[johnfowles]

Originally Posted by Dave, Melbourne,Australia

ight-hand side of the road. Here, they are powered by overhead electricity wires and travel on the left. Many decades ago, Melbourne used to have cable trams, including the southern hemisphere's first one, which ran between Doncaster and my suburb Box Hill. Many decades ago, Sydney also had trams.

Not so fast David whilst it is undoubtedly a fact that the famous SF streetcars are cable driven, indeed the Hyatt hotel we were in for that 2006 conference has a terminal for one of their routes right alongside,


but the hotel is on Market Street and I clearly recall watching examples of the vintage tram fleet turning left at Embarcadero to travel North towards Fisherman's Wharf and they certainly had overhead wire power plus Google Streetview images show that the railway tracks on Market street are plain two rail with no central cable slot (as shown the photo I'll display below)
I grant you that they were of course proceeding on the wrong (right) side of the road though!!
Here is a fine picture taken when Melbourne's 916 first joined the fleet
for some obscure reason the photo below of the then newly received ex-Melbourne tram is shown alongside another similar (albeit probably older) example in the historic fleet still sporting its original Melbourne number (496)


caption
Nelson Alfaro works in front of the new Melbourne Tram No. 916 (left) that will join San Francisco's historic streetcar line. Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle
photo on
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/articl...ie-3215681.php
and


caption
A W2 class tram from Melbourne, Australia runs along The Embarcadero, followed by a Witt car from Milan, Italy
on
http://theraillife.wordpress.com/201...train-and-ace/
the photo above is of 496
Amother view of 496 that also shows its overhead power line connections



Finally according to the list on
http://www.streetcar.org/streetcars/roster.html
there are actually 3 ex Melbourne trams there
As conclusive proof I will point out that cable cars require a slot between the two rails
as may be seen in this super photo