Re: [Seattle] Melbourne W2 involved in accident

["Ted Gay" <tedgay@bigpond.com>]

>
> The Brisbane drop-centres were built in the 1920s, there were about 200
> of them. They were large bogie trams much like the Melbourne W2s in
> Seattle. They had a big metal spoked wheel in the cab which the driver
> turned to apply the brakes.

In my experience the Brisbane drop-centres were fitted with a large brass
gooseneck handbrake and not a spoked wheel.  They were quite unlike the W2s
in that they were a two motor tram using a maximum traction bogies with the
unusual arrangement of the pilot wheels leading.

I frequently drove Brisbane drop-centre No. 295, built in 1935, during my
driver training period at STM. 295 had recently been refurbished and was
always available for traffic.  It is a very easy tram to drive with a
responsive air brake. Due to the fact that the hand brake had been designed
as the primary braking system it was easier to use than the hand brake on
other trams were it was intended only as an emergency or parking brake.

> Air brakes were fitted to all later trams and retrofitting of air brakes
> took place slowly with the drop-centres. This retrofitting still wasn't
> finished in the 1960s when the programme was abandoned, though by then
> the hand-brake cars were only used in peak hours.
>
> The last drop-centres ran in service in December 1968 and all Brisbane
> trams were scrapped on April 13 1969 in, as I have said vbefore, the
> biggest act of civic vandalism in Australia's history as this was mostly
> a fine, modern efficient system where the newest trams were only five
> years old at the closure, newer even now than any of the Melbourne W
> classes.
>
> David McLoughlin
> Auckland New Zealand

295 had been trucked to Sydney in October 68 and was running at the old STM
site before all its sisters had been withdrawn from service in Brisbane.

In the book "The Wheels They Spoke To Us",  the oral history of Stan Collins
a London tram driver for thirty years tells of a braking incident. The tram
Stan was driving was fitted with electric braking and a hand brake to bring
the tram to a stop. On one occasion the chain linkage to the hand brake
developed a kink. He couldn't get the brake fully on and nudged the back of
a car creasing the body work. "I was down off the platform quick smart and
told the motorist that if he didn't keep his foot on the brake he would
always be rolling back. You had to do things like that to cover yourself".

Regards....  Ted