Victorian Railways Bogie Tram No. 41
Melbourne’s tramway history is not only the story of the Metropolitan Tramways Board. The Victorian Railways ran two electric street tramways of their own, and No. 41 is a survivor of the better known of them — the broad-gauge line from St Kilda to Brighton Beach. Built at the railways’ Newport Workshops, 41 entered service in February 1923, one of twenty 44-foot bogie dropcentre cars constructed between 1917 and 1923 for the two railway tramways.
No. 41 spent its whole working life on the St Kilda–Brighton Beach line, surviving until the last months before the line closed early in 1959. Stripped of its trucks and electrical gear, the body was sold off and spent nineteen years as a tool shed in a backyard in New Street, Brighton — a fate shared by many tram bodies of the era, and usually a terminal one.
The Haddon group acquired the body in 1977 and trucked it to their site in October that year. The path back to working order was long. Fittings came from sister cars 28 and 37; a set of Brill 77E trucks bought from a Corowa scrapyard proved surplus and went to New Zealand; and in 1982 Melbourne L-class tram 105 was obtained largely because its equipment — imported K35 controllers and standard-gauge Brill 77E trucks — matched what the railway trams had carried.
After twenty-four years in the queue, 41 went to Bendigo in October 2001, where its roof and missing bulkhead were rebuilt. What began as structural repair grew, with careful costing and heavy member participation, into a full restoration: body work in Bendigo, while controllers, compressor, line breaker and other equipment were overhauled at Haddon. On 27 September 2004 the car moved under its own power for the first time in forty-six years, and in March 2005 it was formally recommissioned at the Bendigo depot before returning to Haddon that April.
The project cost over $130,000, funded by donations, parts sales and corporate support for signwriting, safety glass and cabling. It was a landmark: the first electric tram body in Victoria brought back from derelict, scrapped condition to full working order by a museum group, and the first former Victorian Railways tram returned to operation. The restoration earned a COTMA Excellence and Recognition Award in 2006 and a high commendation in the ATHRA restoration awards.
Technical Details
| Builder | Victorian Railways, Newport Workshops |
|---|---|
| Entered service | 3 February 1923 |
| Type | 44 ft bogie dropcentre tram, broad gauge |
| Route | St Kilda to Brighton Beach street railway |
| Withdrawn | 31 December 1958 |
| Arrived at Haddon | 26 October 1977 |
| Returned to operation | 13 March 2005 (recommissioned at Bendigo) |
| Trucks | Brill 77E pattern (ex L 105) |
| Controllers | General Electric K35 (imported pattern) |