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Memories of the Sydney Tram

Memories Of The Sydney Tram

This fabulous road transport vehicle had it's humble beginnings
in the 1880s, were horses pulled the double-decker trams along
the various streets of Sydney, they moved pretty slow and the
people wanted to move at a much faster pace.
Soon to follow was the steam tram, although a faster alternative
it would cause all sorts of problems, especially the black soot
which came from the smokestack, this would never do.

It was approaching the turn of the century, in the 1900's
along came the cable tram, were the cable ran through a slot in the 
middle of the lines giving the tram it's available traction, although
a lot faster than the horse and more than a match to a steam tram
in clean street running, it was not until the first of the electric trams 
came into service, that people were satisfied.

Trams had a marvellous ability to move large numbers of people
from the racetracks and the showgrounds where they had the Royal 
Easter Show, they were environmentally friendly and the people
loved them, all except the Government and the Oil Companies of the 
time, they envisioned the future of transportation to be made up of 
fossil fuel burning cars and buses, yes it would seem there was no
room on the streets for the people's friend, the humble tramcar.

Trams came and went until the 1950's, when plans were made to scrap
Sydney's greatest asset, the trams, when 1960 approached there was 
hardly anything left of our great tramway system, and in 1961, 
Sydney's last two trams made their final run into history, it would appear 
the Government and Oil Companies had won the battle or so it seemed 
until the late 1990's when a move to bring trams back was achieved and 
they now run from Central station like their early predecessors, 
running around Darling Harbor almost like a parody of what they once 
were, still who knows what role the tram may have for Sydney's future.

Copyright © John Ginesi | Year Posted 2013

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Skat A Date: 6/30/2013 7:22:00 PM A very good poem, John. Thank you for sharing <3 ~SKAT~ <3 Login to Reply John Ginesi Date: 7/1/2013 8:21:00 AM Hi SCAT, I am glad you liked this poem. There is a strange irony about this historical poem, they are now bringing back the trams, they are modern ones and called light rail, they are restructuring them back in Sydney at present, they are a far cry from the original trams, but it seems governments sometimes have to eat their words. All that wasted money. By 1961 most countries were getting rid of trams,. lol. John Ginesi