The railway and tramway workshops in Sydney did the same during WW2.

Tony P

On Wednesday, 29 March 2023 at 14:08:45 UTC+11 Mal Rowe wrote:

> On 29/03/2023 11:55, Mark Skinner wrote:

> > ... there ought to be a lot more support for the design and

> > construction of trams, trains, buses locally as part of a reconsidered

> > approach to defence.

>

>

> I won't engage in the speculation about China, but this comment from

> Mark lines up with some research that Warren Doubleday and I are doing

> on the impact of WW2 on the MMTB.

>

> Once war broke out, the MMTB turned over their workshops for war

> production while still maintaining their tram and bus fleets.

>

> They also manufactured spare parts for buses as they were not able to be

> imported.

>

> In addition they built 54 new trams and 144 bus bodies during WW2.

>

> An article in the Melbourne Tram Museum's "Bellcord" magazine describes

> the construction of what I called the 'emergency tramways' during that

> period.

>

> See: https://www.hawthorntramdepot.org.au/downloads/bellcord/bc-042.pdf

>

> Mal Rowe - learning from history

>

>