Re: Balloon loops on Australian tramways

[John Duncan McCallum <mccallum@melbpc.org.au>]

Chris Brownbill wrote:

> Nobody has mentioned the extensive tram terminal loops in Victoria
> Square in Adelaide.  IIRC there were four - one in each quadrant of the
> square, and the last one remained in use for the Glenelg line until the
> mid 1960s when the road layout was modified to favour rubber-tyred
> traffic and the current stub tram terminal with scissors crossover
> constructed in the centre of the square.
>
> And I believe that in Melbourne - to this day, some peak hour and early
> morning services from Kew depot run into town via LaTrobe or Collins
> Street and back out via Flinders Street thus creating a giant terminal
> loop around downtown.
>
>

To my knowledge, these no longer run. I may be wrong, however. I do not get to
that part of Melbourne in peak hour these days. Routes 23, 24 still run via La
Trobe St, but as far as I known, they all return the way they came.


> What about Perth?  I think the No 8 terminal Hay St East at the WACA
> ground and Gloucester Park trots was a loop.
>
>

There was an around the block loop at Hay St East. It was not used to turn
service cars, however. It was used mainly to store trams. The eastern leg of
the loop had 4 roads for this purpose. The only trams with passengers on this
loop were special runs to Gloucester Part trots. These terminated  at
Gloucester Park, then reurned to Hay St the way they came.
The main loop in Perth was the round the block loop at Barrack St Jetty, which
was used to turn Barrack St trams.
Back before the tram routes to Crawley and Nedlands were closed, these two
routes joined end on at Nedlands to form one gigantic loop encompassing
Subiaco, hollywood, Nedlands, Crawley and Mts Bay Road.


>

John McCallum