> In article <347A531B.A32218CD@merddyn.apana.org.au>,
> ht244014@student.uq.edu.au wrote:
>
> After all, 554 was only 5 years one month old when scrapped!
> >
> >See my other posting re how the modern Melbourne conventional trams
>
> >actually owe a lot of their features to Brisbane's original 1938 FM
>
> >design and subsequent modifications - resilient wheels, roller
> >bearings, double helical gears, tiled floorsetc. Perhaps Melbourne
>
> >might even follow Brisbane's lead with 511 and install fluro lights
>
> >;-)
> >
> >Cheers
> >
> >Garry
>
> Actually, the PTC tried to do just that with SW6 car 922.
> Unfortunately, the
> National Trust found out and persuaded the Government to scrap the
> project.
> 922 was to have had new head and tail lights (including stop and
> turn
> indicatotrs), dot matrix destination signs, air conditioning, roller
> bearings,
> flourescent lighting, and a pantograph. This car is now stored in
> Newport
> Workshops along with all the other redundant W series cars.
>
That's what happens when uncontrolled "greenies" are let loose. All
rhyme and reason is lost. Ultimately the majority of the population
suffer. It only needs one planted stirrer to motivate them all. If he
presents his facts correctly, the sheep all get taken in. I'm not
anti-greenie but rather anti those who use them for their own
political purposes rather than for social good. I am an historian,
was Secretary of Royal Historical Society of Queensland for five years
and have always been involved with the National Trust. Mostly the
National Trust is quite constructive in its workings, but at times it
becomes destructive as in the Bellevue Hotel in Brisbane.
An interesting aside that says all about National Trust.
Joh is always blamed for its destruction, but it was actually the
National Trust. The building itself was built from third grade bricks
(today known as rejects) and was constructed on the cheap (so too was
old Exhibition Building). The result was that by 1973 (when I was
doing research in parliamentary library books stored there, if you
lent on the walls, not only did the plastter come off in your hand,
but so did most of the brick it was attached too. This was not caused
by lack of maintenance, but poor quality original material. In fact,
even the railings were only cast iron and not the more expessive
wrought iron. I actually had the last major function at the Bellvue,
my twenty-first in 1970 when the building was privately owned, and
sections were too dangerous to enter even then.
The government's plan was to dismantle all of value from the building
(there was really liitle cedar in it it was all pine - whiteants
another reason for its condition) such as ballustrading, demolish the
building, and build a replica. On purely emotional grounds only led by
a couple of Labor supporting stooges, the National Trust and
supporters asked for the impossible - restore a building that needed
to be demolished brick by brick and rebuilt (replacing the old bricks
with new). They point blank refused to accept the sensible compromise
of a replica being built with the original lacework etc. returned.
Yes Joh ordered its demolition, but he also ordered all the material
taken off the building placed in storage until the National Trust (and
supporters) was prepared to accept a replica. To this day the space is
still vacant land (a bricked "park") awaiting the replica's building.
Joh being Joh refused to build it until the National Trust conceded
and the Labor partry and the media stopped making so much ado about a
really condeemed building. It is still used against the National Party
by so called heritage freaks (as opposed to proper heritage people).
Unfortunately the replica will never be built as intended because the
very party that decried its destruction, the Labor Party, sold-off all
the materials in storage as soon as it gained office! The same party.
Labor, also allowed the internal destruction of one of Queensland's
most historic buildings, the old Treasury to turn it into a casino,
another a hotel (no too bad), and the only land in central brisbane
untouched since it was a garden in convict days (always remained a
garden) to be excavated for an underground carpark. National Trust
objected, but not like it did to the Bellevue Hotel. There were no
political moles driving it.
Sorry for the length of this but I think it sums up Melbourne's
problems with the National Trust. At times they don't know what they
want and if any "leader" turns up in the community they hitch on their
waggon. Melbourne really needs a leader to make them see sense on this
issue.
No one says you shouldn't keep some hetitage trams the way they were -
but the whole fleet!
Cheers
Garry