Re: W5s and W7s
Greg King
Sunday, August 26, 2001 2:12 AM
Hi Bill,
As promised to Peter, here's some pix of the cars (over a couple of
E-mails), the first is one of the infamous (derailment prone) CW5's,
followed by W5 736, this is their most basic form with the only change being
the addition of the extra dash lights of the 70's (particularly ugly on the
W2's), this and 774 were the last cars to keep their square cab windows,
from the late 50's on, only the w6 type cab were prefabricated so, when
accident damaged or to far gone from weather damage, an end would be
replaced, many cars had one end of each, even after minor overhauls, it was
only during major overhauls and the subsequent rebuildings of the 80's that
the ends were made the same on those cars so effected. Car 774 is the only
car preserved in original condition (thought 792 in Sydney will be) in
Melbourne and this was my favourite car to run, it never seemd to get flats
and it was a South melbourne depot car all it's life. The next shot is SW5
758 as rebuilt with sliding doors in the 80's, the cars were completely
modernised inside but the only external change was the doors and the colour
scheme, the program never did do all the W5's and today, there is a pile of
brand new Aluminium doors in undercoat, in a pile at the workshops as spares
for the 53 heritage cars. The sad part was, after all this work was done
from 1983-86, they were all gone by the early 80s, with the exception of 728
which is in the City circle fleet, at least one of all subtypes of the
SW5,SW6,W6and W7 are represented in the City Circle fleet, Most of the cars
of the W5 class had EEQ2CK1 controllers, locally known as Clydes (who built
them under licence), these were fitted to cars 720-740,
742-749,752-784,787-796, these were either love or hate controllers, I loved
them! Pete, if you want to see one, the controllers and brakes I brokered
for SF Muni, has one in with all the K35's for back up controllers for the
Witts. ex-CW5 681-685 originally had K-36 controllers, replaced with the
trucks by RC-2 controllers. 740-741 had WH VA controls replaced by RC2's in
the 40's whilst 750-751 had the more reliable GE PCM control, not replaced
by RC2's until 1977. Cars 797-803 and 808-838 had RC1 controls whilst
804-807 and 839 had RC2 control, the RC1 and RC2 were identical to look at
and to operate, the differences were underneathe and in the motor cut-outs.
All cars after these had RC2 control, more next mail.
Greg
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As promised to Peter, here's some pix of the cars (over a couple of
E-mails), the first is one of the infamous (derailment prone) CW5's,
followed by W5 736, this is their most basic form with the only change being
the addition of the extra dash lights of the 70's (particularly ugly on the
W2's), this and 774 were the last cars to keep their square cab windows,
from the late 50's on, only the w6 type cab were prefabricated so, when
accident damaged or to far gone from weather damage, an end would be
replaced, many cars had one end of each, even after minor overhauls, it was
only during major overhauls and the subsequent rebuildings of the 80's that
the ends were made the same on those cars so effected. Car 774 is the only
car preserved in original condition (thought 792 in Sydney will be) in
Melbourne and this was my favourite car to run, it never seemd to get flats
and it was a South melbourne depot car all it's life. The next shot is SW5
758 as rebuilt with sliding doors in the 80's, the cars were completely
modernised inside but the only external change was the doors and the colour
scheme, the program never did do all the W5's and today, there is a pile of
brand new Aluminium doors in undercoat, in a pile at the workshops as spares
for the 53 heritage cars. The sad part was, after all this work was done
from 1983-86, they were all gone by the early 80s, with the exception of 728
which is in the City circle fleet, at least one of all subtypes of the
SW5,SW6,W6and W7 are represented in the City Circle fleet, Most of the cars
of the W5 class had EEQ2CK1 controllers, locally known as Clydes (who built
them under licence), these were fitted to cars 720-740,
742-749,752-784,787-796, these were either love or hate controllers, I loved
them! Pete, if you want to see one, the controllers and brakes I brokered
for SF Muni, has one in with all the K35's for back up controllers for the
Witts. ex-CW5 681-685 originally had K-36 controllers, replaced with the
trucks by RC-2 controllers. 740-741 had WH VA controls replaced by RC2's in
the 40's whilst 750-751 had the more reliable GE PCM control, not replaced
by RC2's until 1977. Cars 797-803 and 808-838 had RC1 controls whilst
804-807 and 839 had RC2 control, the RC1 and RC2 were identical to look at
and to operate, the differences were underneathe and in the motor cut-outs.
All cars after these had RC2 control, more next mail.
Greg
The first W5s were built as CW5 class cars in 1934/35, using equipment
off older cars under new bodies. This was not a success and the build
was truncated after 5 cars. The remainder of the W5 class were built
from new components and the CW5s were later rebuilt to with new
running components as well to make the W5 class total 125 cars.
The W5s originally had three centre doorways, two wide and one narrow,
with pull down weather blinds. The narrow centre doorway (of the
three) was later sealed off and sliding power controlled doors fitted
on most of the class, together with numerous other changes (see
"Destination City" for details).
The W6 and SW6 Cars (150 cars in total) were built new with the two
large doorways with sliding power doors and also incorporated other
niceties such as helical gearing and resilient wheels for quieter
operation.
The W7s (40 cars) were built specifically for the second Bourke St
tram route. Cable trams, Melbourne's last, had been taken off the
Bourke St route in 1940 and replaced by double deck busses. This was
not a success and in 1956 a brand new electric tram route was opened
to replace the busses. The W7s are very similar to the W6 cars with a
few modern construction refinements added. A further 30 W7 cars were
ordered and construction had started when the order was cancelled,
some of the components finding their way into W6 rebuilds.
Again see Destination City" for details.
In summary, W5 class (mostly) ended up looking like W6 and W7 classes
through rebuilding in the 1980s but started with different doors and
more primitive fit out.
Cheers,
Bill
Bill Bolton
Sydney, Australia
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