Set of old tramway photos

I somehow hadn’t seen this set of old tramway company photos posted by a Toronto university library, before today. A bit heavy on shots of specific tram cars, but lots of vintage street views too – and a sense of a complex, well managed technology that was swept away by history.
Can’t really explain the image above, but it’s captioned “Labour Day Float” so it’s timely.

ant6n 10:58 on 2012/09/03 Permalink
That thing doesn’t look like it could actually fly – the balloon part’s too small ;-)
Kate 10:59 on 2012/09/03 Permalink
I know. Maybe it was a parade float – did we have a Labour Day parade? Old photos like this can raise as many questions as they answer.
Doobsies 15:31 on 2012/09/04 Permalink
http://www.aviation.technomuses.ca/assets/pdf/e_R100.pdf
The R-100 had arrived in St. Hubert earlier that month.
Kate 22:27 on 2012/09/04 Permalink
Good detective work, Doobs.
Doob-o-matic 20:23 on 2012/09/05 Permalink
Thank you. For sure it’s a parade float, it’s just weird that someone thought to photograph it in the middle of a field.
Check out the full-size image for a bit of a laugh.
Doobasauras-Rex 20:55 on 2012/09/05 Permalink
More fun/weird/cool stuff courtesy Google:
http://www.oldpostcards.se/exhibition1994/images/pc10.jpg
http://coolopolis.blogspot.ca/2010/10/zeppelin-comes-to-montreal.html
http://www.oldmodelkits.com/index.php?detail=18802&searchtext=r-100