Paul, where is that? "Newcastle" sounds like your part of the planet, but last I heard you weren't using "$" over there.
It's not the Newcastle in England. As you say, we haven't switched our currency to dollars while you weren't looking!
My first guess upon seeing this sign was Newcastle in N.S.W., Australia, but a little searching revealed the fact that the tramway (streetcar) system there closed down in 1950 -- Over 15 years before Australia changed from £.s.d. to dollars.
My best remaining guess for English-speaking and using dollars would be somewhere in the Caribbean. There's a Newcastle in Jamaica which is of a reasonable size, although I don't know if it has, or has ever had, a tramway system.
