This week’s photo comes to from Broadmeadow. The grand building in the background was the Broadway Hotel. It opened in 1924 and was severely damaged in the 1989 earthquake and demolished soon after.
Then and Now Tram 8
Reply
Category Archives: Then and Now Tram
Then and Now Tram 7
One thing I’m really noticing with this series of tram photo pairings is how many more trees there are in the city in 2020 compared with 1950.
Then and Now Tram 6
Today’s post comes from Dan Rees St, Wallsend. From 1910 the tram line was extended out from this point to West Wallsend, but the extension was closed in November 1930. At the time this photo was taken (1940s) this was the tram terminus in Wallsend.
Old tram photo from University of Newcastle Living Histories.
Then and Now Tram 5
Today’s post comes from Hobart Rd New Lambton. At this point in the road there used to be an overhead railway bridge for the rail line to the Lambton Colliery.
What’s interesting about this old photo is there is the tram line has what’s known as a “gauntlet track”. The tram line was a dual track (inbound/outbound), but in order to get through the narrow gap under the rail bridge the two tracks, while not connecting, interleave with each other. To avoid collisions, tram drivers had to collect a wooden staff from a signalling box at the site and only proceed through the gauntlet section if they had possession of the staff.
Old tram photo from University of Newcastle Living Histories.
Then and Now Tram 4
Today’s post shows Howe St Lambton on 23 April 1949, and 20 April 2020. It’s interesting to note that the same garage is there 71 years later, minus the pitched roof.
Then and Now Tram 3
This morning I snapped this photo near the Jesmond Grove aged care home. The Wallsend tram line used to curve through what is now a grass lawn. What’s interesting about this location is there’s a parchmark to be found.
A parchmark is where under the right climatic circumstances, the drying out of vegetation can reveal structures under the surface when viewed in an aerial photograph. So the October 2014 image from Google Earth shows a clear curved line of the former tram line.
Then and Now Tram 2
I’ve been doing pretty well at getting out for a cycle before each working day. I only missed last Thursday, when it was pouring rain. Here’s a photo I took this morning in Jesmond Park to pair up with a circa 1950 photo from the University of Newcastle Living Histories site.
This is the spot that the Rankin Park to Jesmond bypass will go. (If it ever gets built.)
Then and Now Tram 1
Since I started working from home, one of the routines I’m trying to keep up is the bicycle commute to ‘work’. So each workday morning I’m still going for a bike ride a similar distance that I would normally do when riding to the office.
Bicycle commuting to a home office means I don’t have to take the same route each day. This morning I went via Jesmond to get this Then and Now photo of the intersection of Illoura St and Newcastle Rd. The old photo is from the Newcastle Uni Living Histories site, and is from the late 1940s.
