MMTB W2 Class Tram No. 407
W2 407 is, on the surface, the most ordinary tram at Haddon — a stock-standard W2 of the mid-1920s. Its survival, though, turns on a single evening in February 1972, when it collided with a cement truck at the corner of Dandenong Road and Chapel Street. One end was wrecked; remarkably, the car drove itself to Preston Workshops for assessment.
The truck insurer’s payout funded an unusually thorough rebuild, undertaken as an apprentice training project. Withdrawn sister car W2 259 gave up its chassis, roof structure and other components to reconstruct the damaged end — nominally a routine overhaul in the car records, in practice something closer to a full rebuild. Before returning to traffic, 407 received the multiple head and tail light clusters characteristic of Melbourne trams from the early 1970s.
Withdrawal came in January 1982 after a recorded 2,523,134 kilometres, and the car reached Haddon the following month. It arrived without trucks and was mounted on the trucks of parts-donor W2 499, whose defective No. 4 motor needed replacement before 407 could run.
One detail endears 407 to enthusiasts: its British Thompson Houston 265D motors, long favoured for their fast running and distinctive sound. The car has been restored as it appeared in its final years of service — a representative of the W2 in its long, workmanlike maturity rather than its 1920s youth. Its restoration was completed in December 1994.
Technical Details
| Builder | MMTB, Preston Workshops |
|---|---|
| Entered service | 5 October 1926 |
| Length | 14.59 m (47 ft 10½ in) |
| Width | 2.74 m (9 ft 0 in) |
| Weight | 16.52 tonnes |
| Seated passengers | 52 |
| Trucks | MMTB No. 1A, 26½ in tyred wheels |
| Traction motors | 4 × 30 kW British Thompson Houston 265D |
| Controllers | General Electric K35JJ |
| Compressor | General Electric CP27 |
| Distance in service | 2,523,134 km |
| Withdrawn | 12 January 1982 |
| Arrived at Haddon | 18 February 1982 |
| Restoration completed | December 1994 |