MMTB L Class Tram No. 103

The L class stands at the join between Melbourne’s tramway-trust era and the unified Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board. Six cars, numbered 101 to 106, were ordered by the Prahran and Malvern Tramways Trust in 1919 but delivered after the MMTB had absorbed the trusts. No. 103 was built in 1921 by Melbourne timber merchants and coachbuilders James Moore & Sons Pty Ltd.

As built, the L class had a four-doorway dropcentre section — closer in layout to Adelaide practice than to what became the Melbourne standard. The Board rebuilt the dropcentres in the early 1930s along W2 lines, and in the 1940s the dropcentre floor was raised slightly to even out the step heights. In this progressively standardised form the class soldiered on for six decades.

When 103 was retired in May 1982 it had run a recorded 1,793,116 miles in Melbourne service — a figure that says as much about the durability of the timber-bodied Melbourne tram as any technical description could. The Board kept its GE247 motors and DH16 compressor as spares for the W-series fleet, so the car came to Haddon incomplete.

The volunteers’ solution was adaptive: the Brill 77E trucks were modified to take MV101 motors from parts-donor W2 222, a replacement DH16 compressor was sourced, and in December 2002 the car moved under its own power again. Restoration was completed in March 2008, returning 103 to its appearance of the late 1950s and early 1960s — green window pillars, gold pinstriping, numbers beside the headlights and logos on the saloon panels. The work was recognised with a COTMA Achievement Award at the 2008 conference in Launceston.

Technical Details

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