@@tressteleg1 It is known fact that trams are the most popular form of public transport. A great shame that Brisbane did away with them. One of the biggest mistakes (I think it was) Clem Jones ever made. As to Melbourne, they can thank my fathers cousin, Maj-General Sir Robert Risson, for keeping them. He was head of the Melbourne Metropolitan Tramways Board at the time, and there was a push down there to remove them, and as I understand it he went and had a good part of track network cemented in to make it harder and costlier to remove.
Unfortunately I don’t think anyone has ever done a survey investigating WHY people prefer riding trams.
As for Melbourne, no doubt Sir Robert’s staunch belief in trams was a definite factor in their retention but if the government were determined to get rid of them, that would have happened. Some fans have said that one reason trams survived was that the prominent National Party in the Victorian state government would not spend the money on purchasing new buses for the city of Melbourne, and that it was cheaper to retain the trams. Whatever the reasons, Melbourne is fortunate to have retained its tramway.
And to think back then Brisbane council had its very own power station which powered those trams ,the power station still stands to this day.
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And it had it's own electricity department as well and it ran at a profit, they had workshops spread across Brisbane, now they sell em off to their mates
In the game Monopoly,
Never sell your utilities!
Never sell the "Goose that Lays the Golden Egg."
Politicians will do anything with just short-term gains even if long-term is bad, just to buy votes. I think we are seeing a bit of that at the moment as well.
great film, end of an era - thanks, Clem NOT!!
My main thought about Clem Jones is that he should’ve died 40 years earlier. Nevertheless by the 1950s and 60s, English speaking countries saw trams as being an old-fashioned idea which held up the traffic so whoever was in power sooner or later would have scrapped the trams to make Brisbane look modern. But of course Melbourne gets the last laugh having remained old fashioned in those dark years.
aye lad. 2020 vision.
Race day traffic was chaotic - people all over the place, trams and cars. Surprisingly few people were hurt and probably noe was killed. A safer more sensible time where people took responsibility. The beautiful gentle giants glided with their unique sound round the Brisbane streets. We who rode on them will always miss them.
Yes, people actually kept their eyes open in those days and rarely got hurt. We can thank Clem Jones for destroying the tram system.
Great video tressteleg1. Even though there have been a great many changes in Brisbane most locations are still recognisable. I like the shot of Galloways Hill close by where I worked for several months in 1966 and also the Thomas Dixon shoe factory at West End where I also worked. I do remember when I was waiting for a bus home at North Quay I saw the taking down of the old Victoria Bridge that would ave been late 1969.
It’s great to hear from guys whose younger days memories are stirred by my productions. It makes the work worthwhile.
@@tressteleg1 You can add me to that list also. Great videos of the Brisbane trams which I actually did get to ride a few times as a young feller in late 1968 when visiting from Melbourne. Just as well I did because they were gone the next year. Can't believe how fast the last 50 years have flown. Cheers from.an Aussie expat in Indonesia.
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Wonderful! Brings back memories from my childhood.
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Great film; thanks ! - What's the reason to use such "high" rt.-N° (60, 72, ...) ?
I can’t give a precise answer but it is unwise to number transport routes anywhere 1 2 3 4 etc. It was not unusual to have short workings on some lines in the peak hour. So if the outer terminus were 70, a shortworking could be 71, for example, while if a line is extended, it could be 73, 75 or whatever and with all being in the 70s, riders are less likely to be confused than if the shortworking number were far removed from the normal terminus. Melbourne is the same.
brisbane looks so much cleaner
@@cjryan88 It probably was, but it was a much smaller city and suburbsso many less cars than today.
Trams are awesome! They should never have ceased operation in Brisbane!
You can thank Clem Jones for that. Unfortunately however, replacing trams with buses was fashionable in the English speaking world from the 1930s to sometime in the 1970s, more or less.
@@tressteleg1 but they still operate in Melbourne.
True, different owners. And of course there are a few other exceptions to that rule. But the vast majority of systems in the English speaking world were gone by 1975.
Wow, thank you. You've been able to pull some extraordinary image quality out of 8mm film, beautiful work!
If you can stream these videos through a big TV the good quality will look even better!
I'm going to cry
If only tears would bring them back!
Excellent video. Unfortunately, I completely missed out on riding the Brisbane tram system. My first trip to Brisbane was in August 1973. I did manage to ride a Brisbane tram at the Loftus tram museum in Sydney.
+ Thanks. I’m happy how it turned out. Having been to Melbourne the year before, I was somewhat impressed with Brisbane. Trams flew around curves whereas Melbourne trams shuddered slowly around corners. And Brisbane also had resilient wheels, silent helical gears and led with fluorescent lights which were being retrofitted to earlier trams. 548 at Loftus captures some of the atmosphere,
Yes ,I think we had a number of superelevated curves on the system here. There was one on a sharp bend in Wynnum Road,Norman Park near Balmoral Cemetary were some years ago the traffic lanes were reconfigured so they would follow the line and bank of the tramlines underneath to improve cornering for motorists.
Terrific video... as a kid, I rode those trams ... shame that Brisbane is stuck with ugly/smelly buses now.
+Russell Anderson
Unfortunately starting in the 1930s and especially in the English speaking world and in France, trams were considered old-fashioned, noisy etc. So the trend was towards ‘modern flexible buses’ being adopted. It was not until the early 1980s that especially the USA and France realised the folly of their earlier decisions as buses could not cope and people don’t seem to like riding them anyway. However the standards of today make the construction excessively expensive and slow and meaning that former systems like Sydney and Brisbane had in the past will never come back unfortunately, And there is no will to build anything in Brisbane anyway at present.
Not many people now would recognize that electric train towards the end, it was owned and run by the SEA, Southern Electric Authority to haul coal wagons from a siding at Murrarie [Queensport] to the Bulimba Power Station at Gibson Island to feed the powerhouse coal fired boilers and the power supply for the train was fed from the power station, it is now the VISI board recycling centre there
All so true but I did not know its use post power production.
@@tressteleg1 There was a boatyard/ caravan park across Doboy Creek from the power station and all the canvas annexes used to rot out because of the soot come from the boiler chimneys
One of those 4 motor trams is at Sydney Tramway Museum.
+Colonel Leon
Yes. I am sure other viewers will be interested although the video does show 548 and the caption says that it is now at that museum. I have been a member of it since 1964.
Great bit of history there, every time I see the thumbnail makes me think of the Cybermen from Dr Who
In its last years, Brisbane had the most modern trams in Australia at the time.
RGC198 Possibly the most modern in the world at the time.
The fleet and system was deliberately run down with much of the modern trams lost , several hundred in one of the huge depots about 1962. The last ten new trams, Phoenix class were put together in 63-64, but basically a lot of old reserve trams of the 1915 era, race and cricket specials were back in service for the 62-68 years diminishing the attraction.
Loadings on the system were huge, in say 63-4 it would have 4 X the total tram patronage in all NZ cities in 1944 peak patronage . Auckland's system was minor with completely obsolete trams in comparison.
By 1955 Brisbane system was completely relaid in concrete block mounting with modern trams running, far more modern than Melbourne. Part of the reason Melbourne never abandoned teams, is it was considered too disruptive to ever take the system out, combined with the fact Melbourne was still in 1936 in 1976 and the trams had only replaced cable cars on most Melbourne routes in 1930-1940 so Melbourne was the last big city to introduce old fashioned traditional trams, 50 years after NY and London. But Melbourne trams had more modern electric systems than any other tramway from the start and it was the old electrics which often condemned many great tram and trolley bus systems. It was a factor even in the closure of the Wellington trolley bus system in 2017.
The decline and destruction of Brisbane's great team system was more straightforward. Pure criminal Philistine vandalism by the local political leaders.
Yes, Clem made a big blue in abolishing them. The LA turnpike was fashionable then not public transport.
Unfortunately tram scrapping in the English speaking world was the ‘modern’ thing to do from the 1930s to the 80s.
It was the American consultants Wilbur Smith who Clem Jones engaged to make a transport plan for Brisbane. They of course considered trams to be obsolete and freeways and road widening to be the future because public transport in the U.S. was fast becoming a thing of the past. How wrong they were with trams making a comeback all over the World. (Most European cities wisely didn't follow the U.S. path)
Used to go on the 74 to work at Paddington.
Thanks for the memories 😊👌👍
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Tressteleg1you should charge to watch this wonderful job real rare
+Mauro Morganti
Thanks! It’s great that you rate it that highly but I would not charge even if I could. Comments like this of yours make the hours of work worth while.
In the pipeline at present are movies of the opening weekend and train parade for the Brisbane rail electrification opening 1979, and quite a few scenes of Tait trains in Melbourne. However vintage Aussie movie is fast running out.
Anyway if I don’t share it, all the video and movie film is likely to go to the dump when I die.
hope to make you happy I just share this treasure on my FB page and I will pray the good Lord to give you long life
+Mauro Morganti
☺️😉😄
Your videos are amazing!
👍😊
i'm from melbourne originally. and never been to brissy. i did enjoy watching this. i note the electric loco called a steeplejack. if i could think of an apt nickname for the loco at 20:35, it reminded me of a clown's shoe. i wonder what the drivers called it.
I always thought that design of logo was called a steeple cab. As for the other shoe-like loco, I have no idea if the crews had a nickname for it. After all, that was 50 years ago now.
i do think the steeple cab loco name is fair enough. the clown shoe shaped loco may have a practical reason for its shape. it wasn't designed by raymond lowy. it looks like a clown shoe to me.
@@tressteleg1 It was used to haul coal wagons from the station at Murrarie or Queensport to the coal fired power station at what they call Bulimba power station, the railway line is still there and is just on the southern approach to the Gateway Bridges, therail line also ran down to Austral Pacific where a lot of fertilizer traffic was handled but the electric locos were purely for coal handling to the power station, see my other comment here
I only went there that one day. I had to wait hours for them to finish servicing the newer loco before they went down to get the coal hoppers seen.
Remember the days when trams used to rumble around Perth. Still, when you've got overhead lines and tram tracks they were probably seen as an inconvenience. The rise of the motor car also had something to do with this. Melbourne is a more multicultural and sophisticated city.
Unfortunately from especially the early 1950s, replacing trams with ‘modern flexible buses’ was the fashion, no doubt prompted by London just having done so. Some say the Victorian Government of those days was to stingy to buy new buses so let itself be stuck with the trams - thankfully!
TRAFFIC SEEMS TO BE TRAVELLING FASTER WITH TRAMS INCLUDED THAN IN PRESENT DAY GRIDLOCK TRAFFIC.
At that time, some described Brisbane as a large country town. It certainly had more of that feeling. Scrapping trams anywhere does nothing to improve the patronage of public transport. Many former tram users end up driving their cars rather than putting up with buses. And yes, The cop uniforms were brown and I think may still be in the Northern Territory.
Fortunately, construction of the tram tracks for the Olympics has already been completed years ago, by grownups.
Thanks to their foresight, the tracks are still in good condition, only needing to be cleaned off. A few passes with an asphalt milling machine will remove the thin layer of bitumen that has been dumped over some of them.
@@p0g0ela Unfortunately today’s “light rail engineers“ (or excuses for such) without even looking at the old tram lines would declare them totally unfit for “modern light rail vehicles“ (which are merely a mild development from the trams of the year) and successfully convince gullible governments that grossly overbuilt concrete track full of reinforcing steel is necessary to carry their new babies. Certainly Sydney was the victim of gross overbuilding with extremely deep concrete poured under some sections of track.
@@tressteleg1
Let's give our engineers the benefit of the doubt. There is good reason for what may be seen as "overbuilding" of tram tracks. Trams everywhere are always in danger of being attacked by wealthy self-serving anti-tram forces who seek to profit by taking control of the valuable public roadway space and by moving tramway systems out of their way, so they can install their own diesel-driven rubber-tired products into the space vacated by the trams. For example the "red car" in Los Angeles, but nowhere a more glaring example than right here in Brisbane, where in 1969 in spite of substantial public protest, the local government allowed the city's trams to be removed from service.
There were some early efforts to even remove the tracks from the streets as well. However, thanks to the foresight of the early Brisbane engineers, the tracks were so heavily constructed that their would-be removal proved discouragingly costly and difficult, and it was decided to merely pave over them with a relatively thin layer of bitumen.
As a result, here we are today, some fifty-five years later and ready to have our trams returned to us, so thanks to those early Brisbane engineers who dared to overbuild we are blessed to have some eighty-five miles of our track still preserved in place, and only waiting for the Wirtgen to come along and clean them off.
Sounds like Sydney may stand to reap a similar benefit at some time in the future. Regards.
@@tressteleg1
Use of a lot of steel and concrete may seem like overbuilding, but here in Brisbane at least it serves a purpose: it helps to protect our tracks from being removed.
@ All that the concreted tram track provides is a solid road base for the bitumen layer on top. The so-called experts that build today’s “light rail” will laugh at any suggestions that the old tram track be reused as the “light rail” requires ‘stronger track’, or so they claim. The tram track in Anzac Parade Kensington was relaid in concrete just a few years before Sydney closed, and those tracks were dug up and replaced by the present “light rail“ tracks on Sydney’s L3 line to Kingsford. Some of that removed rail ended up at the Sydney tram Museum.
Personally I believe that the old track should be reused when in good enough condition, but today’s “experts“ will always find a way around that.
@@tressteleg1
I don't think we will be needing any "modern light rail vehicles." I think we envision a parade of Brisbane's regular old style trams coming out Caxton street to the opening ceremony, with each tram carrying the athletes from a competing country, flags flying, etc. I hear that many of those countries are wanting to get their own trams back. Imagine the excitement !
Morgan Terrace was our local stop & our local shop
Nice to bring back some memories for you!
The Holdens and VW Beetles on the road too. And the 67 VW Transporter.
The loss of our tram network was probably the worst mistake Brisbane had ever made
@@Matt_JJz Correction … biggest mistake Clem Jones ever made.
@tressteleg1 Yeah he made absolutely terrible decisions and I do not know why he was praised. He destroyed the best source of transportation for the city in favour of cars. Which are objectively worse for transportation, but are also so incredibly dangerous and pollutive. Dooming our city to turning into a giant parking lot/highway. It is a real shame honestly.
@@Matt_JJz Unfortunately in the English speaking world, scrapping trams in favour of buses was the ‘modern’ at that time and for a few previous decades. Nevertheless it was Jones who did it. I don’t know why so many people see him as a saint.
@tressteleg1 It is real tragic, but luckily in Australia many cities are rebuilding their tram networks, with better and higher capacity trams than what we had before! I hope Brisbane will in the near future too.
@@Matt_JJz I don’t know about many. Canberra and Gold Coast are first timers, while Adelaide has made some modest extensions but no more are in the wind at present. The best Brisbane could do was built a so-called Metro using nothing but electric buses. A video of that will appear shortly. Brisbane city Council like the LNP in general has no interest in rail vehicles.
Just typing into my flux capacitor right now.... see ya...
so sad it got all pulled down. the trams, the tracks, the wires.
700gsteak You can blame bloody Clem Jones or that.
O:24, My parents had a friend who worked at the Black Cat
Small world 😊
Beautiful work! You don't just see the Trams, you also get to see the long-vanished shops and cars.
Do want some royalty-free music (100% UA-cam acceptable) to go with it? I could make you a custom-length track, in a variety of styles.
Yes the city has changed, not just the absence of the trams.
Rarely is there appealing music on any occasional video which I may watch, so I leave mine silent so viewers can listen to their own music of choice. Nevertheless the ‘average viewer’ watches for less than 10 minutes.
Where was the Ashgrove line?
+Barry Campbell
Northwest of the city, a little above Bardon. Branched of near the Valley.
Sorry, what I meant was "Where was it on the footage". I know it well from travelling on it in 1966 and living in Ashgrove in 1985 as well as having 2 of my children living in The Gap. It must have been a squeeze getting trams down the old narrow Waterworks Road.
+Barry Campbell
Unfortunately I took no movie of the Ashgrove line. At the most, I have just one or two photos. I only made three short visits to Brisbane, the last being the last three days of operation so it was not possible to film everywhere. Additionally, in today’s money, the film cost at least $11 per minute to take. That is why scenes tend to be short. Maybe the line is covered in another video somewhere.
tressteleg1 u can get DVDs that cover the trams 2 parts
Why did they paint the tram in grey colour in those years?
For some years, at least in the 1940s an 1950s they wore silver paint. But it took a lot of work to keep them looking good. So late 50s or early 60s it was decided that grey sort-of looks a bit the same, so the change was made. Adelaide H class were also silver but a few went grey about 1970 before the old Brown colour was used again. I preferred silver.
Yes, it was. Silver looked nicer.
No doors?!
You can’t have looked very hard. Unless you refer to the open centre sections. That was the Air Conditioning in the 1920 and earlier. The climate is quite mild compared to most places in the world. There are canvas blinds when it gets cold or wet.
Well we can thank Clem Jones for their demise but as tram scrapping in the English speaking world was the modern thing to do in those days I suppose that sooner or later some other fool would have done the same. You are lucky to have experienced them. I suppose you have been to the Ferny Grove Museum.
I don't know if the tram will back in Brisbane Metro to run on tram lines and when will be held for new trams and line too and also does anyone know or not if will go ahead this year or near future? Cheer ;)
In Brisbane there is no interest at all by the present city council to have trams running anywhere. The so-called planned ‘Metro’ is little more than double articulated diesel buses running on existing busways. The Gold Coast Tram is 65km away but does not impress the Brisbane council even though some citizens are calling for trams.
All doors open in the Brisbane heat
Yep. And it was years before buses got air con.
I was still A sperm in my dads gonads, I was born in December 85
I can see why the decision to get rid of Brisbane Trams came about. Austere colors, poor infrastructure, little by way of clear signage and poorly maintained, ancient rolling stock. All probably due to government policy to be rid of trams over the previous decision making years...
Almost every major city in the industrial West are nor regretting the removal of trams in the past and are spending BIG to rebuild some sort of system.
Sadly, the visionaries of the past who put sensible tram systems into cities growing and building into the future no longer exist and those in charge are more interested in feeding at the trough, profiteering and self aggrandizement than in city building.
Frank Kopke It was the lord mayor of Brisbane, Clem Jones, who many people hate for closing the Brisbane Tramway. Former tram riders loved the buses so much that many instead drove their cars and those that could, caught the train. That increase in patronage was probably a factor in electrifying the suburban railways just 10 years later. When you have the infrastructure, it can be modernised but once it is gone, it is usually gone forever.
POLICE IN Khaki COLOURS
When it was called the Police Force not Police Service and a lot of people still aren't happy about the change