Melbourne tram history now preserved at PROV

More than 1,300 plans used to construct and maintain Melbourne’s tramcar fleet have recently been transferred to the Victorian Archives Centre from the Melbourne Tram Museum (located in Hawthorn). The Museum previously had long-term custody of these VicTrack records. PROV wishes to thank the Museum volunteers for having taken great care in managing this extensive piece of Melbourne tram history. 

“Since 1885, Melbourne has been one of the world’s great tramway cities,” says the Museum website. 

What began with horse drawn then cable cars, trams in Melbourne went electric in 1906 with continuous improvements to tram infrastructure since. 

Each of the tramcar plans transferred to PROV, of which there are broadly four different sizes, detail elements of various tramcars from 1919 through to 1997. 

The plans come in three varieties: linen tracings, prints and pencil drawings on tracing paper, representing all stages of the tramcar design and improvement process. Drawings were initially prepared in pencil on tracing paper. An inked copy on linen was then traced from the pencil drawing. The pencil copy was then usually destroyed, but some survived if they were not subsequently traced in ink. The linen tracings were amended as design alterations were made, therefore the linen tracings represent the final version of the drawing, which may have changed in either subtle or major ways from when they were originally prepared.
 

The first plan above shows a smoker’s compartment designed for the SW2 tramcar back in 1956, with a design for the class W7 located beneath it in the plastic file. 

The SW2 class of tram was a 1938 variation of the W2 design with sliding doors, while the W7, built to replace buses down Bourke Street, had a sound-proof body and upholstered seats.  

This L class car plan (below) shows a detailed door design, taken from the class W trams, for the motorman’s compartment emergency door. Interestingly, the L class were the first trams to have four motors.
 

These general arrangement bogie car designs (below) for the W class show detailed sketches of the side, front and back sections, with a seating capacity of 52. The date on these reads 22.11.35.
 

Other plans within the series include details of decorated tramcars for centenary celebrations, advertising strip panels and varying seat arrangements through the years. 
 

Now stored in specialised map drawers and shelving in the climate-controlled repository at the Victorian Archives Centre, these plans are available for researchers to order for viewing in the North Melbourne reading room, with more tramcar plans and digitised copies expected to be added to the collection over time. 

Order the records by visiting the tramcar fleet plans series page.