Historic tram will travel from beach home to Ferrymead

Press, 21 February 1987, Page 22

Historic tram will travel from beach home to Ferrymead

By

JOSIE McNEE

Members of the Feiiymead Historic Trust admit they are not completely sure just how they will manage to shift Tram 26 from the Taylor family’s bach at Hakatere Beach, near Ashburton. This week-end, the trust’s Tramway Society plans to transport the former Christchurch Tramways double-decker electric tramcar, which has served as a fishing bach for the past 42 years, to its Ferrymead tram barn where it will be restored to its original condition. Douglas Johns, head of the recovery committee, says: “There is the element of the unknown. Until we start to take it apart we won’t really know what condition it is in.” The committee believed it will have to take apart one end of the house the tram is attached to. It is likely they will use a very greasy pole or an angle iron on runners to “slide” Tram 26 out of its present resting place. In spite of the uncertainty of the. project, most details have been arranged with meticulous care — a trait that is fast becoming the hallmark of the society’s restoration projects. Considerable planning has gone into this latest exercise, ranging from organising every meal society members will need while they are on the job to finding mechanical parts from as far afield as Lisbon and Brussels for the later restoration work.

Once the tram is moved out bf the existing house, she will be taken to Christchurch by truck. . Douglas Johns has no qualms % about this stage of the operation. “They all come in that way (by truck); there are 22 of them there now at Ferrymead.” He thinks it will take the society up to eight years to complete the project A grant of $75,000 from the Community and Public Sector Grants Scheme will pay for the bulk of the restoration.

Douglas Johns believes that the enormous amount of work involved in the project is quite justified. "There are parts of the past worth preserving, and city transport is our particular area.” He envisages the restored and operational Tram 26 will give future generations the opportunity to experience the delights of a past era. Historically, Tram 26 is important Very few double-deck tramcars were built in the United States, — they were mostly of British origin — but

she was one of three built by John Stevenson and Co., New York, in 1905.

The three double-decker cars were brought to Canterbury by the Tramways Board for the opening of the tramway system in mid-1905. Tram 26 took part

in the opening ceremony anS the system’s inaugural run to Papanui on June 5 of that year. She served on various routes until 1917 when the borad decided that T the loading of pasengers on the top deck took too long and decided to convert her to a single-decker. In about 1920, the tram went through another transition when her electric and mechanical equipment was removed so she could be towed behind an electric tram as a trailer car. She

was used in this manner until the closure of the system in 1954. After that date transposed trams became a common sight around Canterbury. People used the solidly built cars for a variety of outbuildings, ranging from baches to garden sheds and fowl runs. The Christchurch Transport Board itself used three as holiday cottages at Waikuku Beach. Mrs Eva Taylor can remember well- when her late husband, Bert, brought the tram to Hakatere Beach to use as a fishing bach.

Bert Taylor, who was a night watchman at Lane Walker Rudkin in Ashburton, and his mate,

Tom* Lane, who still lives in the town, shifted the tram to an Isolated spot on the hills above the Hakatere Beach. A kitchen was built in the middle of the car and the family slept in bedrooms at either end. Those were the days when salmon were plentiful and the fishermen threw back the kahawai. Along with the other fishermen’s wives, Mrs Taylor would take afternoon teas “down to the men” on the beach or the nearby Ashburton River. Today, the afternoon teas are remembered as part of a bygone era, the fishermen are glad to catch a salmon, and no-one would think of throwing back a kahawai. The 87-year-old Mrs Taylor is pleased the society thinks the. tram is worth restoring. “It gives me great pleasure to think that it is going to be kept.” Douglas Johns says the Tramway Society is very grateful to the Taylor family, without whose generosity the project could not go ahead. In return for taking the tram, the society will replace that part of the . bach.