James Duncan-“Infant Sparks”- James will talk about the story behind electric trams in Auckland.
James grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, when a large, extensive electric trolleybus system served Auckland. These vehicles fascinated him as a child, and thus began a passion for electric street transport.
At age 15, he joined the Tramway Division at MOTAT and has now been an active volunteer member of the tramway for 49 years. He’s been a tram conductor, managed MOTAT’s tram system for many years, and even wrote the guide used to train all MOTAT tram drivers. Most of his working life was spent in retail, but in 2011, he was asked to manage the operation of the new tramway down in Wynyard Quarter. Today, together with this role, and a full-time position at MOTAT looking after the infrastructure for the MOTAT Tramway, he says he is now like a pig in mud!
This is the 1st of three talks on the story behind the arrival of electric trams in Auckland – the trials, tribulations, tragedies, battles, and successes of bringing what was then “space-age” technology to NZ’s largest city. The story is brought to life with a large number of digital images, many rare and not seen previously of this revolutionary form of street transport – this large vehicle that could propel itself along as if by magic, without horses or a steam engine in front!”
