Those who pass through the town of Foxton NZ usually do so by driving along the State Highway One. However, a detour through the town's Main Street, only a block to the west, will reveal the Foxton Tram Station which runs horse trams and preserved trolleybuses along a circuit.
One of the trolleybuses preserved at Foxton is this one, former Dunedin No. 77. It entered service in Dunedin in 1962 and was withdrawn from service in 1982. It had a British United Traction chassis upon which was a body built by the Dunedin City Council Transport Department, with Metropolitan Vickers electricals. It was photographed here in Princes Street, bound for Opoho in May 1978.
Dunedin had a maximum of 18 trolleybus routes betwen December 1950 and March 1982. The maximum number of trolleybuses reached 79 between 1965 and 1967, and the system length maxed at 40.5 km between 1959 and 1971. The first depot was in McBride Street from 1950 to 1972 then it was at Market Reserve from 1972 to 1982.
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Dunedin 77 is currently laid up in storage in the Foxton depot yard barn and unlikely to be seen in operation again for quite some time pending further restoration work on it.
ReplyDeleteWayne Duncan
let us hope a benefactor comes along to enable that work to be speeded up.
ReplyDeleteThe photo's taken in George Street, not Princes Street.
ReplyDelete