Hi Marty, thanks for sharing a most interesting video. Unfortunately, I was born a bit too late to see trams on the Suspension Bridge, though my grandfather told me a bit about it years ago. I was fortunate enough to ride some of the North Shore tram lines during the 1950's prior to the system closure in 1958. Crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge by tram was always a favourite outing for me. Anyway, take care. Rob in Melbourne Australia.
I thoroughly enjoyed this fascinating video. I lived in Northbridge from 1938 until the end of 1953, in Calbina Rd, the second street on the left off Strathallan Av, just up from the bridge. I’m told I was at the opening of the current bridge but, as I was only 2 at the time, I don’t remember being there. I did most of my schooling in North Sydney, so for many years I crossed the bridge in a bus twice every school day. Much has changed in the nearly 70 years since I left Sydney, but your video brought back many fond memories of my young days in Northbridge, and for that, I thank you.
Thanks for your memories. I drive over the "Suspension Bridge" a few times a week going to work and I enjoy thinking about all the versions of the bridge and what could have been with the trams everytime I do...
Wonderful video; well sourced and researched. Thank you. I remember it well. My parents live at Cammeray and often spoke of the bridge when it was truly a suspension bridge.
Thanks, mate, for another great video! It seems to be the history of most of Australia, big plans for buildings, roads, railways, bridges, etc, only to be demolished, scrapped, rebuilt, diverted and often, forgotten!🥂🍺
yes talking about Sydney's trams pre 1961 is a finite resource :). So much great infrastructure built and now lost - for many different reasons.. and to give credit to Bradfield they did build that Sydney Harbour Bridge to cater for traffic not ever imagined at the time...
@@backtracks.channel Bradfield was a bloody genius. No one else anticipated that Sydney would spread all of the way to the Blue Mountains, Palm Beach…..and so on.
Just letting you know that you can see the old Wynyard Tram stations and tunnels every year during Vivid as part of their paid exhibits. I went again this year - it was called Dark Spectrum and was amazing!
Thanks. And yes after making this video I got quite interesting in finding out more about where the trams left from Wynyard (as I had no idea about it). So I did work it out just in time for VIVID last year.. (agree it was really amazing eh! - although due to travel I didn't get to see it this year.. it sounded even better this year. ua-cam.com/video/KXXor8g9vtQ/v-deo.html If you have a chance and have not seen already, watch this one.. as you have been to it already.. you can just watch the first part. like to you hear your thoughts. Thanks again.
Thank you Marty very clear, informative and entertaining. Never had the pleasure of using this line as growing up south of the Harbour and using the Abbotsford and Dulwich Hill Lines.
When I grew up in Maroubra Beach there was a tram service. There was a young girl who got hit by the tram, happily not injured badly but who from that day on was known as “Clang, Clang, R (or Ahh)”, young kids can be very cruel.
@@backtracks.channel to be fair the 60s saw road deaths in Australia skyrocket, they almost doubled by 1970 compared to 1959. We have only just recently returned to 1950s levels this decade.
@@BigBlueMan118 Looking at that photo of the tram bridge made me wonder about that. No road markings at all, it seemed. My parents told me how rare traffic signs were when they first arrived in Australia, so I imagine a lot of collisions were the result of ambiguous or confusing road rules.
I think 'the good old days' is the source of controversy. I'll take 2020s conveniences and technology over 1950s life any day, and I'm a cis white guy! It's nice that harbour views were so affordable for people with access to education and professional careers back then, but a much bigger proportion of today's population has that access, even after the 1990s degradation of education in Australia. And there's no way we'd've seen media anything like this video at any point in the 20th century, let alone on demand! And then there's healthcare…
@@nomadMik possibly, but speed limits in core areas are and have always been top fast - there is no reason any roads in the core sections of the CBD, North Sydney, Parra, Bondi Jct, Newtown or directly adjacent to train or tram stations and pedestrian areas should be faster than 30kmh. Agree with you about the 1950s.
Excellent! When was the decision made to phase them out? Mid-fifties? And was the NSW government influenced by generous donations from oil companies? How could the largest tram network in the world disappear like that, with some old trams ritualistically burnt as though people hated them.
I remember being taken to the Train and Tram museum at Loftus/Sutherland in the late 1960s early 70s/. I don't know if it still exists or not. It was a long time ago. That visit was the start of my fascination with transport.
Hi thanks for the share. I was taken there as a kid as well. The tram museum still exists today. I just looked up the website and it's open Wednesdays and Sundays. www.sydneytramwaymuseum.com.au/
I didn't know living in the Northern suburbs was so complicated by public transport - it seem it still is except it is due to constant track work which seems to be almost every second weekend!
In one of your last vids. There was a tram deposit at Tempe. It is still there but busses us it. Don't know what is in the building to the back. I use to drive the bus
Thanks. Yes the bus depot takes up most of the site of the old tram depot. I actually recently went inside part of the old building. About 1/3 of it is a public car park and there is a makeshift gym. All a bit unusual... but I believe the other 2/3 is still used as part of the bus depot.
On the map the word "SHEWN" appears...I may be wrong, but I believe this was the result of influence by George Bernard SHAW on the way the English language should be written. Please can someone confirm or discount this?... Thank you.
I remember the old card suburban rail tickets train with that spelling "Tickets must be SHEWN at the barrier". Railways English seemed very conservative and employed words lik "Thence" on the indicators as in "Thence all stations to Sutherland". I enjoyed the conservatism I know GB Shaw wanted to reform English spelling but don't know whether he was responsible for the spelling you mentioned. Thanks for reviving the memory.
I have been to the Northbridge terminus by tram from Cammeray shops before the Suspension Bridge closed. The caption should be revised because there are number of spelling errors and incorrect location names. One minor point: On the way to Northbridge the tram line crossed Miller St from Vale St on to a reserved section before rejoining Miller St and entering the bridge via the left hand curve.
Thanks Barry. Appreciate it. After your note I did go back and look at the video as I thought I had made an error with the supers. (There is one now I realise but minor as it didn’t change the intent). Thanks for supporting. I was also born decades after Tramway system closed. So always welcome input. The main aim of the channel is remember and celebrate the Tramway system that was so it’s great to have input from you and others. Happy Easter!
While people look back with rose coloured glasses on trams and no doubt their premature demise was brought about by lobbying of oil companies and bus/car suppliers, they would have been completely dysfunctional in modern Sydney (and by the 70's). Melbourne has a viable network due to being a planned city with wider roads. Living in Balmain East near what was a line, I cannot imagine how utterly hopeless life would be now with cars and trams fighting on tiny roads (it already takes 15 minutes to travel 3km now from Balmain East to Victoria road another traffic disaster). Even Melbourne like Sydney is no longer suited to a tram environment with a large geographical footprint and the famed quarter acre block. High speed rail, and laid underground despite high cost is the only solution along with busses acting as shuttles for a city 100km long and 80km wide. Trams are only viable over short distances in highly built up suburbs (as they were in the early 1900's in a smaller city) and today only where they can run in a distinct tram only corridor. Big cities need lots of travel options that suit topography and geographical spread. The steep hills of inner Sydney no doubt made them incredibly slow at the best of times. We do most of our travel by Ferry/train, both of which have delivered reliable and quick service for many decades. Not that our rail hub and spoke was ever a great design either...... Metro's crossing over like the TUBE in London is our long term outcome to cut as best travel congestion for 5m people.
Thanks for your thoughts great points. Yes, even if the Sydney Tramway system has broadly survive through the 1960s into the 70s and thru to today the network would have had certainly changed it shape significantly. my observation is trams or light rail fill a good niche between heavy or metro rail and buses. They could’ve played a very good role connecting major railway stations between different lines / cutting in cross country and travelling on major thoroughfares without any railway stations, such as the route to Ride, all along Parramatta Road, Anzac Parade etc
I really enjoy these videos, but a pet peeve of mine is when labels of suburbs and towns omit the state or territory, but 'Australia' is still appended. 'Northbridge, Australia', for example, is ambiguous, since there's also a Northbridge in WA. (It's worse when people write 'Richmond, Australia', as I've seen in other media-I know of five of those.) States and territories are important; if you're going to write the country, I think you should also write 'NSW'. You might even be able to ommit the country, since I don't think there's a NSW anywhere else.
Thanks MS, good feedback. Yes been tussling with this a bit.. as thinking do I write the locations for Sydney locals / or for people in Australia / or people viewing from overseas... but you are right.. I have not been putting the state as I have been intro'ing as Sydney.. I will do that from now on. Thanks!
Just on this point about locations being in multiple states.. I think the fed government has decided recently (with Australia Post) that no new localities created can have the same name as another in another state. Which I am happy with as I grew up in a suburb in Sydney with a very similar suburb name (sounded same but spelt differently) in Melbourne with the same street... so we got a lot of their mail (and assume them ours) :)
I've always found it strange that Australians don't mention the city following the suburb. So you'd have say Northbridge, NSW whereas I'd be used to writing Northbridge, Sydney, NSW. And it is also amusing how many of the places in Australia have New Zealand equivalents!
Hi Marty, thanks for sharing a most interesting video. Unfortunately, I was born a bit too late to see trams on the Suspension Bridge, though my grandfather told me a bit about it years ago. I was fortunate enough to ride some of the North Shore tram lines during the 1950's prior to the system closure in 1958. Crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge by tram was always a favourite outing for me. Anyway, take care. Rob in Melbourne Australia.
I thoroughly enjoyed this fascinating video. I lived in Northbridge from 1938 until the end of 1953, in Calbina Rd, the second street on the left off Strathallan Av, just up from the bridge. I’m told I was at the opening of the current bridge but, as I was only 2 at the time, I don’t remember being there. I did most of my schooling in North Sydney, so for many years I crossed the bridge in a bus twice every school day. Much has changed in the nearly 70 years since I left Sydney, but your video brought back many fond memories of my young days in Northbridge, and for that, I thank you.
Thanks for your memories. I drive over the "Suspension Bridge" a few times a week going to work and I enjoy thinking about all the versions of the bridge and what could have been with the trams everytime I do...
Wonderful video; well sourced and researched. Thank you. I remember it well. My parents live at Cammeray and often spoke of the bridge when it was truly a suspension bridge.
Glad you enjoyed it
Good to see the bridge still exists.
Thanks, mate, for another great video! It seems to be the history of most of Australia, big plans for buildings, roads, railways, bridges, etc, only to be demolished, scrapped, rebuilt, diverted and often, forgotten!🥂🍺
yes talking about Sydney's trams pre 1961 is a finite resource :). So much great infrastructure built and now lost - for many different reasons.. and to give credit to Bradfield they did build that Sydney Harbour Bridge to cater for traffic not ever imagined at the time...
@@backtracks.channel Bradfield was a bloody genius. No one else anticipated that Sydney would spread all of the way to the Blue Mountains, Palm Beach…..and so on.
Hi Marty, thank for publishing these lovely videos. My tip, I got once from a Library the Tram Video about Sydney Trams. It could have been VHS :)
Just letting you know that you can see the old Wynyard Tram stations and tunnels every year during Vivid as part of their paid exhibits. I went again this year - it was called Dark Spectrum and was amazing!
Thanks. And yes after making this video I got quite interesting in finding out more about where the trams left from Wynyard (as I had no idea about it). So I did work it out just in time for VIVID last year.. (agree it was really amazing eh! - although due to travel I didn't get to see it this year.. it sounded even better this year.
ua-cam.com/video/KXXor8g9vtQ/v-deo.html
If you have a chance and have not seen already, watch this one.. as you have been to it already.. you can just watch the first part. like to you hear your thoughts.
Thanks again.
Thank you Marty very clear, informative and entertaining. Never had the pleasure of using this line as growing up south of the Harbour and using the Abbotsford and Dulwich Hill Lines.
Glad you enjoyed it
why did authorities scrap ALL trams ??
I fell in love with the Cammeray bridge the first time I saw it in late 70s
Very informative and interesting. Thank you
Thanks. Glad you like them.
When I grew up in Maroubra Beach there was a tram service. There was a young girl who got hit by the tram, happily not injured badly but who from that day on was known as “Clang, Clang, R (or Ahh)”, young kids can be very cruel.
Thanks for the memory.. cheers m
I wish we could go back to the 50s they were the good old days thank you.🚉🚊🍺👍👍👍
Not having lived in the 50s or 60s.. I do love the 50s (because of the trams) but the 60s (because of the better music). Sorry to get controversial.😀
@@backtracks.channel to be fair the 60s saw road deaths in Australia skyrocket, they almost doubled by 1970 compared to 1959. We have only just recently returned to 1950s levels this decade.
@@BigBlueMan118 Looking at that photo of the tram bridge made me wonder about that. No road markings at all, it seemed. My parents told me how rare traffic signs were when they first arrived in Australia, so I imagine a lot of collisions were the result of ambiguous or confusing road rules.
I think 'the good old days' is the source of controversy. I'll take 2020s conveniences and technology over 1950s life any day, and I'm a cis white guy! It's nice that harbour views were so affordable for people with access to education and professional careers back then, but a much bigger proportion of today's population has that access, even after the 1990s degradation of education in Australia. And there's no way we'd've seen media anything like this video at any point in the 20th century, let alone on demand! And then there's healthcare…
@@nomadMik possibly, but speed limits in core areas are and have always been top fast - there is no reason any roads in the core sections of the CBD, North Sydney, Parra, Bondi Jct, Newtown or directly adjacent to train or tram stations and pedestrian areas should be faster than 30kmh.
Agree with you about the 1950s.
Excellent! When was the decision made to phase them out? Mid-fifties? And was the NSW government influenced by generous donations from oil companies? How could the largest tram network in the world disappear like that, with some old trams ritualistically burnt as though people hated them.
I remember being taken to the Train and Tram museum at Loftus/Sutherland in the late 1960s early 70s/. I don't know if it still exists or not. It was a long time ago. That visit was the start of my fascination with transport.
Hi thanks for the share. I was taken there as a kid as well. The tram museum still exists today. I just looked up the website and it's open Wednesdays and Sundays. www.sydneytramwaymuseum.com.au/
@@backtracks.channel I see they've published a book about Sydney Trams and and that the museum is run by volunteers.
I didn't know living in the Northern suburbs was so complicated by public transport - it seem it still is except it is due to constant track work which seems to be almost every second weekend!
In one of your last vids. There was a tram deposit at Tempe. It is still there but busses us it. Don't know what is in the building to the back. I use to drive the bus
Thanks. Yes the bus depot takes up most of the site of the old tram depot. I actually recently went inside part of the old building. About 1/3 of it is a public car park and there is a makeshift gym. All a bit unusual... but I believe the other 2/3 is still used as part of the bus depot.
Thanks again
Always welcome
On the map the word "SHEWN" appears...I may be wrong, but I believe this was the result of influence by George Bernard SHAW on the way the English language should be written. Please can someone confirm or discount this?... Thank you.
I remember the old card suburban rail tickets train with that spelling "Tickets must be SHEWN at the barrier". Railways English seemed very conservative and employed words lik "Thence" on the indicators as in "Thence all stations to Sutherland". I enjoyed the conservatism I know GB Shaw wanted to reform English spelling but don't know whether he was responsible for the spelling you mentioned. Thanks for reviving the memory.
I have been to the Northbridge terminus by tram from Cammeray shops before the Suspension Bridge closed. The caption should be revised because there are number of spelling errors and incorrect location names. One minor point: On the way to Northbridge the tram line crossed Miller St from Vale St on to a reserved section before rejoining Miller St and entering the bridge via the left hand curve.
Thanks for the memories. Thanks also for the note about the reservation I hadn't come across that detail in my research. Great to know. Thanks.
I withdraw my comment about the caption. I did not realize it was voice recognition.
Thanks Barry. Appreciate it. After your note I did go back and look at the video as I thought I had made an error with the supers. (There is one now I realise but minor as it didn’t change the intent). Thanks for supporting. I was also born decades after Tramway system closed. So always welcome input. The main aim of the channel is remember and celebrate the Tramway system that was so it’s great to have input from you and others. Happy Easter!
While people look back with rose coloured glasses on trams and no doubt their premature demise was brought about by lobbying of oil companies and bus/car suppliers, they would have been completely dysfunctional in modern Sydney (and by the 70's). Melbourne has a viable network due to being a planned city with wider roads. Living in Balmain East near what was a line, I cannot imagine how utterly hopeless life would be now with cars and trams fighting on tiny roads (it already takes 15 minutes to travel 3km now from Balmain East to Victoria road another traffic disaster). Even Melbourne like Sydney is no longer suited to a tram environment with a large geographical footprint and the famed quarter acre block. High speed rail, and laid underground despite high cost is the only solution along with busses acting as shuttles for a city 100km long and 80km wide. Trams are only viable over short distances in highly built up suburbs (as they were in the early 1900's in a smaller city) and today only where they can run in a distinct tram only corridor. Big cities need lots of travel options that suit topography and geographical spread. The steep hills of inner Sydney no doubt made them incredibly slow at the best of times. We do most of our travel by Ferry/train, both of which have delivered reliable and quick service for many decades. Not that our rail hub and spoke was ever a great design either...... Metro's crossing over like the TUBE in London is our long term outcome to cut as best travel congestion for 5m people.
Thanks for your thoughts great points. Yes, even if the Sydney Tramway system has broadly survive through the 1960s into the 70s and thru to today the network would have had certainly changed it shape significantly. my observation is trams or light rail fill a good niche between heavy or metro rail and buses. They could’ve played a very good role connecting major railway stations between different lines / cutting in cross country and travelling on major thoroughfares without any railway stations, such as the route to Ride, all along Parramatta Road, Anzac Parade etc
I really enjoy these videos, but a pet peeve of mine is when labels of suburbs and towns omit the state or territory, but 'Australia' is still appended. 'Northbridge, Australia', for example, is ambiguous, since there's also a Northbridge in WA. (It's worse when people write 'Richmond, Australia', as I've seen in other media-I know of five of those.)
States and territories are important; if you're going to write the country, I think you should also write 'NSW'. You might even be able to ommit the country, since I don't think there's a NSW anywhere else.
Thanks MS, good feedback. Yes been tussling with this a bit.. as thinking do I write the locations for Sydney locals / or for people in Australia / or people viewing from overseas... but you are right.. I have not been putting the state as I have been intro'ing as Sydney.. I will do that from now on. Thanks!
Just on this point about locations being in multiple states.. I think the fed government has decided recently (with Australia Post) that no new localities created can have the same name as another in another state. Which I am happy with as I grew up in a suburb in Sydney with a very similar suburb name (sounded same but spelt differently) in Melbourne with the same street... so we got a lot of their mail (and assume them ours) :)
I've always found it strange that Australians don't mention the city following the suburb. So you'd have say Northbridge, NSW whereas I'd be used to writing Northbridge, Sydney, NSW.
And it is also amusing how many of the places in Australia have New Zealand equivalents!
@@backtracks.channel That's good to know. Now, if only they'd rename either Silverwater in Sydney, or Silverwater in Newcastle. 😉
@@jodij2366 It seems every placename in California that doesn't have either a Spanish or Russian name stole the name of a Sydney suburb. 🙂