Here are two Sydney PR1 trams with Tomlinson couplers.

http://tdu.to/i/39837 http://tdu.to/i/39837?size=d

Noel Reed.

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From:TramsDownUnder@... [mailto:TramsDownUnder@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Tuesday, 10 October 2017 1:47 PM
To:TramsDownUnder@...
Subject: Re: [TramsDownUnder] Sydney R1 1958 with Brisbane trucks.

They could have fixed uneven wear by turning the car on the Ft Macquarie loop every couple of days. It’s possible the spider or flange on the axle hub that the resilient blocks and tyres were attached to fouled the check rails too.

Does anyone have a pic of a Brisbane resilient wheelset with the parts visible ?

And speaking of tramcar design, the latest (August) Trolley Wire has an article, reprinted from the March 1930 issue of “Electrical Engineer of Australia and New Zealand”, about the Melbourne Y1s. With electro-pneumatic controls and brakes it seems the cars only needed Tomlinson couplers for MU operation, though the article doesn’t mention that potential.

What I think is a strong clue as to why more of these cars weren’t built is in the title of the article : “TRAMCAR OF NEW TYPE FOR MELBOURNE - Large Car for Two-man or One-man Operation”.

It isn’t any wonder then, at the onset of the Depression, that the union was suspicious of a front entrance design like the Y/Y1.

Tony G

On 10 Oct 2017, at 1:13 pm, 'Noel Reed'noelreed10@... [TramsDownUnder] TramsDownUnder@...> wrote:

I understand that the Brisbane resilient wheels did not take kindly to Sydney’s standard raised check rails on curves.

The use of R1 1858 on the Circular Quay - Railway loop could have meant that the tram ran on a preponderance of left hand curves which could have given rise to excessive wheel wear on one side.

Noel Reed.