Melbourne suburban electric multiple unit train
The Tait trains were a wooden bodied electric multiple unit (EMU) train that operated on the suburban railway network of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. They were introduced in 1910 by the Victorian Railways as steam locomotive hauled cars, and converted to electric traction from 1919 when the Melbourne electrification project was underway. The trains derived their name from Sir Thomas James Tait, the chairman of commissioners of the Victorian Railways from 1903 to 1910. The first cars were built during 1909 with the last entering service in 1952.
Tait trains were initially referred to as "Sliding Door" trains, as opposed to the Swing Door trains then in service. From the 1950s, they became known as Reds or Red Rattlers, following the introduction of the blue-painted Harris trains.
Layout.
Tait trains had a partly open saloon layout, with bench seats running across the train, the saloon being divided by partitions into a number of smaller areas. Each seating aisle was provided with its own exterior sliding door.
Incandescent lighting, a ceiling with pressed tin patterns, luggage racks above head height, and beautifully stained woodgrain walls were fitted inside each compartment. Interiors were split into smoking and no-smoking compartments until late 1978 with the abolition of smoking on trains, and carriages were designated as first or second class until 1958 when one class suburban travel was introduced.
The exterior of the trains were of two main styles: the original cars had a clerestory roof, and those built from the late 1920s onward had a simpler arched roof.
From 1971, the interior was simplified to cut maintenance costs, with some doorway windows being replaced by metal and plywood, and the wooden louvred sun blinds being removed. The motor bogies on the trains were originally of pressed steel construction, being changed for a new design in cast steel in the 1930s.
In service.
Pre-electrification.
The production of Tait carriages began before electrification, with the intention that the necessary electrical equipment would be retrofitted when necessary.
The carriages were grouped as the P type, with codes like ACP indicating that there was a passageway connecting most of the compartments, rather than the older carriage style with each compartment isolated from its neighbours. In the 1910 recoding project, the P was changed to a normal-size, normal-font letter, i.e. ACP. However, most diagrams show the raised letter with the newer code, perhaps because they were drawn during the construction phase, around the same time as the recoding was being planned.
All carriages were roughly long over the buffers, high, and wide, although there was some variation. All compartments were linked with a through-corridor, though internal sliding doors were placed three compartments from one end. The carriages were not initially marked "Smoking" or "Non-Smoking".
ACP, AP, BCP, BP.
Initial construction saw 48 ACP cars, 62 AP, 18 BCP and 62 BP carriages built in the period 1910 to 1913. The AP and BP carriages were of identical design, with capacity for 92 passengers each across nine compartments, except that the second-class BP carriages had lower-quality seating. Similarly, the ACP and BCP cars shared a design in every way other than the seating. Those carriages were fitted with eight compartments for 82 passengers, and the ninth compartment was re-purposed for a train guard, and fitted with a raised cupola for the sighting of signals.
From 1915, more carriages were constructed as the electrification project gathered pace and requirements were locked in. Further ACP carriages 49–106, and BCP carriages 19–80 were constructed in 1915–1916. However, they did not have the standard carriage bogies, but were fitted with plate-framed bogies intended for the later fitting of traction motors. The cars also varied in having a well in the roof designed to accommodate a pantograph. That gives a rough indication of when the decision was made to proceed with a 1500V DC overhead wiring system for Melbourne's electrification, as opposed to earlier proposals to use a third rail.
Conversions for electrification.
Conversion of Tait cars for electrification started in 1917, in preparation for trials and driver training on the Flemington Racecourse line, and later on the Sandringham line.
Some carriages were stored after conversion, awaiting traffic requirements. It is thought that those vehicles were held until around 1919/1920.
The converted carriages kept their existing codes, but with D, M or T appended, indicating Driver's compartment, Motor car (with drivers compartment) or Trailer. However, in 1921, the system was regarded as too complex, and coding was simplified, with all motored and driving carriages becoming second class, and all trailers becoming first class.
The conversion program was completed in 1922.
Driving motors—ACPM, BCPM, M.
From 1917 through to 1921, ACP and BCP carriages were withdrawn from steam service in preparation for electrification. The carriages which were fitted with traction motors had been built with that in mind, having heavier underframes, bogies designed to support the motors, and a well in the roof to allow a pantograph to be fitted.
Seventeen of the ACP 49–106 range were recoded to ACPM. From 1916 on, a further 26 ACPM cars were built, bringing the fleet to 45. However, the entire class was recoded M in 1921, being given numbers 201M to 284M.
Similarly, 28 of the BCP cars in the range 19–80 were recoded to BCPM and, in 1916, the class grew by 30 units. In the 1921 renumbering, the ex-BCP/BCPM class became 294M-385M.
Additional M cars, 285–293 and 386–411, were built new in 1922. Further cars, with curved roofs, were built in 1925 and 1926, taking numbers 412M–441M. 442M and 443M were rebuilt from 18M and 44M, former Swing-door motors. Those cars ended up having the thinner Swing-door underframe with the larger Tait body, giving them a rather unbalanced look. The carriages entered service in 1936. Following that, 444M through 461M were built in the period 1944–1949, and the last of them entered service in 1951.
In 1968, four motors, 300M, 398M, 244M and 397M were modified to include driving cab at both ends, taking on new numbers 470M–473M. They were mainly used on the Eltham to Hurstbridge and the Alamein lines, where even a two-car set could not be justified at off-peak times.
In 1979, the deliveries of the new Hitachi fleet were catching up with the Tait numbering block, so some carriages were renumbered, using numbers that were not in use. That started with the gap 462M–469M and 474M–499M, and later cars took numbers of Tait motor cars previously scrapped. By 1983, deliveries of the Comeng fleet made even that measure insufficient, so the 19x remaining Motors had the prefix "1" added to their numbers: e.g. 383M became 1383M.
Parcel motors CM.
In 1921, a decision was made to supplement the mail/newspaper distribution fleet with double-ended motor cars, having the interior of a typical bogie guards' van of the CE/CW/CV types.
Coaches 1CM and 2CM entered service in 1921, with a capacity of 25 tons each. In 1923, they were joined by a third vehicle, 3CM. That was partially paid for by the Electrical Engineering Branch, with a modified design featuring a centre cupola for viewing of the overhead wires. 3CM was run with the normal fleet, but was made available for overhead wire inspection if and when required. CMs 4 and 5 entered service in 1925 and 1926 respectively, both using the new arch/curved roof style between their two cupolas.
The fleet was used for cash transport, and as a staff-only taxi service for the use of crew members scheduled to start work between 3am and 5am (before the regular services started operating).
Extra coaches were built from the mid-1950s using former Swing Door carriages.
The parcels coach traffic dried up in 1988 when a railways' policy change saw a switch to road transport. Correspondence to stations is now delivered on a few select trains per week, noted in advance.
Driving trailers—ACPD, BCPD, D.
When planning the initial electrification project, it was expected that some lines could be operated with single-carriage or two-carriage trains instead of requiring a full consist. The single-carriage, double-ended motors were sourced from the Swing Door fleet, although some Driving Trailer carriages were sourced from the Tait fleet. While it was initially thought that around twenty of those carriages would be needed for service, only eleven were converted in the early stages of the electrification project.
In the first half of 1921, six ACP carriages (16–17, 23, 92–93 and 52) and five BCP carriages (2–3, 8–9 and 18) were rewired and recoded with a "D" appended. New identities for the ACPD series were 1–2, 8, 10–12, while the BCPD cars kept their old numbers of 2–3, 8–9 and 18.
In 1922, following the simplification of the classification system, the last of the three ACPD cars were converted to M motorised carriages 244, 245 and 204 in 1922. They had previously been heavier-underframe carriages. The remaining eight driving trailers were recoded to D 201–202 and 208 (ex ACPD) and 211, 204–207 (ex BCPD) respectively. Further conversions direct from ACP and BCP carriages saw the class rise to eighteen D carriages, numbered 201–218.
In 1940, carriage 244T, originally 44AP, was converted to driving trailer 225D.
"Ringer" Trailers, T.
The 48 lighter-framed ACP and BCP carriages not converted to driving trailers were known as "Ringer" trailer cars. The guard's compartment equipment was removed and the larger area was made available to passengers, often being used by those with prams or extra luggage. The compartment was identifiable by the lack of the word "GUARD", and a white circle painted on the door. The circle indicated to crew members that the vans were not fitted with a handbrake or emergency brake taps, normally found in carriages with the raised-profile roof of the guards' compartment.
The Ringer trailers had formerly been ACP 15, 19–22, 24–48 and BCP 1, 4–7 and 121–133 (ex. ACP 1–13). They took the number range 263T to 286T (ex ACP 25–48), 349T to 361T (ex ACP 1–13, later BCP 121–143), 362T to 367T (ex ACP 15, 19–22, 24) and 368T–372T (ex BCP 1 and 4–7).
From 1926 to 1927, the first batch of Ringer Trailer to Driving Trailer conversions were made, with trailers 365 and 368–372 converted to 224D, 219D, 220D, 221D, 222D and 223D.
From 1965 to 1972, all bar two of the remaining Ringer trailers (349T and 350T) were converted to full Driving Trailers and coded randomly into the range 226D–265D.
Trailers—APT, BPT, T.
The plain trailer carriages were converted for electric traction between 1919 and 1922. That involved removal of the then-standard gas lighting and refitting with electric lighting, as well as through jumper cable connections for the driving and motor cars operating at each end.
The T fleet comprised the original 124 AP and BP carriages.
The AP fleet was initially relettered to APT, and the BP fleet to BPT. When the classes were simplified in 1921, only 39 APT and 28 BPT cars had been refitted with the required electrical equipment. Further conversions were straight from AP/BP to T. From 1922 on, ex-AP cars had 200 added to their numbers to indicate the Tait/Sliding door fleet; for example 37AP became 37APT then 237T. The ex-BP cars were renumbered into the range 287–348, keeping the sequence i.e. 1BP became 287T and 62BP became 348T.
Additional carriages were built, numbers T380 to T400 in 1922, T401–424 in 1926, and T427–T442 between 1944 and 1952.
As noted above, trailer 244T was converted to driving trailer 225D. This happened in 1940.
288T was temporarily recoded to second class, with a G car's shunting/braking equipment, in 1954.
Experimental Trailer 201BT.
As a testbed for the new Harris cars then being developed, the body of incomplete 441T was reworked to a more modern design and released into service in 1950, with three sets of doors per side. The car was coded 201BT, and lasted in service until 1984.Film 368 – 6/1975Film 490 – 1/1976
Internally, the car was divided into three second-class compartments; the outer two at a little under 17 ft across and the middle compartment at a little under 23 ft. One compartment was reserved for smokers until 1976, when smoking was abolished on the suburban network.
The car went through a number of changes in seating arrangements and door types (and post-76, internal partitions), with seated capacity ranging from 70 to 90 (73 being the most commonly quoted figure) and 164–175 standing passengers in crush load conditions. Initially the vehicle featured three sets of double-leaf sliding doors per side, with 2 windows either end and 6 windows between each set of doors. Later, the outer sliding doors were