The End of the Line - The W-Class tram trundles off into history...

[Shangas]

http://www.theage.com.au/national/wclass-trundling-into-history-20090817-enp4.html

An icon for over 80 years, the W-class tram was introduced to Melbourne's streets after WWI, in 1923 and had remained on the tracks well into the 2000s. It appears they will soon be no-more, despite the efforts of historical groups to restore and maintain these old clankers for public transportation. These moving, clanging, rattling, rumbling links to the Jazz Age, back when Flinders Street Station still had a ballroom which hosted big-band dances and parties, will soon be phased out.

 

[dr greg]

NO!

I worked as a clippie on the Melbourne trams in the 70's, and I used to love working the old ones...just more class, and it was so good to see what was probably the oldest functioning tramway rolling stock left in a Western country...save them I say, do you want the joint to look like Zurich?

 

[John in Covina]

Los Angeles had some fine trolley systems such as the Red Car and the system could take you to a zillion places some of them pretty far flung. They were located in places you wanted to go and came from places you already were so that concept of taking you where you wanted to go wasn't foreign. The system lost ridership and was phased out. 40 years after, the idea of trolley type cars gets the go ahead in LA but few of the lines take you to where you want to go from where you are at, so the ridership is not quite up where it should be. Plus it's ridiculously expensive to build.

Best advice might be don't lose them if posible because they are really tough to replace.

 

[Ephraim Tutt]

When in Melbourne 2 weeks ago I hopped on the City Circle line (it's free!) just to ride a W-class. Yep...it was like taking a lift back in time. The bumpy ride and the ring of the bell harkens another era. Magic.

But watch that step - it's a doozy.

 

[BinkieBaumont]

"Never had the time to travel on The Tram restaurant but it looks splendid"

http://www.tramrestaurant.com.au/

 

[Shangas]

The City Circle trams will remain in service, but all other W-class trams will be retired. Riding the CC trams really is a trip back in time. The bumping, the rattling, the grinding...the fact that the brakes are still operated by dumping sand on the tracks to provide friction...And the old-style tram-bells...aaah, music to my ears. Those old trams are LOUD. Those dinging bells and the rattling you can hear an easy two blocks away. Oh yes, and mind the step! It is quite a drop from the tram to the pavement.

These are the City Circle Trams. Soon, they will be the only W-class trams operating on Melbourne's streets, offering a free tourist-service around the perimeter of the Central Business District. These particular trams date from the World War Two era of the 1940s. W-class trams were traditionally painted biege and green, not maroon like these.

It will be sad to see the old 1930s and 1940s W-class trams go. They were SO much fun and such a wonderful trip back into history.

Oh yes, I forgot! The W-class tram will also survive as the famous Colonial Tramcar Restaurant. Like Binkie, I also haven't had a chance to ride on one, but apparently they are a wonderful night out. Hop on and they take nice, long routes all around the city to give people a scenic dinner and a tour of Melbourne by night. The Colonial Tramcar Restaurant uses a 1940s W-class tram. When the service started all those years ago, the CTCR was the last operator of an ORIGINAL W-class tram from the 1920s!! Unfortunately that tram has since been retired...

This is the W-class tram as it would have appeared in its heyday of the 1930s and 40s (even though this tram dates from the 1950s, the basic style is the same). These are the trams which will now be phased out, to be replaced by gawd-awful 'bullet'-style trams or whatever.

 

[Haversack]

San Francisco's Municipal Railway has one of Melbourne's W-Class operating pretty much daily on the F-Line up Market Street. You can see its history here:

http://www.streetcar.org/mim/streetcars/fleet/antique/496/index.html

I find it interesting that the State of Victoria has placed an embargo on any further export of Melbourne's trams.

Haversack.

 

[Shangas]

Oooh wow, would you look at that photo...Fewer things are more beautiful than Golden Era trams.

 

[LordBest]

I know several people who went on the Tramcar Restaurant and had a splendid time (I was not invited).
It is a shame to see them go but I can understand it, they are all getting very old. I would rather see new reproductions used than those apalling modern contraptions in their place, though there is little chance of that. Given the way the trams are abused by the passengers these days I would rather these ones were restricted to more salubrious routes like the CC (as is the plan).
Incidentally, the tram museum in my own city of Ballarat has several trams dating back to the 1910s and later, and also one of the original trams, a horse drawn Victorian beauty:
http://www.btm.org.au/1.htm

 

[BinkieBaumont]

Here in the Swan River Colony we have the rather Chi Chi "Tram" which runs on tyres for tourists"