27 replies to this topic

[ozpl8s]

Jeffrey,

FYI, Silverton is an old historic mining town to the west of Broken Hill in the far west of NSW. there also used to be a railway line, The Silverton Tramway, from S.A. to Broken Hill that passed through the town.

Not much there nowadays, basically just a Pub (the most important building) and a few derelict shops plus some residences. Used to be quite a big place years & years ago.

Ian (#236)

[lostaussie]

sliverton was where a Lot of Mad Max 2 was filmed

[Matty_769]

Howdy,

The Silverton Tramway still exists today...... Not in Silverton of course. They are based at Broken Hill and Parkes NSW. They are a small player in the open market rail industry.

Just purchased a heap of loco's from Pacific National. (formed by joining National Rail and NSW Gov't Freight Corp etc)

Having been to Silverton.... not much left of anything! Still, the landscape and other tourist attractions remaining are very much worth a visit.

[NSW 1]

Yes Jeffrey,

NSW issued horse-drawn plates - 3 series - omnibus, cab, & van. The plates were enamel, each type different in some way, but all had a crown at the top above the number, which was not actually a rego number, it was the vehicles operating licence number. They started in 1901, and could still be newly registered in the mid-1950's. These are nothing like the plates you describe.

There were horse-drawn vehicle plates before this time, and these were issued in council districts but not sure if this happened in Silverton or not. The only 2 existing examples are from Sydney City from the 1890's, and are made of thin galvanised tin and are embossed.

The Silverton plates you describe could be from any era since, and could be something as simple as a council equipment number disc that all items of equipment the council owned had to have on it. They might have come off horse equipment, but that alone does not make them horse-drawn vehicle plates.


This is a 1901 issued NSW horse-drawn omnibus enamel internal plate. They were coloured brown on white because the horse-drawn cab internal plates were black on white, and issued from 1901 also. This is the only one of these known to exist anywhere.

 67.jpg   38.28K   5 downloads


Regards,
Craig

[NSW 1]

Sydney Morning Herald 9th Jan 1903

 nsw_taxicab_Sydney_Morning_Herald_9_Jan_1903_1.jpg   41.99K   4 downloads
 nsw_taxicab_Sydney_Morning_Herald_9_Jan_1903_2.jpg   60.01K   4 downloads


Horse drawn VAN License 471 & Internal Signage.

 471.jpg   29.73K   5 downloads

[Matty_769]

Here's a few seen at the Illawarra Motoring museum

 horse_plates.jpg   39.43K   5 downloads

 nsw_horsedrawn_1091.jpg   176.25K   6 downloads

[NSW 1]

Thanks for adding these Matty.

250 is the horse drawn Omnibus plate.

1091 are the issued pair of plates for a horse drawn CAB, the larger one for the back, the smaller one for the inside or dashboard.

[ALPCA4266]

Here's my contribution to this post..............my rather sad and poorly repainted/touched up greeen + white Horse Drawn Van.
Nonetheless they're not making anymore of them!!! This one came as a trade from Alan Cox in 1983. The plate was part of his famous Mittagong dump find in the late 70's.

 Horse_Drawn_Van_983.jpg   201.86K   3 downloads

And from the same source, this white/black Horse Drawn CAB Plate. This one is even rougher condition.
Most of the plates from the Mittagong had been "deregistered" with a ball pein hammer, consequently most have had their numbers smashed out.
This gives you an indication of what a stunning plate the #250 featured above is.

 Horse_Drawn_Vehicle__266.jpg   209.9K   5 downloads

[npcc12]

Here's my NSW Horse drawn enamel Van plate, also from Alan, also in 1983. At least the crown on Jimbo's is undamaged. Alan sent me a photocopy of a crown from an undamaged plate, and I had the painter where I first worked, touch the plate up. This was before I started having a go at them myself. I recently matched up the green much more closely. I will feature all my plates from Alan's original find, in due course. I got just two from him directly, the rest over the intervening thirty years from other sources. They're unmistakeable with the "Mittagong dings" signature.

 Horse_Drawn_Van_1134.jpg   153.21K   3 downloads

[Gary65]

I think these are for a horse drawn vehicles ?

 1997_s.JPG   134.41K   5 downloads

 282.JPG   185.36K   5 downloads

See more at: Plates Identification & Information Requested, selection of a plate collection.

[NSW 1]

Hi Gary,

Wow, nice bunch of plates!

The 1997 numbered plate is a NSW horse-drawn van drivers badge. There were 8 different ones issued to various public motor & horse-driven vehicles drivers. I have 4 different versions, and if you scroll through the pictures & threads on here you will find mine. I would dearly love to add that 1997 badge to my others, no question about that!

Great score. Well done.

Cheers, Craig

[npcc12]

There haven't been any photos of these early NSW horse drawn plates in situ, so I have trawled up a couple.

In photo #1 circa 1910, the hansom cabs are still thick on the ground.

 nsw-horsedrawn-cab-21.jpg   81.18K   0 downloads

By 1920, when this photo was taken, the hansoms were a dying breed. In 1918, there was 1 horse per 2 people. In 1997 1 car per 2 people, 1 horse per 78 people.

 img347.jpg   274.21K   1 downloads

The last photo dates from 1935, now the horse and cart is the odd one out.

 January1935FordAMorris.jpg   273.27K   1 downloads

[npcc12]

Self explanatory photo, with horse drawn plate in view. The trams look positively modern, in this otherwise 19th century looking image.
One would have been wise to check for bolting horses, before crossing the road.
 
 nsw-horsedrawn.jpg   85.75K   0 downloads

[Matty_769]

Restored 442 seen on eBay recently

 nsw-horsedrawn-442.JPG   28.64K   0 downloads