Melbourne around the world...

[Dave, Melbourne,Australia]

It has just been announced that Gordon Lightfoot and his band are again performing a concert in Melbourne, Florida. Darn, it's always that other Melbourne!

According to Wikipedia, Florida's Melbourne was founded in 1867, has a population of 77,000 and was named Melbourne in honour of its first postmaster, Cornthwaite John Hector, who was born in the English colony of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) and spent much of his life in Melbourne, Australia.

Australia's Melbourne was founded in 1835, has a population of over 4 million and was named in honour of the British Prime Minister of the day, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne.

And while the Florida town is pronounced "Mel-born", the Aussie town is "Mel-bon" (similar ending to "Lis-bon").

[johnfowles]

Originally Posted by Dave, Melbourne,Australia

Australia's Melbourne was founded in 1835, has a population of over 4 million and was named in honour of the British Prime Minister of the day, William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne.

Yes Yes Yes Hold on David to fully illustrate your point you must go far further back than that
The original and very much earlier Melbourne is near to where I served my Rolls Royce Apprenticeship in Derby
and has a population of 5000+
see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melbourne,_Derbyshire

Melbourne is a Georgian market town in South Derbyshire, England. It is about 8 miles south of Derby and 2 miles from the River Trent.[1] In 1837 a then tiny settlement in Australia was named after William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, Queen Victoria's first Prime Minister, and thus indirectly takes its name from Melbourne Hall, seat of the Lamb family, and the village.


The name Melbourne means "mill stream" (or "mill spring"). It was first recorded in Domesday Book (DB 1086 Mileburne = mill stream) as a royal manor.
A parish church was built around 1120
Shops in Melbourne include: Spar, Budgens, Melbourne News, fish and chips, Bird's (bakery), Blatch's (electricals) and Cream Interior Design.
Services in Melbourne include: Natwest, post office, Co-op Pharmacy, Fair Trade, a library, the Melbourne Assembly Rooms (formerly the Bill Shone Leisure Centre) and a youth club. There are also several pubs including of course The Lamb Inn


and here is the real CBD (Central Business Disrict) of the REAL Melbourne



For comparison here is that other Melbourne's CBD


Ahh happy memories of our 2007 splendid free trip around that area by the wonderful circle tram. seen here sporting an ahem Union Jack!!

[Dave, Melbourne,Australia]

JohnFowles,

In 1990, I visited Derbyshire's Melbourne and found it as charming as you've described. Thanks also for the items re Australia's Melbourne, although I couldn't open the photo of the City Circle tram. As you would remember, those City Circle trams are vintage vehicles providing free rides and recorded commentary on the sights they pass.

[joveski]

he aint been to our melbourne here since 1974!

[johnfowles]

Originally Posted by Dave, Melbourne,Australia

JohnFowles,

In 1990, I visited Derbyshire's Melbourne and found it as charming as you've described. Thanks also for the items re Australia's Melbourne, although I couldn't open the photo of the City Circle tram. As you would remember, those City Circle trams are vintage vehicles providing free rides and recorded commentary on the sights they pass.

Strange David I got the tram pic's URL from the little black squares properties and the photo opened straight away
so I have copied it to my Dropbox folder let's see if it displays


Yep that works a treat!!!

[joveski]

here's the inside of the city cirlcle tram, with some happy-chappys

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...m_Interior.JPG

[johnfowles]

Originally Posted by joveski

here's the inside of the city cirlcle tram, with some happy-chappys

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...m_Interior.JPG

yes well Mende (circle even??) that picture at a full size of 3888 by 2592 pixels is a tad too large to display here
but this one is smaller and shows one of your trams that presumably ran off the rails and washed up a few miles away in your twinned city on the bay

caption
Melbourne tram No. 916 on San Francisco’s Market Street. Jamison Wieser photo. -
See more at:
http://www.streetcar.org/blog/2009/1....Dq0CQkvx.dpuf
for a conference a few years ago we were based in a hotel on Market Street and could therefore watch an impressive array of foreign trams (streetcars ) pass by
But I don't recall seeing the gift from Melbourne (which I visited a few years later)

[Dave, Melbourne,Australia]

Joveski,
Yes, the chappies in your tram photo look far from happy!

JohnFowles,
I'd forgotten our Victorian state government donated a couple of trams to San Francisco. I didn't notice them when I visited San Francisco in 1996. Over there, they are pulled by underground cables and travel on the right-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. Up until a few decades ago, Sydney also had trams.

[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

[Dave, Melbourne,Australia]

JohnFowles,

I'm not surprised Char bumped this topic (from a Lightfoot Florida concert thread) to Small Talk where it belongs!

Thanks for all the accurate and interesting information, brought to life with appropriate photos. Yes, I had only noticed San Francisco's cable cars (especially the one I travelled on from Union Square to Fisherman's Wharf) and not its streetcars. The ex-Melbourne trams were obviously acquired for streetcar routes, because they would be too long and heavy for the hilly cable car routes.

[Dave, Melbourne,Australia]

https://au.news.yahoo.com/video/watc...-in-the-world/

And tourists have just voted Australia's Melbourne the friendliest city in the world. The 3rd-friendliest was Victoria, Canada. The unfriendliest was Johannesburg, ahead of three French cities.