HECTIC FAREWELL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 271, 29 August 1935, Page 5

HECTIC FAREWELL

MELBOURNE CABLE TRAMS.

SCENES ON LAST RUNS'. <- u In a blaze of light and a pandemonium of. sound, the cable trams ion the North Melbourne and West Melbourne lines made a triumphal progress 6n their last journey after midnight on July 20. The North Melbourne line will l>e electrified., and motor buses .will serve West Melbourne., . f A procession of motor-cars followed the cable trams on their last run, The more daring of the participants in the farewell stood and sat on the tops of the dummies and the trailers, of the trams. Determined efforts were- made to take as souvenirs everything but the iron stanchions and! the ponderous grip. Tumult arose from the clanging of bells and the. shouting, cheering and sing-

ing. . . Men on roller skates skated in. and out. of the glare of car a youth sipped beer as . he lay on the front bumper bars of a car and a mam with a. concertina tried to adapt the t im e of the National Anthem to an' appeal for the salvation of . the caljle trams. The trams were almost wrecked by a section of the crowd which assembled at the North Mel bourne'depot. A number of youths shouted “Wreck' them” and “Pull them off the lines.” Youths men ancl women immediately began smashing windows., wrenching the., woodwork from the' sides of the cars ami twisting electric light globes from-i their sockets. Only the intervention of the police saved the trams,