Brill Radiax trucks

[Mal Rowe]

The Brill Radiax truck does not seem to have been a huge success, but
several Australasian tramways gave it a go in the early 20th century.

The Melbourne, Brunswick & Coburg Tramways Trust used them in their
second tram design - the T class.

Melbourne Electric Supply Co had them in the Pengelley cars.

Christchurch used them in a series of trailers.

Perhaps the most innovative use of the design was in San Francisco where
the long wheelbase allowed the construction of a single truck centre
entrance car.

The picture is from facebook.

Mal Rowe - always impressed by the SF Radiax cars.

[Roger Greenwood]

The first line of Mal's post says it all:

The Brill Radiax truck does not seem to have been a huge success, but several Australasian tramways gave it a go in the early 20th century.

Additional to the tramways Mal listed, Brill Radiax trucks saw service in both Hobart and Launceston.
The first Hobart double-decker with partially enclosed vestibules, No 28 built in 1912, was equipped with a long wheelbase version of 11ft. But with premature optimism, the manager, Mr Parker informed the Launceston Municipal Tramways of this remarkable new innovation, inviting them to visit Hobart for an inspection. This duly occurred, the Launceston gentlemen returning home with an enthusiasm they would live to regret. About to embark on construction of three new single truck cars, they perceived that use of long wheelbase trucks would allow for longer saloons, deflecting long-standing criticism of earlier single truck designs with limited saloon capacity.
Their three new trams, Nos 18~20, were equipped with Brill Radiax trucks type 8A with an 11ft wheelbase. Completed in 1914, it wasn't long before the Launceston Municipal Tramways joined those before them who had gone down this path.
The Radiax truck of Hobart No 28 was soon replaced with a Brill 21E truck, not seeing any further service.
The Launceston Municipal Tramways fixed the axles of their Radiax trucks into a 'straight ahead' mode but they remained problematical until the system closed in 1952.
Roger Greenwood

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[TONY TIEULI]

The last Brill Radiax truck built was for the Third Avenue Railway System in the USA.   It went under a Brill “convertible” Master Unit ca. 1930.   The car was not successful as it derailed on anything but the straightest track.  The car was sidelined within a few years.   Some of you may remember the “Pivs” or Pivotal cars in Leeds, England.  The “truck” was two independent wheel assemblies that were linked together with tie rods.  As the car entered a curve, the 10’ truck would pivot using wheel flanges to steer.  Apparently it worked while the cars were relatively new, but as the linkages and wheel flanges wore, the wheels did not pivot into the curve but the flanges cut into the rail head.  Eventually all of them were reworked to eliminate the pivoting mechanism, becoming the “rigids.”   Many of the cars were re-trucked.   

Tony

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[Matthew Geier]

On 21/8/24 23:06, 'TONY TIEULI' via TramsDownUnder wrote:

The last Brill Radiax truck built was for the Third Avenue Railway System in the USA.   It went under a Brill “convertible” Master Unit ca. 1930.   The car was not successful as it derailed on anything but the straightest track.  The car was sidelined within a few years.   Some of you may remember the “Pivs” or Pivotal cars in Leeds, England.  The “truck” was two independent wheel assemblies that were linked together with tie rods.  As the car entered a curve, the 10’ truck would pivot using wheel flanges to steer.  Apparently it worked while the cars were relatively new, but as the linkages and wheel flanges wore, the wheels did not pivot into the curve but the flanges cut into the rail head.  Eventually all of them were reworked to eliminate the pivoting mechanism, becoming the “rigids.”   Many of the cars were re-trucked.  

Every now and then the idea gets retried - prototype Variotram/Variobahn Tw601 that was the 'prototype' the Sydney cars were based on was fitted with a weird motor bogie steering arrangement where the wheel motors could turn into a curve. It appears they were trying to address the problem with the fixed truck multi-artic design where the forces on the lead bogie in curves lead to them eating the track. But it led to instability and derailments so CVAG locked the pivots to keep the axles straight in the bogie frame. The car lasted near 20 more years before worn wheels and a crack in the trailer bogie frame got the car withdrawn (and subsequently broken up).

The first photo shows the whole bogie and you can see where the damper/centring spring went on the tie bar. The 2nd shows the pivot. It wasn't free to move much, but it would have made some difference to the ability to track curves. Turns out what it did was enhance it's derailment ability.

The 'production' Variobahns had a different bogie and were not interchangeable with the prototype car. The Sydney cars were different again.

[Mal Rowe]

On 21/08/2024 23:06, 'TONY TIEULI' via TramsDownUnder wrote:
> The last Brill Radiax truck built was for the Third Avenue Railway
> System in the USA.   It went under a Brill “convertible” Master Unit
> ca. 1930.   The car was not successful as it derailed on anything but
> the straightest track.  The car was sidelined within a few years.  
> Some of you may remember the “Pivs” or Pivotal cars in Leeds, England.
>  The “truck” was two independent wheel assemblies that were linked
> together with tie rods.  As the car entered a curve, the 10’ truck
> would pivot using wheel flanges to steer.  Apparently it worked while
> the cars were relatively new, but as the linkages and wheel flanges
> wore, the wheels did not pivot into the curve but the flanges cut into
> the rail head.  Eventually all of them were reworked to eliminate the
> pivoting mechanism, becoming the “rigids.”   Many of the cars were
> re-trucked.

Perhaps the Melbourne T class were the most successful Radiax truck
equipped trams of all.

Six of them were built for the Melbourne Brunswick and Coburg Tramways
Trust and entered service in 1917.

They lasted in service until 1962, when the Footscray local trams closed
- 45 years.

In 1966, one of them re-entered occasional service as a heritage tram.

Perhaps typically, the tram (No 180) derailed rather spectacularly at
Batman Ave on one of its early heritage trips!

The pic is from the collection of the Melbourne Tram Museum, who have No
180 in their collection.
https://www.hawthorntramdepot.org.au/trams/mmtb180.htm

Mal Rowe - who was there.

[Brent Efford]

One of the Christchurch radiax trucks has survived and sits at Ferrymead. It was fitted with a truck deck and a winch arrangement in the early days of the Ferrymead Tramway, for use as a ballast carrier, but I doubt that it has seen service for decades. It was the first 'vehicle' delivered to Ferrymead. Here are two photos I took in 1965, showing the truck being winched onto a truck and then the other volunteers relaxing on it after delivery.

Brent Efford – Ferrymead old boy