Grand Prix Tram Observations

[Gareth Lumsden <s9763278@minyos.its.rmit.edu.au>]

It seems the whole tram system was turned inside out!
All my observations listed were made today, Sun-7-3-99.
I'm going to try and make this as brief as possible:

HILLSIDE & BAYSIDE TRAINS:
Six car trains on all lines except Upfield (And Alamein &
Williamstown shuttles).  Running to a Saturday timetable (not much help to
passengers beyond Ringwood)

YARRA TRAMS:
1.  GP Express shuttles & services to Clarendon St, consisted of A & B
class trams.
2.  Route 75 used all A class trams (including the new Intel Pentium 3
liveried 237).  Route 48 as usual.  All terminated at Flind/Spencer Sts
cnr.
3.  Route 96 was Melb Bus Link buses from Spencer/Bourke Sts cnr, and Kew
depot A class trams from the City to E.Brunswick.
4.  Route 86 was all Preston depot Z3's. (Only showing Bundoora, instead
of Bundoora RMIT).  Z3's were by far inadequate to carry all passengers       
and were Crush load full leaving Spencer St, without picking up passengers
from the rest of the City stops.
5.  Route 12 was replaced with MBL buses for the whole way.
6.  City Circle's were shunting at Flinders & Swanston Sts, returning
towards Spring St. AFAIK, they only reached LaTrobe & Swanston Sts, before
shunting again & returning to Flinders St.

SWANSTON TRAMS:
I give ST credits for organising of rollingstock, but not logistics.  A
tram load of passengers & I were "yelled at" & I mean "rudely yelled at"
by a ST employee to get off the tram, becuase they wanted to shunt it to
go back into the city.
There was a HUGE queue of trams in Swanston St (about 4 city blocks)
waiting to shunt & return to St Kilda Rd after the race had ended.
AFAIK Only one tram shunted at the Signal box, all others used LaTrobe St
and Lt Lonsdale St Xovers.
Anyway...
1.  Most Elizabeth St services were formed by Z3's, only a handful of
route 19's used B2's.  I caught Z3.197 (Weis livery, with a pole) to North 
Coburg and back.  I also caught two panto equipped Z3's to & from Essendon
Depot (route 59, usually B2's).
2.  Williams St route 55 services used mostly Z3's.  There were some route
    33 services using B2's.  (Domain Interchange to Peel St shunt [near
    Vic Market])
3.  Most / all Swanston St routes ran as normal, except all / most
terminated at La Trobe St.  Route 1 ran as normal.  Route 22 shuttles
(from Moreland/Brunswick Depot connecting with route 1 at Holmes St,
normal Sat/Sun workings) used Z1's!!! Z1's 100, 73, & 27(panto) were seen.
Services to Melb Uni (replacing normal workings), used B2's returning from
the GP track.  There were more B2's in Swanston St / St Kilda Rd than
Z/W's!!.  All available B's from Brunswick and Essendon depots ran on St
Kilda Rd (hence lack of B's of Eliz.St).

--------

Wierd workings (working from 'temporary' depots for the GP) of painted
advertising trams include:
* A1.237 (Intel) on route 75 (instead of route 70)
* Z3.220 (iMac) on route 59 (Essendon depot) yesterday, (back at              
    Glenhuntly today)
* B2.2014 (Ford Aus Open) - St Kilda Rd
* B2.2100 (Zoo) - St Kilda Rd (working from Brunswick depot, ex Essendon)
* B2.2112 (Nokia) - St Kilda Rd
* Z3.197 (Weis) on route 19 (ex Malvern depot)
* Z3.204 (Camry) on route 22 (ex  Malvern depot)
* Z3.160 (City of Melb) stabled in Essendon Depot (ex Brunswick)

Of course, HEAPS of Green & Yellow trams were transposed between depots,
but I don't know which depot 'owns' what trams!                               

Gareth.


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              Gareth Lumsden,   RMIT University Student
         E-MAIL (text only) : s9763278@minyos.its.rmit.edu.au
           E-MAIL (secondary account) : glums112@yahoo.com
 GARETH'S RAILWAY WEB PAGE:  http://minyos.its.rmit.edu.au/~s9763278
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