Getting back to trams ...

[Mal Rowe]

The attached pic dates from around 1925 and shows a Melbourne T class
tram at South Melbourne (Hanna St) tram depot.

There is a huge pile of woodblocks visible behind the tram in the
adjacent per-way yard

179 is in its original form with no bulkhead behind the driver and a tip
over cross bench seat on the platform.

Later a bulkhead was installed - with a driver exit door and short seats
backing onto it on each platform.

The T class were the only ex Trust trams that were able to perform to a
level that meant they could run in mixed traffic with W class trams.

Mal Rowe - hastening to add that the L class trams were not ex -Trust.

[Matthew Geier]

On 25/3/25 10:12, Mal Rowe wrote:
> The attached pic dates from around 1925 and shows a Melbourne T class
> tram at South Melbourne (Hanna St) tram depot.
>
>

How did those things get around street corners ?

VicSig has a 2.7m wheel base for the class. They would have eaten curves.

[Mal Rowe]

On 25/03/2025 10:21, 'Matthew Geier' via TramsDownUnder wrote:
> How did those things get around street corners ?
>
> VicSig has a 2.7m wheel base for the class. They would have eaten curves.
>

179 has a Brill Radiax truck where the axles can twist to take corners.

The attached Brill ad describes it.

Geelong and Launceston also had trams on Radiax trucks and Christchurch
had them under trailers.

The T class served for many years in Footscray which had some sharp
curves, so it apparently worked.

Mal Rowe - who notes that Brill did not sell a lot of these - probably
because bogie trams were becoming the norm at the time.

[Matthew Geier]

The original Variobahn car prototype (Chemnitz Tw601) had a radial
mechanism on the motor bogies where the sub axles could turn, the idea
being the same, to ease the car into curves. However it didn't quite
work as expected and the Chemnitz workshops welded the pivots locking
the 4 stub axles parallel. The production Variobahn/Variotrams did not
have this 'feature'.

Tw601 was the basis for the Sydney Variotrams. Our bogies are John Dunn
designs based on the German originals.

[Brent Efford]

As I have noted before, one of the Christchurch Radiax trucks (and the frame of a second one) is at Ferrymead. Ironically, it was the first tramway 'vehicle' to arrive there. Here is a group of THS workers (now all deceased) relaxing on it immediately after delivery from a shingle pit in 1965. It was fitted with a crude body to carry ballast and nowadays sits at the end of the operable line, close to where I took the photo, blocking the line into the Ferrymead Reserve (which is now abandoned and buried.)

Brent Efford

[Mick Duncan]

Gday  Mal, All

That was courageous decision by the Traffic Manager,letting a tram with
a radius truck run fast enough to keep W schedule speed

Cheers,   Mick, He He He