Dunedin cable tramway system
Encyclopedia
Cable car (railway)
A cable car or cable railway is a mass transit system using rail cars that are hauled by a continuously moving cable running at a constant speed. Individual cars stop and start by releasing and gripping this cable as required...
lines in the New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
city of Dunedin
Dunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...
. It is significant as Dunedin was the second city in the world to adopt the cable car (the first being San Francisco).
History
The first Dunedin cable car line opened in 1881, the engineer responsible being George Smith DuncanGeorge Smith Duncan
George Smith Duncan was a tramway and mining engineer best known for his work on cable trams, and for his work in the gold mining industry.Duncan was born in the New Zealand city of Dunedin in 1852, the son of recent Scottish immigrants...
. For this system he introduced the pull curve and the slot brake; the former was a way to pull cars through a curve, since Dunedin's curves were too steep to allow coasting, while the latter forced a wedge down into the cable slot to stop the tram, which was deemed necessary after the line had a runaway tram some two months after it opened.
The last line closed on 2 March 1957.
Roslyn and Kaikorai
Dunedin's first cable car served RoslynRoslyn, Otago
Roslyn is a major residential and retail suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It is located above the city centre on the ridge which runs in a crescent around the central city's western edge. It is to the northwest of the city centre, immediately above the Town Belt. Roslyn's 2001...
(although initially only going as far as the town belt), covering a distance of 1.4 miles, opening on February 6, 1881. The line went up Rattray Street, with the world's first pull curve in front of St Joseph's Cathedral. It then cut through the Town Belt
Town Belt
The Town Belt is a green belt which surrounds the centre of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. Covering a total of over , it extends around three sides of the city's centre at a distance from it of some 1-3 km in a broad crescent from the Oval at Kensington in the south through the suburbs of...
in Belleknowes (where the cutting is still generally visible) past the Beverly-Begg Observatory
Beverly-Begg Observatory
The Beverly-Begg Observatory a New Zealand astronomical observatory, situated on Robin Hood Park in the Belleknowes part of Dunedin's town belt. It was established in 1922 by the Dunedin Astronomical Society and is the home of the group...
to climb the full length of Ross Street and part of Belgrave Crescent, then descend through a cutting to the valley near Frasers Road.
The last cable car ran on this line on on October 25, 1951
The western section beyond the cutting was too steep for a road link, so, when the cable cars ceased, the portion near Belgrave Crescent was redeveloped as a short street serving several houses while retaining the pedestrian walkway through to Delta Street. Trolleybuses replaced the service as far as Belgrave Crescent, using City Road instead of the straight steep cutting through the Town Belt.
Stuart Street
Travelling a distance of 1.2 miles, the Stuart StreetStuart Street, Dunedin
Stuart Street is one of the main streets of Dunedin, New Zealand. As with many of Dunedin's streets, it is named after a main street in Edinburgh, Scotland....
line opened on October 6, 1900, running largely parallel to the Roslyn line. The track went up Stuart Street from The Octagon
The Octagon, Dunedin
The Octagon is the city centre of Dunedin, in the South Island of New Zealand.-Features:The Octagon is an eight sided plaza bisected by the city's main street, which is called George Street to the northeast and Princes Street to the southwest...
, turned half-right at York Place into what was then called Albert Street, continued on past the end of that street through a short section of Town Belt, past Otago Boys' High School
Otago Boys' High School
Otago Boys' High School is one of New Zealand's oldest boys' secondary schools, located in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. It was founded on 3 August 1863 and moved to its present site in 1885. The main building was designed by Robert Lawson and is regarded as one of the finest Gothic revival...
, across the bottom of Littlebourne Crescent and up to Highgate at School Street, then dropped down to Kaikorai just before Nairn Street, where a turntable in the road turned cars through 90° and sent them south-west into their shed. The route was eventually turned into a four-lane highway, cutting Littlebourne Crescent off from Littlebourne Road, going under a new bridge and undergoing considerable widening on the Kaikorai side, restricting access to Ann Street and Oates Street. It closed on July 31, 1947.
Mornington
Opening on March 23, 1883, the MorningtonMornington, Otago
Mornington is a suburb of the city of Dunedin, in the South Island of New Zealand. It is situated on hilly slopes to the west of the city centre, the slopes forming part of a ridge which surrounds the heart of the city....
line travelled one mile up High Street to Mornington. Cable Car House (now a plumbing business) is still clearly marked in the shopping area, having had little external changes since the line closed. The Mornington line was the last to close, on March 2, 1957, leaving San Francisco with the only operational cable car system in the world.
Maryhill Extension
The MaryhillMaryhill, New Zealand
Maryhill is a residential suburb of the New Zealand city of Dunedin. It is located on a ridge to the southwest of the central city between the suburbs of Mornington, Kenmure, and Caversham. The smaller suburb of Balaclava lies immediately to its west. Maryhill takes its name from a district in the...
Extension exited from the back of the Mornington cable car house, following Glenpark Avenue for 0.5 miles. The line was perfectly straight, and was sometimes referred to as The Big Dipper, similar to a roller coaster, going steeply down one side of the valley and then up the other side. It opened on March 18, 1885 and closed on October 29, 1955.
Elgin Road Extension
The Elgin Road Extension also left the Mornington cable car house, going up Mailer Street and then following Elgin Road for a total of 0.9 miles. It opened on October 6, 1906, and closed only four years later, on January 22, 1910. In contrast to Dunedin's other cable car lines, there was very little gradient on this line, perhaps explaining its early closure.See also
- San Francisco cable car systemSan Francisco cable car systemThe San Francisco cable car system is the world's last permanently operational manually operated cable car system, in the US sense of a tramway whose cars are pulled along by cables embedded in the street. It is an icon of San Francisco, California...
- Citibus (New Zealand) (successor to Dunedin's cable car service)
Sources
- The most extensive information including pictures and detailed history
- Kaikorai Cable Cars
- Dunedin's Trams Dunedin City Council
- 1881 Dunedin Cable Car on 1985 35c stamp