Brisbane tram on offer

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33093, 7 December 1972, Page 18

Brisbane tram on offer

A Brisbane tram, from Wellington, could be shipped to Christchurch to provide an extra transport vehicle at Ferrymead during the Commonwealth Games in 1974. The Tramway Historical Society is investigating transport costs while it awaits final approval of the permanent loan of the tram.

The tram, which is at present standing in the open at the Wellington Tramway Museum at Queen Elizabeth Park, Paekakariki, was given by the city of Brisbane a few years ago. There are two Brisbane trams at the park, but they cannot run with the Wellington trams as their gauge is wider. They have a 4ft Bjin gauge—the same as Christchurch and Auckland trams —whereas the Wellington trams ran on a 4ft gauge.

Transport is a problem because of the size of the tram, said the president of the Tramway Historical Society (Mr A. J. Pickering) yesterday. At present, the cost was estimated at $7OO to $lOOO, but the society hoped to reduce this to $5OO at the outside, he said. The tram could not go on a rail ferry because it would not fit through railway tunnels, and it would be an oversize load in an ordinary ferry, and so the society was

investigating the possibility of transporting it aboard a coastal vessel, Mr Pickering said.

The Tramway Historical Society is at present renovating a Dunedin tram and a double-decker, cagetype Christchurch tram. The society has built a trambarn and has completed more than a quarter-mile of track, which it is hoped will be extended to one mile in time for the Commonwealth Games.