Halifax street cars

A bit OT but worth a comment.Watching a TV programme the other night which featured colour film shot during the last war. (1939-45) Included were some shots of Halifax in Canada. Prominent in one scene were yellow Birney four-wheel trams (Street cars). So, when did the Halifax tramway system close? Regards, Bill.

Reply to
William Pearce
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Hi William

I believe it was around 1950. I was born in Halifax in 1946 and vaguely remember riding them. I think they were gone by the time I started school in 1951. Regards John Weaver

Reply to
John Weaver

I have lived here all my life (born in '55), the only mass transit that I remember is the old electric trolleys with the overhead wiring. I believe for the most part the old tram tracks were left and pavement laid over top of them.

Brian

Reply to
Brian Smith

Well I was born in Halifax in 1964 and I remember..........shoot, just diesel buses.

But grew up in Waverley, not 100 feet from the CNR line at the end of Macdonald Ave (now Mcdonald St). #45 was the house my dad built in 1961. I'm trying to model the scene and area in "N" as of late. Must miss "home" or something. (hint, you Halifax guys could go get me some pics down the tracks both ways and such! I'm not kidding!)

Anyway, don't remember the street cars, and as for Calgary, Alberta where I am now (thanks Canadian Armed Forces), I just barely remember the Electric buses with overhead lines from the first few months I moved out here in the mid to late 1970s.

Pete in Calgary

Brian Smith wrote:

Reply to
pebep

Thanks, Pete and Brian for your responses, but it looks like that both of you are too young to have been around when Halifax had trams. John's answer, closure about 1950 or so sounds reasonable. It looked to have been an interesting system with its little Birneys. No doubt someone would have written a history of this tramway after it folded. Regards, Bill.

Reply to
William Pearce

Tram service in Halifax ended in 1949, when the trams were replaced by electric buses. The electric buses were retired in 1969.

I think the service was covered in David Stephens' _Iron Roads: Railways of Nova Scotia_. If I remember, I'll dig out my copy and have a look. Some references on the subject appear on this page:

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Hope this helps!

Dubya Maitland, NS

William Pearce wrote:

Reply to
Dubya

The Toronto Transportation Commission sold 22 of its 4-wheel Birney = streetcars to Halifax between 1927 and 1941. The 14 cars sold in 1940 = and 1941 were the result of action taken by the War Transit Controller = to supply Halifax with additional streetcars. The 22 cars were surplus = to Toronto's needs as they received 250 new PCC streetcars between 1938 = and 1942. Toronto originally had 25 Birney cars and they ran on = lightly-travelled routes such as Davenport, Coxwell and Parliament. = Toronto's last Birney car ran on the Davenport shuttle on December 31, =

1940.

Roy Williams Toronto

Reply to
Roy & Lynn Williams

That's interesting, because If my memory serves me correctly, we didn't have diesel buses until the seventies.

Give me directions to the street and I'll try to find the time to get out that way for some photos.

They say the memory is the first thing to go .

Reply to
Brian Smith

You're welcome Bill. I can have a look around town and see if I can find anything on the trams if you wish.

Brian

Reply to
Brian Smith

Thanks, Brian, for your offer to look up info. on Halifax's trams, I wont take you up on this yet, a couple of previous posters have given me some contacts to chase up. Regards, Bill.

Reply to
William Pearce

You're welcome Bill.

Reply to
Brian Smith

Just one thing more on the Halifax trams, I see that many of the Birney cars used there came from Toronto. Now, Toronto has the odd gauge of 4 feet

11 7/8inches! I assume that the gauge in Halifax was not this, but was standard. Conversion of the Birneys from Toronto gauge to std. would not be a difficult job. But, was Halifax also Toronto gauge? Regards, Bill.
Reply to
William Pearce

I had a quick look through some information here, but I don't see any mention of the gauge.

Reply to
Brian Smith

Thanks, Brian. I reckon that it would have been std. gauge, the Toronto cars arrived well after the system had been set up, and it's probable that it would have been built to std. gauge and not to Toronto's weird gauge, so conversion of the cars to std. would have been the way to go. Regards, Bill.

Reply to
William Pearce

You're welcome, Bill. If I remember when I'm out and about around town I'll try to squeeze in some time to go to the archives and have a look.

Reply to
Brian Smith

Brian, Anything that you find out would be welcomed. Regards, Bill.

Reply to
William Pearce

Hi Bill,

I asked a few people and they all had the same thing to say, that as far as they remembered from reading and some in seeing and riding on the Birney cars, that the gauge was very close to the 'normal' railroad track.

Brian

Reply to
Brian Smith

Ta, Brian, Much as I expected. Regards, Bill.

Reply to
William Pearce

You're welcome, Bill.

Reply to
Brian Smith

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