Passing by a shop window, I spied this old Melbourne tram. Strange that I should call it an "old" Melbourne tram when I remember going to the city to my first job on one of these. Guess what, no grafitti, no ripped seats - everyone paid their fare and the "Connies", Conductors help mothers with prams and the frail on and off the tram.
Today the Connies have gone, replaced by graffiti, ripped seats and poor behavior by a few. Oh yes, and many "free" travellers.
I found this video of an old Melbourne tram on youtube. Very quaint as it passes by Flinder's Street railway station.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPJp2TKPtb8
For more on the history of Melbourne's trams, go to;
http://www.railpage.org.au/tram/melbhist.html
This is a small segment from the site.
Melbourne established cable trams in 1885, and the system grew to 75 km of double track and 1200 cars and trailers, the fourth largest cable system in the world. There is some difficulty in comparing the sizes of American cable systems, and it is possible that the Melbourne system was in fact the largest - it was certainly very similar in extent to the San Francisco system before the 1906 earthquake, and apparently slightly larger than the Chicago system.
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