Footscray [Was: TMSV # 57]
  Mal Rowe

On 01/08/2020 11:39, David Batho wrote:
> In relation to the Footscray photo, did the Footscray lines allow

> bogie cars, or was the “Footscray System” operated as a separate

> system as it could only handle four-wheelers?

>

HI David,

The Footscray system was not physically connected to the main system
from its opening in 1920 until being eventually connected in 1954.

It mainly served local traffic as a feeder to the railways station until
WW2 when the Ballarat Rd line and an extension up Gordon St carried huge
loads of workers running 24 hour shifts at the munitions factory in
Gordon St.  Until that event, the single truckers were adequate for the
loading.

In preparation for the connection  to Moonee Ponds in 1954 a bogie car
was transferred to Footscray to test clearances, but I suspect it was
only tested on the route from Footscray station to Gordon St - where the
new line connected.

When that connection was opened, the route fro Moonee Ponds to Footscray
was run from Essendon Depot using bogie cars, although an occasional
single trucker ran through at the end of shifts at the munitions
factories and probably on some football days.

An analysis of the Footscray tramways is available on the Melbourne Tram
Museum website at:

http://www.hawthorntramdepot.org.au/papers/footscray.htm

There's also an article I wrote last year about the wartime operations
in the MTM journal Bellcord.  It's at:

http://www.hawthorntramdepot.org.au/downloads/bellcord/bc-042.pdf

Mal Rowe - who lives not far from the Footscray trams but never saw or
rode them in single truck days.