> On 5 Apr 2021, at 10:05 am, Mal Rowe mal.rowe@...> wrote:

>

>

> The L was built by James Moore and Co. The company was a large timber merchant based in City Rd South Melbourne and were the first company to build electric trams in Melbourne.

>

> They were very proud of their work and their timber - using the highest quality and the most complex joints to show it at its best. They aimed to impress - firstly with what became the B class and then the Ls.

>

> Those joints were largely due to the complex curves in the body. See the pic attached, showing the drop centre of L 103 at MTPA, Haddon.


That high quality carpentry is a legacy from building wood bodied road coaches that were robust enough not to self-dismantle when weight was a consideration for horse drawn vehicles operating on rough roads.

My #2 son Rory has recently finished a carpentry and cabinet making apprenticeship where he was fortunate to learn a lot of the old techniques as his boss did a lot of restoration and accurate reproduction of older furniture, shop fittings etc.

And just a comment regarding the never built Adelaide F class - I note the 27G trucks in the drawing have magnetic track brakes, an interesting feature on a large four motor car when air brakes were generally the preferred option.

Tony