Fwd: CHRISTCHURCH HILLS CAR 24

[Mal Rowe]

The Tramway Heritage Trust / Tramway Historical Society in Christchurch have excelled again.

Click on the libk below (sent to me) to see "Hills Car" Mo 24 which will run on the City Tramway.

Mal Rowe - admirer of their work

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.......goes into the city tomorrow.  Beautifully finished, nice and gentle to drive.

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/LQgyaRZfCg68ud2V9 

[Brent Efford]

I will be in Christchurch over Christmas and hope to see it in service. This is the type of tram that I rode on as a very young child in Papanui. I saw off the "last" tram there just after I had started school, in 1954.
Only it wasn't the last tram, even in Papanui – I was one of the THS squad that ran a horse tram (43, now at Ferrymead) there in 1964, as a business promotion, using the remaining exposed tram track. And, of course, the city centre tramway opened in 1995.
The THS originally intended to restore 24 in its final condition – fully enclosed with a simplified green and cream livery, as I remembered it as a pre-schooler (but presumably not as rusty and dirty). But Christchurch Tramway Ltd wanted the original partly open configuration.

This photo, taken by Graham Stewart at the end of 1949 shows a newly painted 24 (probably one of the last trams to be properly overhauled) in the loop at Papanui, beside the siding full of parked trailers. Even in black and white, the contrast between a tram in good condition and the state of most of the Christchurch fleet is readily apparent!

Brent Efford – resigned to seeing only old trams in NZ in his lifetime

[espee8800]

Very nice, must visit when I next get a chance to go over there.

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cheers and best wishes,
David in Avenel.au,    
[Before you change anything, learn why it is the way it is.]

[Mal Rowe]

On 17/12/2023 08:57, Mal Rowe wrote:

The Tramway Heritage Trust / Tramway Historical Society in Christchurch have excelled again.

Click on the libk below (sent to me) to see "Hills Car" Mo 24 which will run on the City Tramway.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/LQgyaRZfCg68ud2V9 

Alex Hunter just sent me the attached photo of Christchurch Hills car 24 at Cathedral Square - in service with a load of happy looking customers.

This is exactly the sort of weather these cars were designed for.

Once again, Congratulations to all involved!

Mal Rowe - noting that a bit of mountaineering skill would handy in boarding this car

[Brent Efford]

Thanks, Mal.

I have just spent a Christmas week in my home town, and deliberately lurked around the Christchurch Tramway in the hope of seeing 24 in service. I would have ridden it as a preschooler living in Papanui – though by then (early 1950s) it looked nothing like the photo. 

But alas it never appeared when I was looking. I was told that it is still in the commissioning and training phase – those ‘customers’ might have been tramway staff in mufti, testing out the rather strenuous boarding routine.

The tramway was impressively busy, including long queues at key stops at some times – thanks to visiting cruise ships and the time of year. Like, for example, Boon 152, restored to the same as-built condition as 24, in Cashel Mall last Wednesday.

Just a small point, though – the enclosed area where 24 was snapped is Cathedral Junction (because the spur to the tram shed diverts there). Cathedral Square, where the two loops share a common track to form the figure 8 ‘City Tour', is the next stop. The tramway has supplanted the Anglican cathedral there – under very extensive post-earthquake rebuilding – as the primary icon of Christchurch, as seen on tourist posters and the background for TV news clips.

Brent Efford – somewhat homesick!

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<24_CathedralJunction_29Dec2023_AlexHunter.jpg>

[Kiwi Sand Pounder]

Hey Brent,

I hope you enjoyed your visit to Chch! Did you swing by the THS? I can presume I speak for us all volunteers there when I say it would have been fantastic if you had. Especially since we're trying to make an effort to take down and preserve the memories people like yourself have. From what the old timers have told me, you'd have been shocked by how the THS has changed for the better. Especially if you saw how we still are keeping Kitty steaming along!

Here's a video I took of the official opening ceremony of 24 (at Ferrymead before she got delivered to the city loop for training and operation) that I hope brings you a smile since you didn't manage to see her on the city loop:

https://youtu.be/ixUI7rlbxvY

And looking at the photo Alex took, those weren't staff members! From my chats with him (albeit limited) they are planning on 24 being a warm weather tram for when the wind is low and the temp is high (sadly).

KiwiSandPounder

[Brent Efford]

Thank you, Jardin (I presume that is your real name from your email address – I don't like pseudonyms in groups like this. But any kiwi content on TDU is so rare that I won't quibble).

Well done for posting that delightful talk by Russell Kent on YouTube. Russell is, AFAIK, the only founder of what became the THS in 1961 still alive, and certainly now the only living person to be given a tram driving lesson on part of the original system (Other than those of us who drove the horse tram in Papanui in 1964!) 

My own association with trams started in the first weeks of my life when I was a premature baby kept in the Karitane Hospital literally only a few metres from the Barrington Street sub terminus that Russell referred to. We almost certainly went home by tram – my parents had no car – and later moved to my childhood home in Papanui, at the other end of the last tram line. I would have ridden 24 and the other Hills cars – which were the only trams used on the route, even after the hill section past Barrington St closed in 1953. 24 was the last tram to be given a proper overhaul and repaint, in 1949. (Most of the fleet was in a pretty grim condition by last tram day!)

So it was that my father took me to the last tram ceremony at the Papanui terminus on 11 September 1954, just after I started school. My interest in trams was already strong – I observed the motorman through the bulkhead window just as Russell described and this was part of my childhood play.

I joined the tram group in 1963, as its youngest member (after being introduced to John Shanks on a railway excursion) and was part of putting together the Papanui Tram Week event in August 1964, where the California horse car that we had restored was run on the only remaining exposed bit of tram track, coincidentally where that 'last tram' sendoff happened in 1954. The photo shows me in a grey jumper using the brake to control the horse, which wanted to go a lot faster than was considered safe! John Shanks is at the other end of the front seat. The guy with the reins was Peter Armstrong.

The Papanui Tram Week event led to a big outpouring of public interest and support, the formalisation of our group as the Tramway Historical Society, an influx of capable new members – notably David Hinman, the force behind building the Christchurch Tramway after he became a City Council planning manager – and the development of Ferrymead. The rest is history, etc.

The second photo shows me, Russell and John Shanks on the same tram, at Ferrymead during the 50th anniversary celebrations of the founding of what became the THS early in February 2011. We were the last Papanui Tram Week staff still around. Two weeks after that celebratory weekend the massive 22 February 2011 earthquake which killed 185 people struck Christchurch. The Christchurch Tramway survived the devastation, has expanded since, and is now the tourist poster 'icon' of the city as the Cathedral remains only partly rebuilt. 

Although I finally moved to Wellington in 1979, I visit Ferrymead quite often, the last time being last November.

 

Brent Efford

[John Radcliffe]

Brent

Thank you for your outline of early tramway experiences, an upbringing similar to many of us. As it may be of interest, 'll attach a picture of 43 as I found it in Christchurch during a visit in 1960 before the Papanui Tram week restoration and event - John Radcliffe

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From: 'Brent Efford' via TramsDownUnder <tramsdo...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, 10 January 2026 10:16 AM
To: TramsDownUnder <tramsdo...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [TramsDownUnder] CHRISTCHURCH HILLS CAR 24

 

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[Brent Efford]

Thank you, John. 

A photo of great interest to me  – that yard, behind an auto electrician’s premises in an industrial street in central Christchurch, is where I first became actively involved in tram restoration in 1963. Behind you when you took that photo was the Kitson steam tram 7, which was our main focus of early work (really just dabbling and rust-chipping) and which is now one of the most prized THS items at Ferrymead. 

As well as the horse car, in that photo you can see a Merryweather steam fire pump, which is now an exhibit in the fire museum at Ferrymead. Just visible on the right is a Yorkshire steam wagon with its T-shaped boiler. I had fantasies of restoring that, but that was hardly possible for a 14-year old with no resources or skills. It was later sold to a collector down south and actually steamed to its new home, wherever that is. There was also a Stanley steam car in a shed, but I have no idea what happened to that.

The horse car was shifted to the former tramway workshops nearby later in 1963, so that we could prepare it for the Papanui event. The Kitson followed later, in September 1965, as per the attached photo.

Brent Efford

On 10 Jan 2026, at 1:54 PM, John Radcliffe <john.c.r...@gmail.com> wrote:

Brent

Thank you for your outline of early tramway experiences, an upbringing similar to many of us. As it may be of interest, 'll attach a picture of 43 as I found it in Christchurch during a visit in 1960 before the Papanui Tram week restoration and event - John Radcliffe<image.png>

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From: 'Brent Efford' via TramsDownUnder <tramsdo...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, 10 January 2026 10:16 AM
To: TramsDownUnder <tramsdo...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [TramsDownUnder] CHRISTCHURCH HILLS CAR 24

 

Thank you, Jardin (I presume that is your real name from your email address – I don't like pseudonyms in groups like this. But any kiwi content on TDU is so rare that I won't quibble).

Well done for posting that delightful talk by Russell Kent on YouTube. Russell is, AFAIK, the only founder of what became the THS in 1961 still alive, and certainly now the only living person to be given a tram driving lesson on part of the original system (Other than those of us who drove the horse tram in Papanui in 1964!) 

My own association with trams started in the first weeks of my life when I was a premature baby kept in the Karitane Hospital literally only a few metres from the Barrington Street sub terminus that Russell referred to. We almost certainly went home by tram – my parents had no car – and later moved to my childhood home in Papanui, at the other end of the last tram line. I would have ridden 24 and the other Hills cars – which were the only trams used on the route, even after the hill section past Barrington St closed in 1953. 24 was the last tram to be given a proper overhaul and repaint, in 1949. (Most of the fleet was in a pretty grim condition by last tram day!)

So it was that my father took me to the last tram ceremony at the Papanui terminus on 11 September 1954, just after I started school. My interest in trams was already strong – I observed the motorman through the bulkhead window just as Russell described and this was part of my childhood play.

I joined the tram group in 1963, as its youngest member (after being introduced to John Shanks on a railway excursion) and was part of putting together the Papanui Tram Week event in August 1964, where the California horse car that we had restored was run on the only remaining exposed bit of tram track, coincidentally where that 'last tram' sendoff happened in 1954. The photo shows me in a grey jumper using the brake to control the horse, which wanted to go a lot faster than was considered safe! John Shanks is at the other end of the front seat. The guy with the reins was Peter Armstrong.

The Papanui Tram Week event led to a big outpouring of public interest and support, the formalisation of our group as the Tramway Historical Society, an influx of capable new members – notably David Hinman, the force behind building the Christchurch Tramway after he became a City Council planning manager – and the development of Ferrymead. The rest is history, etc.

The second photo shows me, Russell and John Shanks on the same tram, at Ferrymead during the 50th anniversary celebrations of the founding of what became the THS early in February 2011. We were the last Papanui Tram Week staff still around. Two weeks after that celebratory weekend the massive 22 February 2011 earthquake which killed 185 people struck Christchurch. The Christchurch Tramway survived the devastation, has expanded since, and is now the tourist poster 'icon' of the city as the Cathedral remains only partly rebuilt. 

Although I finally moved to Wellington in 1979, I visit Ferrymead quite often, the last time being last November.

 

Brent Efford<19640800 BLE & horse tram Ian Tweedy.jpg>

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[John Radcliffe]

Yes, Brent , Kitty was there in 1960 as well - John Radcliffe.

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From: 'Brent Efford' via TramsDownUnder <tramsdo...@googlegroups.com>

Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2026 6:40 AM
To: Tramsdownunder <tramsdo...@googlegroups.com>

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