Mostly from Sydney, including Crows Nest (just for Brad). Some from Brisbane.

https://www.9news.com.au/national/australian-transport-history-in-pictures-trains-trams/7d6e85ad-7381-47d8-9201-d176a9ce0bbc

How about MONORAIL "the transportation of the future" they open with great fanfare then soon shut down in financial humiliation

Sydney's monorail lasted 25 years. I used it a couple of times in that period, mainly to get to the Entertainment Centre, and I took a "last chance" ride on it (jam packed with people) before it was shut down and demolished.

It was an eyesore, used mainly by tourists. I didn't miss it.

The big problem with the monorail is that it was only ever destined to be a tourist attraction. It only conveyed people between Pitt Street and Darling Harbour and wasn't expandable. Nor did it move a lot of people. I 'travelled' on it a few times in the early days when it was owned by TNT. It was just too expensive to use for more than sight seeing and a photo opportunity.

It also ran in tandem with trams on the Inner West light rail line and was pretty much redundant by the time that line opened in 1997.

Doesn't China have a Mag-Lev shuttle running from some airport? Sydney should build one to SKS airport.

Not sure what SKS is, but if you mean the first airport, it already has trains and buses.

If you mean the 2nd airport (still under construction), there's some pie-in-the-sky scheme of a new billion-dollar metro line from St Marys that hasn't even been started, when there's an existing line that terminates just a few KM away. This is the idiotic idea of the current mob of politicians. This is the same crowd who built the metro from Chatswood which ends just 1km short of the main line at Schofields. Talk about moronic.

KS = Kingsford Smith.

They already have a railway to the airport. It was built just before the Olympics.

The metro line from St Marys to the Nancy Bird-Walton airport is under construction (very early days yet). There are plans afoot to extend this from St Marys to Tallawong via Schofields and extend the line from Westmead to Aerotropolis vis Liverpool, Edmondson Park and Leppington.

This will take two things the Government doesn't have at the moment. Dollars and tradesmen.

By the time new airport ready, maglev should be a more realistic tech.

Maglev will never happen here as the terrain throughout most of Sydney is too undulating. It is also very expensive and would most likely be fully imported and there is a big push against imported public transport modes at the moment. The NSW Government has signed deals with a local firm to build the first of 8,000 electric buses and they will be built in Sydney. Another deal has been struck with Spanish tram builder CAF to build the trams for the Parramatta light rail line here in Sydney too. The same will no doubt apply to the trains that will replace the XPT, Explorer and Endeavour trains.

Might be the same Spanish Co. that was to build the rolling stock for the never-to-happen Madison/Milwaukee high speed train. They set up shop in the old A.O.Smith factory, but the project was cancelled/stalled when state opposition political party came to power.

Video on board the Chinese (Siemens?) maglev shuttle is impressive, it ramps up to 431 km/h in a minute or two. Surprisingly has a human driver, not fully automatic.

I am not sure if Siemens was originally involved with the original Maglev train but yeah, the Chinese design was originally from Germany, copying a design from the late 1980s. There was a write up in Electronics Australia at the time of its development.

Robbbert, thanks for posting.

Vic and Qld that had deviant rail gauges still chose standard-gauge for trams!?

Apparently first trams in Australia used Westinghouse drive gear from the US, same as the NY subway system. Cheap and well proven.So it was easier to use the same gauge.

The different rail gauge debacle was a classic case of bureaucratic infighting. It was never foreseen that the systems would ever need to link up anyway!

Look up the movie "Malcolm" where the guy of that name builds himself a single seater tram and drives it all around Melbourne at night.

They did use Westinghouse Brake and Signal gear although the word "brake" was a bit of a misnomer. Three Sydney trams ended up in the drink over the time they ran to the Zoo and the reason they were said to hit 80km/h on the run down to Bondi Beach was because if the brakes were applied on the way down they would fade and then be useless when needed down on Campbell Parade.

Unfortunately, because Sydney's new system uses 750V instead of the previous 600V, the old trams cannot run here except at the Tramway Museum and Royal National Park.