Manly’s Tram and Bus Depots 

Glad you enjoyed it. Yes can you believe they made over 700 of these Leopards! I have good memories too, but as a passenger for many years on the E70 going from Manly to the City and yes in summer, standing in a packed bus (as I got on at one of the last stops before it went Express), without air conditioning it certainly at times got uncomfortable. I remember people having to open the roof vents to keep cool. And then when started raining and they were still open, water pouring in. You got to know the seats that the drips made wet and avoided them.

@BackTracks.Channel The STA roof vents/hatches always leaked even when closed. I remember driving and seeing people with open umbrellas 🌂 in the bus because they ALWAYS sat in their regular seats even when dry seats were available.

I remember you guys driving those. Having to turn what seemed like a 2 metre diameter steering wheel a couple hundred of times in one direction or another.

@Joseph Phillips Yes, and sometimes, when there was a full standing load of passengers, we actually had to stand in order to turn the wheel. When power steering was fitted to the older buses, it was only "power steering assisted" and if the revs got too low there was virtually no steering at all.

Myself and a mate of mine when we were about 13 went and visited the Brookvale depot in early 1987, we were allowed to wander around freely, have a look at all the buses including MK2 Leopards, change the destos etc and hearing them start up and rev up till they were warm was just brilliant.

Yes as kids there was always a race to the top to get that front seat..

Thanks Toby for watching and your memories of Sydney buses. I only got to ride on (what I would guess) were there "Blue" leopards towards the end of the life. I remember how hot there were when packed with people in the middle of summer. And at my stop it was standing all the way to the city.

Agree. that City Loop line in Melbourne is very special. Anytime I have time spare there when down there for work I do a loop.. the challenge now is that we don't have that many old trams left (Melbourne were smarter than us in Sydney and kept their trams and enough of the W-Class to run the service). From Town Hall to Circular Quay there is that ground-level power supply system that the tram would have to be fitted with. But that wouldn't be that hard one would think? It's a great idea!

@@backtracks.channel yes me too, I think its a great idea, I loved that one in Melbourne! Im currently living in Dresden in Germany, in Germany most cities with older networks do regular heritage runs every few weeks on a saturday where you can pay a bit extra for unscheduled full runs around interesting parts of the whole network and the money goes to the local tram preservation museum. Loftus have at a minimum 3 or 4 different trams dont they? And then there are a few dotted around the place including one or two in Melbourne arent there? The old toastracks were fairly light, I would have thought perhaps a small battery could get you from Town Hall to Circular Quay and back but youre right maybe not. Perhaps it would have to run only to Town Hall and maybe it could do a weird loop between Moore Park-Central-Town Hall, turn around and run back to china town then do a short run down the L1 maybe? Could probably only run outside peaks, say 10am-3pm. I dunno, however they want to run it and think it would work best! EDIT: just having a look around, according to Wikipedia of the older American-style C-class saloon cars which entered service in 1900 theres 6 still preserved (1 in the Powerhouse Museum, 2 in operating condition at Loftus and another 2 in restoration at Loftus plus another elsewhere) Loftus also has 3 R-classes (corridor trams) in operational condition, but only 4 O-class toastracks with another at the Powerhouse and 5 P-class trams. So maybe you're right maybe we dont have enough toastracks to risk them being crushed in accidents on regular tourist runs and they should only bring them out on special occasions? How problematic is it that the current system is 750V DC and the old was 600V DC? Obviousl theres also the pantograph versus trolleypole issue too whixh Melbourne had to get around.

Thanks for the great memories. Appreciate the share.

Good memories. one thing that did strike me and my son looking at these buses were how 'small' everything was.. I can imagine a packed bus (as we know 'capacity limits' were not really a thing then) in the middle of summer.. wearing a 'suit, jacket, tie' on the way to work wouldn't have been fun..

And good fun fact about the London Bus.. I am going to look into that!

ha, yes we forget how often we had to change buses if one had broken down. I have a very early memory of (what I know now after making this video) was a Leyland Royal Tiger Worldmaster handed down from the Government to a private school bus company in the Southern Sydney Suburbs. There was one hill on the route that every after noon we all had to get out at the bottom and then walk to the top and meet the bus there as it couldn't make it up the hill with a full load of kids. We didn't think anything of it back then, but can you imagine the headlines in the news is this happened today.. us kids thought it was pretty fun..

Thanks. Yes that would be a great video to make. Should put it on my list. Cheers M

Great story. Not heard that before... ha, perhaps the thief was smarter than we give him/her credit for.. as if the bus had have had a Newcastle relevant destination they would have been signaled to stop by passengers at every stop along the Pacific Highway.. a very slow 'get away' :)

Thanks. interesting agree... probably quite a number of the same types of bus chassis as well....

Thanks for the share. Yes I read that the Mark 11 version air con turns off everytime the door opens.. I have a car that turns off at the lights everytime.. I know I am 'saving petrol' but it is a bit distracting agree.

Good suggestion! I have not been there for many years. I believe it's open Wed and Sun. Should put a date in the diary.

There was evidence of the trams here until about the mid 1980s. I remember going to some kind of Open Day at the old Manly tram terminus, and seeing the rails still in the roa, partially tarred over. Also there was ex-Manly tram O 1111 - a life-long favourite tram of mine for this reason. I remember that I was a little kid and wanted to ride 1111, but my mother told me there was no tramline to Brookvale. I was quite dissapointed!

Ha so funny.. my family read this comment and they have been re-telling the joke to me over the last few days everytime we see a Bendy Bus..

@@backtracks.channel I've started a trend! LOL 😀

@@neilforbes416 those double deckers when they turn the corner it feels like if its going to tip over due to it leans the most awful feeling

Thanks Robert as always. Appreciate the support and the feedback.. Cheers Marty

Just while I have you... what tram line would you like me to prioritize in upcoming videos? So many to choose from! And if you say 'any line is good' that's great (as I can prioritize the ones I have enough knowledge of / film of). Cheers M PS: that goes for anyone reading these comments.. suggest what's next for BACKTRACKS.