>Has Sydney's scrubber tram 134s always been green and gold?
I'll have to look up some references to be certain, but the answer is
probably no.
134s was converted from a D class car, one of the earliest electric
classes in Sydney. The C and D class cars were small 4 wheel cars and
as usage on the growing Sydney electric system increased, they rapidly
proved inadequate for the traffic on offer, leading to the operation
of C+C and C+D coupled sets and the introduction of larger cars of the
E, F, G and N class and eventually the O class cars.
The C and D cars were withdrawn from normal traffic duties reasonably
early and formed the core of the original (non-ballast motor) service
stock fleet. As such their entry into service duties would have
almost certainly pre-dated the circa 1930s green and cream colour
scheme. After the green and cream colour scheme was introduced, over
time most of the "ex-passenger" service vehicles were repainted in it.
The C and D class cars continued to form the core of the service stock
fleet until the 1950s when a number of incidents involving failures
when performing service functions resulted in a number of newer cars
from the O and K classes being rebuilt for services duties to replace
the, by then, vintage C and D class cars. The most spectacular of
these incidents occurred at Neutral Bay when the end was pulled out of
a breakdown car (an ex-D class I think) when it was trying to haul out
a failed passenger tram.
Cheers,
Bill
Bill Bolton billbolton@acslink.net.au
Sydney, Australia