Adelaide A Type No 1
This car was built by the then well known Adelaide carriage builder Duncan and Fraser in 1908.
It was the first car used on the newly electrified Adelaide tramway system when it made a trial run along North Terrace on 30th November 1908.
Naturally, it was the lead car in the official opening procession of the Adelaide electric tramway system to Kensington.
On this occasion it was driven by Mrs T Price, the wife of the Premier of South Australia, under the guidance of Mr William Goodman (later Sir Goodman),
the first cheif engineer and then General Manager of the MTT.
The only major change to this car in it's operational lifetime was when it was permanently coupled to No 2 during World War II as part of a program to conserve manpower.
This lasted until 1950 when it was restored to single operating condition.
All the A Type cars were withdrawn from traffic in May 1952, and most of the bodies were sold.
However, No 1 was retained at Hackney Depot as a shunter until early 1958 when, along with 111 and 192,
it was driven to the Morphettville Racecourse sidings for storage. No 42 joined them there in April.
The four trams were transferred to the Museum site in August, and were slowly restored over the following years.
The work on No 1 was virtually complete when the Museum opened at a static display in July 1967,
and since then it has been at the forefront of Museum openings and operations. It received a thorough refurbishment in 1980,
and had extensive motor repairs in 1998 in time for it's 90th birthday in March 1999.
This tram runs in Operations about once a month.
When not used for Operations it is usually on display in our South Tram Shed.
