Dunedin City Council contractors working on replacing water pipes in Mornington’s Elgin Rd last week found some pieces of cable and the metal slot through which it was gripped by the cable car.
That section of the line was decommissioned in 1910, after only running for five years.
Elgin Rd resident and transport historian Andrew Robinson said he was fascinated by the find.
‘‘I had a hunch there might be remnants, but I’m quite intrigued to see the groove that the cable would have run in and some of the other engineering works there.
‘‘It’s quite intriguing after all these years that it’s become visible.’’
Fellow Elgin Rd resident and transport enthusiast Michael Jarka said such a find in Dunedin was rare.
‘‘It’s amazing that they’ve been there all that time.
‘‘I knew that the line had closed all those years ago and was told that the cable had just been cut and left, but I didn’t realise the rails had been taken out.
‘‘And then also I found out by looking that they’d left the channelling there because the cable grip used to go down through a slot in the road, and the edges of it are still there.
Mr Jarka said he would be keen to have part of the remnants donated to Toitū Otago Settlers Museum.
‘‘But a contractor told me they’re not going to dig it up. They’re just going to lay the pipes along, presumably underneath it, because they’ve dug quite a way underneath.
‘‘So the line will get buried again.’’
The cable cars served the Mornington line, up High St and along Eglinton Rd, from 1883 to 1957.
‘‘At the time, it was an improvement over the surface of the roads, because they were basically made over gravel roads.
‘‘The appeal of the cable car was like the same reason as it was in San Francisco.’’
Dunedin’s cable car service stopped entirely in 1957.
