Re: W4 672

-Greg,with cast iron shoes there was no such thing as a good braking car,the Clydes were probably the best and they were nothing flash,all cars back in those days stopped much better on rail that had been well and truly washed by heavy rain,I didn't drive W3s much but W4s,as I said didn't stop at all.in Montague St. on the down you'd push the handle through the gate crossing St. Vincents Pl.Sth. and if you had 70 lbs.of air you'd stop easy,60 lbs.and you'd stop half way around the curve,as far as stopping went they were the shithousest of a shithouse bunch and don't get me started on Kew cars.As I said in an earlier post Ferodo shoes made a huge difference,you just couldn't believe how good they were.And as for you ,WGB ,and your snide crack about 77E trucks and curved sides,the Ls were lovely tramcars but they were deadset trundlers fit only for Glenhuntly rest home roads.Further to my hymn of praise to the W2 I did drive some awful slow examples of the class with worn down 26" wheels[maybe castors],come to think of it they were about as mobile as a club lounge,bloody uninspiring and extremely hard work to stay anywhere near time,221 springs to mind before it was consigned to the bottom of 9 road and playcar status[for rerailing practice],there were many others too.I suppose my point was that a good W2 with big,round wheels and BTH motors could not be bettered for performance and FUN.I know they are not handsome,more lean and hungry lookin',but they sure did the job,the extra apron lights really stuffed up their looks,I nearly cried the first time I saw that particular modification,anyway best regards to all,Peter Bruce.-- In TramsDownUnder@y..., "Greg King" <tramway@a...> wrote:

Actually,

it was standard proceedure, I'm sure you'll find Muni #1 and 130 with one
brake shoe per wheel and, if I'm not mistaken, they are 33". All single
truck and max traction cars had it that way too, even the H cars in Adelaide
had it that way, in fact, the big streamlined H1 had two per wheel and it
had a reputation for not stopping, hence it's early retirement, funny
though, when I ran it (flat out) on the Glenelg line (I think I was running
it when WGB turned up) it performed beautifully.

The W2's had one shoe and so on, it was only the advent of the #15 truck in
Melb and Brisbane and the 12/13 in Sydney that "clasp brakes came into their
own. I think the problem with those big W3 and W4 cars were their size, cast
iron shoes and relatively fast, the braking, whilst not brilliant, was not
as bad as perceived (sorry Pete). It SEEMED really bad because the other
cars were so good, even today, Camberwell, has only the un modified B class
and think they are fine, Preston and Southbank have a mixture of those and
the modified cars (actually, from 2052 onwards, they were built with the
better braking) and we absolutely hate those unmodified cars, I would prefer
a Z1 in 40 degree heat than one of those shits!! End of surmon.

Jesus!

Wonder what idiot came up with that. I hope he didn't reproduce.

Bob Murphy

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