On 22/12/2012 3:48 PM, Dudley Horscroft wrote:
>

> Looking at those pics made me remember that Melbourne used to have a "Line Marking Car". This was a W2 with arrangements for painting the clearance lines clearly visible between tram and traffic.

It was a conversion from W2 233 and was scrapped in 1986.
> Is the original line marking car still running, if not what? A Z converted for line marking or do they use a truck now, or have it done commercially?

Line marking is not done by a specialised tramway vehicle.
It's handled in the same way as other road markings.

'Tramway special' lane marking is still required - including the yellow lines or occasionally yellow lane separators like those shown in the attached pic.
http://tdu.to/5123_NicholsonSt_28Nov2008.jpg
As you can see, sometimes the separators are concrete and other times plastic.

More recent works have used kerbing - enforcing no crossing by motor vehicles.
For example - in Fitzroy St, St Kilda.
http://tdu.to/3535_FitzroySt_2July2011.JPG

Mal Rowe - who frequently enjoys passing queues of motor cars in a tram priority lane.