The Sydney steam tramway was supposed to operate for the six months’ duration of the exhibition only. However, it was so efficient and popular that an extension to Randwick was opened the following year. By 1894 the tramway network had increased to 65 km, the peak period of steam trams in Sydney. At this time there were over 100 steam-tram motors in service, carrying 60 million passengers per year.

The express commuter steam tram which sped in from Bondi each weekday morning reputedly at speeds of up to 80 km/h, gave rise to the famous Australian slang term ‘shoots through like a Bondi tram’. Intense competition from the privately owned horse buses saw the government trams racing buses along various routes. Gradually the trams forced the buses to the outer limits of the city in a pattern that steam would later follow as it was forced out by electric trams. Steam trams never became popular in the other state capitals, but were successfully used in Newcastle, Maitland and Broken Hill in NSW and Rockhampton in Queensland.

This article is courtesy of the great book ‘On the Move, a history of transport in Australia’, by Margaret Simpson’ and is brought to you by Tram Scrolls Australia, specialists in premium quality replica tram and bus scroll art.

Brought to you by blue horizon Printing, specialists in premium quality canvas art prints and offering Australia’s largest and best collection of tram and bus scrolls.

http://bluehorizonprints.com.au/ 1300 632 332

Ninth Avenue tram scroll

Ninth Av. New York Metro Roll. We have also just added 2 more Paris Bus and Tram Scrolls as our customers have requested a more ‘European font’ to be used, these Parisian rolls are copies of original bus rolls from the 1930′s and contain destinations such as Champs Elysee and the Louvre. Check out the range of scrolls here.

We are also very pleased to announce our Square Canvas print bus and Tram roll range. These canvas art prints are based on the original 1920′s-1960′sAustralian Bus Roll signs. They are available in large and Extra large, the image pictured is the large.

This Bus Roll canvas print range is limited to our biggest selling Tram Scroll designs. They are mounted

on a solid wooden kiln dried frame (kiln drying helps prevent the timber warping over time). The canvas print is then given a protective coat to help prevent fading and scratching, the finished work of art is delivered with pcture wire and is ready to hang immediately.

As with our Nostalgic tram scroll range we also offer a customisation service for these square bus roll prints, for just 420 we will create a personalised print, providing as many proofs as required until the customer is absolutely happy with the design, we will then print and despatch within 2 days!

dont forget as with all canvas art on the Blue Horizon Printing

website, we offer 100% FREE SHIPPING of any prints ANYWHERE in Australia!

http://bluehorizonprints.com.au/artshop_viewall.php?catid=28#top

Here are a few reasons why people keep on buying their destination art from Blue Horizon Printing:

• Best prices – our prices our the lowest by up to 40%!
• Best quality – we use museum quality, archival canvas and Epson UV resistant inks that have been tested to last up to 70 years without fading!
• Fast delivery – once you approve an order, your tram scroll is normally delivered within 4 days, ready to hang straight on the wall.
• FREE SHIPPING / FREE DESIGN / FREE CUSTOMISATION of tram scroll – thats right, we offer our customers the choice of free delivery or free design (they get to design their own tram and bus sign art). Depending on the delivery address, whichever is more expensive, delivery or customisation is totally free!
• Personal service – we pride ourselves on offering personal, professional service to help our customers choose the tram scroll that is best for them, whether its colour or size.
• Largest range of tram and bus scrolls in Australia – we offer a massive range of tram and bus banners with at least one for every major Australian city. We have more than 3 per city to choose from for brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne!

If you are looking for quality artwork for your walls then look no further, our canvas prints are designed and created with absolute care and attention to detail.

Here is a list of a few tram scrolls we offer:

Palm Beach,Bronte,Watsons Bay, Many to Narrabeen, City to Malabar, Pyrmont, The Spit, North Bondi, Cronulla, St Kilda, Fitzroy, Port Melbourne, Geelong, Glenelg, Sunshine Coast via Fraser island, London, Paris, Belfast, Ireland, Byron Bay, East Brisbane, Teneriffe Ferry, Garden City, Noosa Heads, Auckland.

Long after the line itself is a lost memory, the Bondi tram will retain a place in the Australian language. In some future age, maybe a space traveller will say to a companion: ËœWhats the new rocket ship like, is it fast? ËœTo which the other will doubtless reply: ËœFast? Ill say! It shoots through like Bondi tram…

Last of the Bondi trams

People may have forgotten the origin of the phrase and whether or not it started with steam or electrics is an argument rather irrelevant to this story. To find the beginnings theyll search dusty files for the story of Australias most famous tramway that began when Queen Victoria sat on the throne of England; when ËœTea Gardens was the name for Bondi Junction and Bondi Beach, an expanse of deserted surf and empty sand hills.

If they look far enough theyll find that there once was a steam tram that did Ëœshoot through reputedly at speeds of up to 50 mph (80km/h). Every weekday morning it sped from Bondi with its load of commuters bound for the city -a plume of steam drifting in the breeze, cars rolling like ships on an ocean swell, starch-collared businessmen solemnly consulting their watches and having a quiet wager as to whether or not they would beat the ocean street tram to Mark Foys corner. In the late afternoon the process was reversed.

Bondi tram travellers first glimpsed the ocean on May 24^th 1884 when anew track, branching from the established Waverley route at Bondi Junction opened as far as Denham street corner. An extension on 29^th August 1887 took it to the headland above Tamarama beach to serve the new Bondi Aquarium, which awed the crowd with a couple of vast man-eating sharks.

The zenith of the steam tram age was at hand when the line finally reached down the hill towards the pounding Pacific rollers. No pavilions, no milk bars, cafes or bottle shops; the trams terminated on a balloon loop with just a water tank for replenishing the boiler. Drivers warned to Ëœwatch out for sand drifts across the rails.

The service began on the 19^th of February 1894. A fourpenny fare (cheaper than the sixpence to Coogee Beach) bought a 35 minute ride covering the 5¾ miles (9km) from Bridge Street. But the would-be traveller needed to be on time, for at the start of the service,, one tram in the morning and one tram in the afternoon was the whole weekday schedule.

Last of the Bondi trams

Summer weekends were a different story. Thousands packed the steam trams to picnic, sniff the ozone, let children paddle in the ripples; but they certainly did not bathe, for only lawbreakers or crackpots entered the surf in daylight. Push-up motors stationed at Bondi beach boosted the three-car holiday trams over a 1-19 grade through the rock cutting to Denham street, while on the outward run another pusher might be needed to assist on Barracks Hill between Darlinghurst junction and the Ocean Street siding.

Historian Gil Hayman recalled the introduction of the ËœFishing specialËœtaking the fishermen by express trams to the old Bondi terminus, near the top of Bellview Street, Tamarama. The fish tram left the city at 10am. Fishermen would board with their gear and spend a day on the ricks with rod and line.

Steam was in its final golden era then. Express Ëœmailtrams were in operation to Bondi, Waverley Cemetery, Coogee beach, Botany, St Peters, Dulwich Hill, Abbotsford, Leichardt, Balmain and Glebe Point. The Bondi Expresses of up to four cars ran from the Aquarium to Upper Tamarama pausing at Bondi Junction, Paddington Post office for mail) then Ocean Street until reaching the city. They had first and second class accommodation and the road was kept clear by timetabling the all-stop trams to be refuged into loop sidings to let them pass. When the crowded holiday trams left Bondi Beach at dusk, they went belching fire as they chugged up the grade, giving watchers a foretaste of hell, a regular prelude to Dantes Inferno.

The steam trams helped to build Bondi into a densely populated suburb, and to encourage the culture of surf worshipping that has never ceased. In some ways one can blame the Bondi steam tram for the failure of the successive governments to build a long overdue Eastern Suburbs railways, for it was easy to argue that the trams that Ëœshot through whose speed and madcap progress earned a place in the lexicon of sayings that are essentially Australian, were more than adequate for the run to the beach.

This article is by Blue Horizon Printing, www.bluehorizonprinting.com.au , we offer a massive selection of replica tram and bus scrolls with a number of options for the Eastern suburbs and covering all major early tram routes.  For more selections also visit our sister company at www.tramscrolls.com.au .

1300 632 332 or photos@bluehorizonprinting.com.au .

Thanks to David Burke and his book ‘Juggernaut’, A story of Sydney in the wild days of the steam trams’.