Re: Balloon loops on Australian tramways

["Ron BEST" <ronbest@bigpond.com>]

Partial list for Sydney 2nd generation (from memory):
Circular Quay east (removed about 1948 for construction of overhead
railway/roadway)
Mosman Wharf (partly broken in last years?)
McMahons Point
Clovelly?
Bondi Beach (before the extension to North Bondi)
Coogee Beach
The Spit (Manly side)
Railway Square (for Eastern suburbs trams - used by buses until fairly
recently) (technically an "around-the-block" loop)

more....
(they make good precedents for model tramway builders as you can build a
"realistic" layout with loops at both ends so you don't have to continually
stop and "change ends"!)

There were two around-the-block loops in the city designed for short-working
cars to turn quickly without blocking through services (should be one at
Lonsdale St crossover in Melb!):
George St-Druitt St-York St-Market St-George St (closed when York St was
made one-way with opening of Harbour Bridge)
George St-Hay St-Parker St-Barlow St-George St (or did it go to Pitt St?)

Also at Manly (via Belgrave St, West Esplanade, PRW which was later a bus
parking area and now has the Grand Esplanade hotel on it), Gilbert St - also
some trams approached via Belgrave St and departed via The Corso, North
Steyne and Raglan St


(some of these were put in originally for steam trams)
Sydney 3rd generation:
Central Station

Melbourne:
St Kilda Beach - for trams ex Carlisle St - where Mc Donalds is now

You coud regard the Pitt/Castlereagh Sts lines as constituting a very large
baloon loop! (As would the propoe\sed SLR extension)
David McLoughlin wrote in message <36D46A80.6335@REMOVEiprolink.co.nz>...
>There was a thread a while back about Australian tramways that had
>balloon loops rather than shunts at the ends of the lines. I'm not sure
>whether it was in aus.rail or mtut.
>
>To recap, most Australian tramways used double-ended trams which shunted
>on a Y or a scissors crossover ( X )  at the ends of the lines. This
>differed from the common practice in Europe and North America of using a
>single-ended tram which turned on a balloon loop at the terminus. There
>were a few balloon loops in Australia, at the Ascot Doomben terminus in
>Brisbane, eg, and at La Perouse in Sydney.
>
>Anyhow, I have just been reading about the Rockhampton (Queensland)
>steam tram system which ran until 1939. The steam trams on this system
>were all single-ended, and thus each line (there were four) had balloon
>loops at the terminus. The trams were French-built Purrey cars from
>Bordeaux. V Purrey was a fairly well known steam tram maker.
>
>David McLoughlin
>Auckland New Zealand
>
>"At level crossings, trains always have the right of way."
>                --Manitoba Drivers' Handbook (1978)