One of my grandfathers built a house on South Road at Glandore a little short of a hundred years ago. The railway was four houses away and he used to catch the train into Adelaide daily. Family folk lore has it that the driver and conductor knew all the regular customers and would wait until they scurried from home to the station. Imagine that today.

In the late fifties I lived in Pleasant Avenue Glandore and the trams ran behind our back fence and I travelled to work in both Glenelg and Adelaide for a few years. The trams were silver then as I recall. There was a terrible accident at the Marion Road (I think) crossing when the tram collected a car. In those days trams had right-of-way and the Express (non-stop) ones really sped along. That accident caused things to change, no doubt for the better.

Digressing slightly, in the mid fifties we lived a little way from there and I used to ride my bike to Clarence Park railway station and catch the train into Adelaide. The train was steam driven and you could tell how far it was from the station by the steam rising and the choo choo as it left the previous station. The carriages were like to old wild west ones with the iron “balconies” at each end. Having come from “sophisticated” Melbourne this caused me much mirth. I wonder whether any of them survived. Adelaide also had Trolley Buses, which to my mind are far superior to the modern ones.

I live in the Hunter Valley these days but I enjoyed a ride on an Glenelg tram a couple of years ago when I visited.

Thanks for the opportunity to relive some enjoyable memories.

Patronage on the line has increased beyond expectations since the extension opened, and they now have some capacity problems. The new trams are quieter and smoother than the old ones, but do have some problems. The air conditioning is inadequate, the seats are as hard as rock, and the trams are not big enough. They are going to spend some extra money to upgrade the aircon, and are considering lengthening the new trams by adding an extra section to them. I think we are stuck with the hard seats though.

Are you still catching them?