NEWS AND PLANNED EVENTS

Coming Events

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
The 49th Annual General Meeting of the Society was held on Wednesday 17 August 2011 at 7.45 pm in the Ferrymead Lions Building. A report on the AGM was given in the August/September TRACTS. A copy of the presidents report is available here.

NOVEMBER MEETING
The November meeting will be held in the Lions Building, Ferrymead on Wednesday 16 November at 7.45 pm and will feature an illustrated talk by Joe Pickering and Ken Henderson on the Auckland Dockline Tramway.

Ken and Joe trained the drivers for this tramway and were heavily involved in the opening arrangements. Ken took a range of photos and Joe has prepared a video of the opening and the run up to it.

If time permits there will also be videos of the THS 50th anniversary and Christchurch No 1 in town in 2010.

Supper provided $2.00 per head

LETTER FROM PRESIDENT RE EARTHQUAKE
I hope that everyone is keeping safe. I understand some have suffered varying degrees of damage to their homes and some have even had to move out.

The Park will be closed to at least the end of March which means no tram service is required.

The Society escaped with only minor damage. The library upstairs in tram barn 1 had one set of shelves fall over and a couple of models were damaged. The shelves may be able to repaired. Some cups and dishes in the smoko room were broke and that is about all that happened in the tram barns. The overhead has been inspected and seems ok but may have dropped in the area of Truscoutts Road crossing which may require another pole installed to tension it up again. There are some more cracks in the track around the village which will require welding. There has been some sleeper creep in the open ballasted track which will require more ballast and compacting. In the Trolley Bus barn most rooms downstairs had stuff thrown around the rooms and will require some time spent cleaning it up.

As a result of the damage and no access to the City Tram Barn the three trams (244,178 & 152) and one trailer (115) out on the day are being brought back to Ferrymead for storage in the mean time. The rest of the vehicles are still in the town tram barn. At the moment 244,152 & 115 are already at the Park and 178 will taken there as soon as we get access to the Square and able to move it.

Even with no trams service for the next few weeks there is still plenty of work we can do on Saturdays and Monday nights to be ready for full service when the Park reopens.

There will be no social meeting (normally 3rd Wednesday) in March, but we intend to provide an update to members at the April meeting. Note also that Joe has decided not sent send out a copy of Tracts for March.

Please everyone keep safe and with the Canterbury can-do attitude we can all get through this stronger and better than ever.

Graeme Belworthy
President

FOLLOW-UP GOALS & PROJECTS MEETING
At the April meeting Society members reviewed and updated the Society's Goals & Projects for the remainder of the 2011 year. There is not likely to be a further Goals and Projects meeting until later in 2011 whose purpose will be to review and agree Goals and Projects for ongoing into the 2012 year. Further details can be found in the May 2011 Tracts and under the "Projects" heading on website.

50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE TRAMWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
This was celebrated on the Weekend of 5th & 6th February 2011. To note the main events, there was a dinner with Graham Stewart as speaker at Cashmere Club on evening of 5th February followed by BBQ on Sunday 6th February at Tram Barn where most of the Society's vehicles were running at Ferrymead. Some further details and pictures are in February 2011 Tracts.

26 RE-COMMISSIONG
At a re-commissioning ceremony attended by members, partner and invited guests, on Saturday 23rd January 2010, Christchurch Double Decker Tramcar #26 was officially handed over to the Society by the Heritage Tramways Trust, and entered service on the Ferrymead Tramway. The ribbon was cut by Mayor Bob Parker and tram body donor Ivan Taylor, and then invited guests boarded the Tram and two Double Decker trailers - 74 and 10, which were all decorated in a form similar to that of the original Christchurch Tramway Opening in 1905. Previous president Rev. Mike Kerr was MC. 26 continued to operate in service for the afternoon with the two trailers for the rest of Saturday and for Sunday morning, in conjunction with Christchurch Number 1. On the Sunday afternoon, Kitty was brought into service with the trailers and for the remainder of the day, the tramway was operated using a "three car service" of the Society's Christchurch trams at Ferrymead. Additional details and photos in February 2010 TRACTS.

Trolley Bus System
The Trolley Bus system generally operate runs on the first Sunday of each month and on event days.  Trolley buses currently in operation are Christchurch 210, Dunedin 79 and Wellington 103 – generally used on alternate trips. Gold coin donation – payable to the driver – for a ride.

Future Planned Meetings
There are meetings/activities being planned from February 2011 onwards – generally on the 3rd Wednesday in each month. Details to come, but keep these nights free in your diaries, and look out for the details here, or in Tram Tracts.

For more on Meetings and Work Parties, please click here.