International Railroad Discussion > Wide variety of Melbourne trams

Melbourne Australia has the world's largest tram network. Most of us who are not natives of Australia tend to think only of the classic W-class cars retired examples of which can be found in many cities especially in the United States.

I spent a day in Melbourne recently and had the opportunity to observe their system and was impressed by how many different classes of trams were running in service. First a set of photos that document some of the few remaining W-class cars still in service:

#1: A W tram in traditional green and cream
#2: Some of the W trams in service on the circle line in the CBD wear a special maroon livery
#3: Several retired W trams have been converted to restaurant cars for the Colonial Tramcar Restaurant service. BTW lunch or dinner on the latter is a must while in Melbourne.

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And now for examples of other classes of trams -- some date back to the 70s while others are much newer. And they were manufactured by a wide variety of builders.

#4: a Z3 class tram built locally by Commonwealth engineering
#5: an A2 class tram also built by Comeng
#6: a B2 class tram built by Comeng/ABB

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And now for some modern trams

#7: a C1 class tram -- a Citadis built by Alstom
#8: a D2 class tram built by Siemens (Combino)
#9: an E class tram built by Bombardier (Flexity)

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Melbourne certainly deserves the title "Tram City".
Thanks for posting all of the interesting photos.
ALLEN

I was fortunate to spend a week in Melbourne in October 2016 and had a wonderful time shooting pix of the trams. I got directions to a downtown RR bookstore, where I purchased an excellent book on the system. It truly is a remarkable network, with high patronage. At some points, you can easily see a dozen trams at the same time.
I bought a day pass and spent one whole day riding the various lines through the city. I don't think I ever traveled a line twice! I had hoped to eat on the restaurant tram (which one of your pix shows), but was unable to track it down. It runs on different lines on different days, as I recall. Service within the downtown CBD is free.
The Melbourne suburban train system is also quite impressive, with trains operating from four downtown stations. These are 5'-3" gauge. Some lines are electrified, with others having diesel power, including both locomotive hauled trains and MUs. Southern Cross station on the west side hosts the standard gauge long distance services. It has the only dual gauge track I've ever seen where standard gauge is the narrow gauge! Flinders Street Station on the south side is a class old Victorian era pile.
Melbourne is truly a remarkable city, and lots of fun to visit. I'd happily go back any time. Nearby, and accessible by suburban service, is the famous Puffing Billy, a meticulously well preserved and very busy 2'-6" gauge line in the foothills. But, that's a story for another thread.

No pix of Melb trams are complete without a view of Flinders St Station.

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I was in Melbourne a few years ago and was astonished by how many streetcar lines there are downtown -- it seemed that about every other street, both N-S and E-W, had streetcar tracks. And these weren't any of those new-fangled light rail things either! It really is traditional streetcar heaven.

Gordon

And yes, you can't leave out Flinders St. Station.

Gentlemen:

You are so correct about Flinders Street Station -- so much so it's worthy of photographing even if there is no tram in sight.

So here are two more views of Flinders street with and without tram

WP17

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Gotta love Melbourne! Man, it makes me want to go back!
Pic 1) The trams there run like, well, streetcars!
Pic 2) Not every line is in the street, though. This R-O-W parallels La Trobe Street.
Pic 3) Here's something to give the FRA fits! A tram-suburban rail crossing, with probably 100+ movements on each line daily, and both double track. The interlocking also routes the power to the common catenary crossing of the two lines. The tram system uses a different voltage than the suburban system.

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