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Don's
book "Hold On Tight Please" was
published in August 2007 by 2007 by
Grantham House, Wellington. It has
been beautifully designed by the
publisher and photographer, Graham
Stewart, who has produced many
transport and art books over the
years. Graham made his black and
white cable car photographs
available to Don who based many of
his illustrations on them, adapting
them in various ways.
The book’s ISBN is 978 1 86934 102
2.
A THIRD OF ALL PROCEEDS FROM
PAINTING SALES, PRINT AND GREETINGS
CARDS which have subsequently been
printed from some of the paintings
Don is donating to cable car
restoration. To date (August 2008)
over $10,000 has been raised. As
stated on the Home Page, the
remaining books are available in or
through a range of bookshops. Most
of the original paintings done for
the book are now sold, but a few
including some new ones are still
available through Gallery de Novo,
lower Stuart St, Dunedin.
Below are the first paragraphs of a
number of chapters... |
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The Roslyn Line
It's the afternoon in 1949.
I've just come into the Exchange
from Macandrew Intermediate School
on a Sydney double bogey electric
tram. Today I haven't abused my
school pass by taking a joy ride on
the High Street cable car, with side
trips on the Maryhill Extension.
I've made a dash for my favourite
possie on the leading left hand
corner of my home line Roslyn car
No. 95, which is standing tilting
downwards a few paces into Rattrary
Street at the Government Tourist
Office corner with Princes Street.
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The Mornington Lines
The Second world War was raging in
Europe. My father had been killed in
Crete, and his officer's tin trunk
came back, was emptied of his few
effects and lay under my bedroom
window as a toy storage box. Another
constant reminder of the war
was the brown paper strips stuck all
around the edges of the window to
prevent light leaking out when the
blinds were down. The lighting on
transport had to be kept to a
minimum, and street lamps were
turned off most of the night to
reduce the likelihood of the city
being attacked.
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The Maryhill Extension line
At the trams sheds on that day in
the 1950s my friends and I ignored a
couple of waiting buses which were
providing further transport to Elgin
Road and to the Belleknowes
area respectively. Instead with
several other passengers, we crossed
the road to where one of the tram
shed doors displayed a small notice
declaring, together with a small
pointing hand, 'This way to Maryhill
Extension'.
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The Elgin Road Extension Line
This was the last of the Mornington
lines to be constructed and the last
new street cable car anywhere in the
world. Its short history is fully
recorded in Straphangers and
Grippers by Bill Campbell and
Professor Ray Hargreaves and because
it ceased running in 1910 nobody I
knew ever rode on it. One little
story has become known to me,
however, of the status cable cars
held in the first few years of the
twentieth century.
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The Kaikorai Line (Otherwise
known as the Stuart Street Line)
Pompey was dead. This was a more
terrible blow to little Kathleen
Fountain than what was happening in
faraway Europe that day in 1914. in
2005, aged 99, she remembered it
vividly. She and her grieving family
carried Pompey's body to it last
resting place and held a prolonged
funeral service for him. (Pompey was
killed by a new fangled motor car in
spite of safely riding cable cars…)
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Wellingtons Original Kelburn
Cable Car
When Wellington's only public cable
car in its original form was closed
for upgrading in 1978 and redesigned
by security conscious Swiss
engineers, an anonymous poet wrote:
The Kelburn Car's about to go
A fact that fills me full of woe
One day we will wish we kept it
there
New cars won't make you stop and
stare
Like dinky cars all red and gold
With slidy seats exposed to cold
And rain and sun, and sights so
pretty
Of our still incomparably beautiful
city. |
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Please
contact
Don McAra,
17 Dyers Pass Road, Cashmere, Christchurch, New
Zealand
One third
of all proceeds from sales go towards the
restoration of Dunedin cable cars
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