Trams

On the 14th of December 2019, Sydney, Australia, opened a new light-rail tram service between the CBD and Randwick which is to the south-east of the City. There is also another service to the south-west of the City which has been in operation for some years. The new service goes right past the famous Sydney Cricket Ground and the Royal Randwick Racecourse.

 I rode the full length of the new line recently and it is the trams themselves that I want to comment on.

These new trams, supplied by Alstom, are typical of the current world-wide trend in light-rail design where a set comprises 5-segments that are articulated with concertinas in-between each segment. Sydney Light-Rail operates two sets coupled together as a single unit which makes for a pretty long tram overall. As the new tram negotiated sharp curves in the City, going around corners and turn-outs, the vehicle groaned and squealed - voicing its discomfort!

The tram that we rode in (Carol Pivnic)

Coming off the tram after the full ride, I was mentally comparing this ride with the trams in Johannesburg, many years ago. The Johannesburg trams that I was comparing the Sydney lot with, are those 50 all-steel, streamlined trams that were built in the UK by Metro-Cammell in Birmingham in 1936 for the British Empire Exhibition. They ran between the City...

I returned to Johannesburg from Durban late in 1945 with my mother when the War in Europe was finally over. My dad would soon return from the Middle East after serving with the SA Medical Corps in Cairo at a military hospital.

We took up temporary residence at a boarding house in Edith Cavell Street opposite the Twist Street Primary School. It was time to adapt to our new life back in Johannesburg, the City of my birth in 1935 in Brixton. I attended Twist Street Primary for standard 3 to 5 before going on to high school at Parktown Boy's High in Wellington Road, Parktown. After settling in, my parents found a flat in Kilkenny Court in de Villiers Street off Claim Street and the main railway lines coming into Johannesburg from the eastern side of the City were only one block away from where we lived.

Perhaps I should explain that I already had an interest in trains and ships - actually anything to do with transport but my main interest at this stage was railways. I learnt to ride a bicycle - my dad was my tutor - and after a short wobbly period, I gained confidence to ride all over the City and especially to the Johannesburg Railway Station.

I would ride my bike to the station on a Sunday morning to witness the departure of the fast (1st and 2nd class only) passenger train to Cape Town. There was a road tunnel from Harrison Street under the railway lines direct to platforms 3, 4, 5 & 6 for cars taking departing passengers right to the platform from...

The last tram journey in Pretoria took place during 1939 - eighty years ago. Therefore, today it may only be citizens born prior to around 1933, who resided in Pretoria at the time, who may recall the tram activity or may even have travelled on a Pretoria tram as a child.

The purpose of this article is to supplement Claus Schutte’s recent article on Pretoria trams (click here to view) with additional visual evidence of earlier tram activity in Pretoria.

Only picture postcard images produced at the time have been included in this article. The postcards presented here not only show trams during the various stages of development during the first 23 years of the tram service activity in Pretoria, but also showcases Pretoria’s growth and development as a city over the years.

The images show new buildings having replaced older buildings or new businesses having established themselves in town. Although the main theme is Pretoria’s tram services, commentary on some of these developments has been included below many of the images.

Dating of cards is also assisted by some of these developments. On some picture postcards, the Church can be seen standing on Church Square, whilst on the next card the Church no longer stands, which assists in dating the images.

The use of picture postcards was exceptionally popular as a communication instrument between mainly the 1900s and 1920s. Today, these images provide us with a rich historical insight into Pretoria’s history. The production of picture postcards...

Residents of Arcadia and Pretoria are mostly unaware that trams were used to serve as public transport in the early 1900s, later being replaced by trolley buses and eventually buses as we know them today.

Trams are loosely defined as light rail vehicles running on steel tracks, serving as urban public transport, designed to travel on streets, sharing road space with other traffic and pedestrians.

Tram travelling along Church Street. Note tracks both sides of the transmission posts (via The Arcadian)

Two trams waiting at Church Square with the Tram Station in the background. Note the poles for the overhead powerlines onto which the trams were connected (via The Arcadian)

Horse drawn trams were first introduced in Pretoria in 1897 by The Pretoria Tramway Company with eight trams and 50 horses. When the horses were needed during the Boer...

In 1961, South African Panorama ran a special article bidding a sad farewell to tramcars in Johannesburg (the tram had dominated the transport scene for seven decades until the rise of the trolley-bus led to its demise). Below are a few excerpts and photographs from the wonderful piece. 

Horsedrawn Tramcar heading down Commissioner Street (South African Panorama)

Tramcars have been part of the Johannesburg scene for 70 years - for almost as long, in fact, as there has been a Johannesburg. Now this colourful and somewhat noisy era in public transportation is coming to an end. The trackless, electrically-operated trolley-bus - silent and manoeuvrable in big-city road traffic - has come to stay. By the end of last year, "tram" routes which once criss-crossed Johannesburg had been reduced to four only, and any day now the last of the leviathans of the Johannesburg streets will clang to rest in the municipal sheds.

The last two designs for trams in...