Historic Tram Restoration (Perth, Australia)

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Hi all,

 

One of my other pass times besides my JP trains is volunteering at my local tramway preservation group. We are based in Whiteman Park in Perth, Western Australia. 

 

Over the last 12 months, myself and a small group of volunteers have been working on restoring a 1929 Adelaide H-Type Tram - number 372. It was gifted to us nearly 18 years ago and, for the most part, has been sitting in storage. Unfortunately not many of the volunteers were too interested in doing anything with her, or her sister tram - 371. As I grew up in Adelaide, I took the task on with one other member to get 372 back to operating condition.

 

As we made progress, some more of the younger volunteers began to take an interest and have been helping. 

 

Our biggest issue was that during refurbishment by their operator at the time, many of the systems were upgraded. As a part of that, a (Very poorly designed) inverter was installed. This was our biggest hurdle as we could not work out why we could get it to work. Without it, none of the control systems would operate and hence, no traction power. Thankfully we were able to reach out to other preservation groups in Australia for assistance, which was invaluable.

 

Happily for myself and the others, after I rebuilt the inverter and replaced some components (with no real previous electrical experience mind you), we got it working. And on September 25th, 372 moved under her own power for the first time in 18 years! This has been a great milestone for us, as coming up on December 8th, the new Transperth railway line which will serve the park where we are based will be officially opened. The government has, as part of the project, partially rebuilt and extended our tram line to connect with public transport at the new station. This will let people transfer onto our historic trams to travel into the park. Currently there is no transport from outside the park to the attractions within without a car.

 

372 will hopefully join our operative fleet soon and be able to be a part of the celebrations.

 

This tram also has some significance, as it carried the Olympic Torch on its run through South Australia for the Sydney 2000 Games

 

Here is a link to our website with some more images: https://www.petswa.org.au/news/adelaide-tram-372-moves-under-its-own-power-for-the-first-time-in-18-years

(I am the dorky looking fat bloke in the Motorman's Cap!)

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Beautiful work! Kudos!

 

jeff