Graham Stewart remembers last day of the trams

Photographer Graham Stewart says his favourite shot of the 'church tram' to Castlecliff in 1950 surrounded by sheep was a fluke. Photo/Graham Stewart.

Graham Stewart was a teenager when he travelled to Whanganui from Auckland - camera in hand - to document the city's trams a week before they were taken out of service.

Mr Stewart made several trips to Whanganui to photograph the trams, such was his interest in them, particularly Whanganui's network with its bridges, viaducts and underpasses.

And he will soon be donating mounted copies of some of those photos to the Wanganui Tramways Trust, which has accepted his gift.

The Whanganui trams were replaced by Greyhound buses in September 1950.

Mr Stewart came down for the closing ceremony and booked in at a hotel in the bottom of Victoria Ave.

Instead he ended up meeting the then tramway manager George Holmes who invited him to stay.

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The Jaycees had bought the steam tram back into service for the weekend while Mr Stewart also took the "church tram" out to Castlecliff on Sunday where by "fluke" he captured the tram surrounded by a flock of sheep.

That is his favourite shot.

Mr Stewart has published many books on trams in New Zealand - most notably The End Of The Penny Section - which was 1973's highest selling book and re-printed in 1993.

As a news photographer Mr Stewart covered the 1951 waterfront strike, Ed Hillary's wedding in September 1953 and travelled in royal cavalcades with the Queen (1953) and the Queen Mother (1958).

Other assignments included the Tangiwai railway disaster in 1953.

His first job was as a photo-journalist with the New Zealand Herald and The Weekly News.

He then went on to the Napier Daily Telegraph and then returned to the Herald as illustrations editor in the 1960s.