Roslyn Cable Cars - "ALWAYS ROOM for another one !"
One of Dunedin's major tourist attractions will soon vanish into the limbo when the Roslyn cable cars run for the last time on the long pull to Highgate and over the hill to Kaikorai Valley. The cars have been clanging their way up and down Rattray street since 1881, but they stand in the way of progress and have to go. Trolly buses will take over the service by Christmas, and in the meantime Diesel buses will be operated on the route.
The Roslyn cable cars were the city's first cable cars, started by a private company, and they will be missed. There is a friendly intimacy about a ride on them that is lacking in even an old bus and is certainly lacking in the chromium-plated austerity of a trolly bus. They are part and parcel of the city, and yet distinctly Roslyn's.
There is an element of danger about a ride on them that appeals to adventurous spirits. Hanging by a thin strip of leather, one can face the elements (one has to) and get the feeling that the world is still for the brave.
They are friendly, for who can be aloof when sharing a toehold on the footboard with a dozen or more others.
They are slow, but reliable. In jerks and bumps they make their way up the long slope and then over Highgate in a dip that takes the breath from the unwary, down to the terminus.
In their time the Roslyn cable cars have carried many hundreds of thousands of hurrying. Dunedin people to and from the city in their eight-mile-an-hour peregrination. For visitors they are a " must " in sightseeing. The pull up Rattray street is one of the longest in the Southern Hemisphere, and the view from most parts of the line is well worth the ride.
One cable system has gone already. This was the Stuart street line, which was stopped in 1947 and has since been operated by buses. The only remaining cable lines will he Mornington and Maryhill, and no date has yet been set for their eclipse by trolly buses.
These changes are part of the City Council's policy of moving with the times. Opoho and Normanby already have trolly buses, and within the next few years the whole of the city's electric and cable service, as well as most of the routes now operated by buses, will be operated by trolly buses.
As tramways and transport services go, Dunedin's are fairly new, but in the 74 years during which Dunedin people have been carried in public tramways there have been numerous changes.
Cable Car History.
The principal of cable haulage was first applied to street tramways in San Francisco in 1873 by Andrew S. Holliday, so the system is comparatively modern. It was introduced in England in 1884 on Highgate Hill, London, and installations followed quickly at Brixton Hill, Edinburgh, Birmingham, and Matlock. All these cable systems have since been discontinued, but there is still a small cable undertaking on the Isle of Man. San Francisco still has some of its cable cars in operation.
First Hill Routes
Private enterprise was responsible for the first hill services. The Roslyn cable service, fondly called once " the eighth wonder of the world," was started by the Roslyn Tramway Company and opened for passenger traffic on February 24, 1881. The terminus and the power house were then both situated at the junction.
The distinction of pioneering electric tramways is also to the credit of this company, which ran horse trams from the junction to Maori Hill until these were replaced by an electric service which carried its first passengers on October 24, 1900.
Other companies installed the Mornington cable service, in 1883, and the Kaikorai cable service at the end of the century. The Mornington line was taken over by the council on January 1, 1916, Roslyn on February 1, 1921, and Kaikorai on May 23, 1939. Since the exhibition of 1925-26 the council has used an increasing number of motor buses for feeder and more distant services and " observation trips."
Long Service
Not only the regular passengers are sorry to see the Roslyn cable cars go. The drivers are, in the main, not happy about the change.
Veteran driver Gordon Mowat, who started on the Roslyn line when it was privately owned, says the cars have done a good job and he will be sorry to see them reach the end of their service. They were the first cable cars in the Southern Hemisphere, he recalled.
In the earlier days of the line there was a waiting list of men who wanted jobs as drivers or conductors, said Mr Mowat, and at one time there were 400 men waiting for employment. When he began, 37 years ago, he had to answer a questionnaire of 32 questions before being passed for service on the line. Things were harder in those days, he said, and if a man made one mistake he was " out."
Mr Mowat, who will transfer to the Mornington cable line, is a particularly well-known figure to all regular passengers. Many of the men and women who travel on the line nowadays were first carried in the Roslyn cable car with Mr Mowat as the driver. He has seen many of his passengers grow up and marry, and now some of their children are his passengers.
The Roslyn line, said Mr Mowat, is a safe one and he has had no trouble at all on it. Two other drivers with long service are Messrs W. Jenkins and Joe Everest, each with more than 30 years on the line.
The first steps for the introduction of a tramway system for Dunedin and suburbs date back to 1877. In that year Mr David Proudfoot sought authority from the City Council to lay down a steam tramway to serve the city only. A concession was granted to him, and construction pushed on rapidly, the gangs of men employed being so humourous that they were called "the hosts of David."
On July 6, 1879, the steam and horse tramways began to run. The Borough Councils of Caversham, South Dunedin, St. Kilda, and Northeast Valley could not brook that their suburbs should be deprived of the advantages of the undertaking, and agreements were made with Mr Proudfoot by which they were all included in extensions of it.
The new services were soon judged to be a mixed blessing. The steam engines were first to be complained of. They were the cause of many accidents; their noise and smoke were obnoxious. There was a strong agitation for their removal, and when a company was formed to take over Mr Proudfoot's rights the council refused to allow the transfer until the offending engines were withdrawn. Horse traction was made the sole system of the company, and that also had its disadvantages. Three hundred horses, with the stabling that was required for them in several suburbs, involved heavy expenditure. The system was unwieldy; it produced its own nuisances; to keep fares down and provide a liberal timetable was no easy task.
Electricity Comes
In 1899 the company arranged to sell its concession and assets to the New Zealand Electric Light and Traction Company Ltd., by which an electric system would be installed. For conclusion of the sale one condition was necessary - that the council should confirm a resolution passed by it seven years previously authorising the adoption of an electric service. But the council by this time had become convinced of the desirability of owning its tramways itself. It declined to confirm the resolution, and in the upshot the company was bought out by the council for £45,000.
Electric traction was now decided on. The conversion of the system was carried out by Messrs Noyes Brothers, of Sydney, on a commission basis.
On December 16, 1903, the electric tram system was officially opened. Crowds flocked to the car shed in Market street to gaze at the spectacle of the new cars progressing along the street, and festivities lasted the whole day.At the power house in Cumberland street the mayor, Mr T. Scott, turned on the steam and the mayoress switched on the current. In the afternoon the cars were brought out to convey guests over the new tramway, and a procession of six made its way along Princes street and George street to Normanby and back. That evening between 7,000 and 8,000 people made their way to the Gardens, and the cars, decorated and illuminated, appeared on the scene once more. This service ran on power derived from the steam power house in Cumberland street until electricity from Waipori became available in April, 1907.
Economic Troubles
In recent years a variety of factors have combined to make new economic difficulties for electric tramways. Under war conditions, following those of the depression, the Dunedin system became so run down as to make renewal of it more expensive than a change of system. On February 26, 1947, in accordance with a trend that has been in evidence in most parts of the world, a poll of ratepayers of Dunedin determined that the system should be abandoned to give place to one of trolly buses for both city and hill services.
That policy is now being carried into effect. Two routes are already in operation and the third - Roslyn - should be running by Christmas.
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