In the 1920s, horse drawn vehicles were still very common on Brisbane’s streets and the tram system was quite extensive. Here’s a story about a tram helping out a horse drawn vehicle.

Brisbane Courier, 29 January 1926 (TROVE)

The conductor of a passing tram saw the predicament that the dray was in and stopped to help. The conductor got out his emergency chain, attached it to the shaft of the dray and signalled the driver to move ahead slowly. The tram pulled the dray all the way to the top of the hill, much to the mystification of the horses.

Tram driver and conductor with their distinctive “Foreign Legion” hats. Brisbane 1930 (State Library of Queensland)

The Dutton Park number 78 tram route followed the path of today’s number 196 bus as far as its terminus on Gladstone Road, just past the Cornwall Street intersection. This line was extended from Vulture Street around 1901 and required a cutting through Gladstone Street opposite Dorchester Street to allow a gradient suitable for trams.

The cutting in Gladstone road made to enable the tram line extension

Horse drawn vehicles were common on Brisbane streets in the 1920s. A survey of traffic crossing the Victoria Bridge in 1925 revealed that 23% of vehicles were horse drawn. By 1932 this had fallen to 5%. However, there were still newspaper reports of accidents in Brisbane involving horse drawn vehicles as late as 1951.

Tram terminus at Dutton Park Brisbane ca.1929 (State library of Queensland)

A tram on Gladstone Road some 40 years later.