Sparks are pretty...

We had some work going on at the depot today - moving towards pantograph compatible overhead wiring in the shed. While the Bendigo tram network is panto compatible, the depot shed is not, which means all panto-fitted trams need to have a trolley pole attached as well. Roads 1-3 at the depot are also panto compatible - apart from the bloody doorframe! argh!

As we are fitting one of our regular service trams (number 34) with a panto, it's basically time to get the shed doorways fixed. While this has been in the works for a while, we're nearly there, so road 4 was fixed up for panto running. The overhead wiring was lowered so that the carbon pickup pans won't interfere with the structure above... except for the 2 or so metres around the door. That will come a bit later.

I was conducting today, so I got to see the work at its various stages, and on one particular trip, the power was shut down so as to get the depot overhead reactivated. We got back to the depot about 15 mins later, and got to watch the scrubber tram running up and down the new work, sparking like... a... bad analogy. Fireworks. There.
Actually, it looked like a welder. Probably as bright too, I had to look away a few times.

It reminded me of my model trams throwing sparks when the wire's shitty and dirty - which is exactly what was making the wire spark (go figure). The burn marks were even visible on the panto for the scrubber tram, which I thought was funny.

Coming soon (hopefully) : fitting the overhead wire through the doors for panto running, before someone forgets to pop the panto down and breaks something very expensive. Seen another driver get way too close to doing it, know others that are petrified of doing it, and come too close to it myself!

Here's a pic of what you don't want your tram to look like:























Broken'd.

Credits to VicSig for the original image.

Driving is awesome

Today, I got to drive the Z-class tram.
We do actually have some modern(ish) trams in Bendigo, they just don't get used much. We have a couple of Z1-class, which are basically held for preservation. With Melbourne looking to get rid of the remaining Z's when fleet capabilities permit, we were fortunate enough to get a few.

When I lived in Melbourne, there was a large variety of different trams. W's were prominent on the St. Kilda road lines, Z's were prominent on St. Kilda Rd & Elizabeth St., A-class were on Flinders & Collins St., and the B's were on the heavy-use lines, first the former Port Melbourne & St. Kilda raillines, which were converted from suburban railway to lightrail in the late 80's, and later, the Bundoora & East Burwood lines.

The B's were (and are) my favourite of them all. They first came into service when I was fairly young, which always leaves an impression. They were quite modern for their time as well, featuring dot-matrix destination screens, air conditioning, and of course the articulated vehicle design. And the motor system made the most interesting buzzing noise when initially accelerating. The motor noise sounded quite clean and modern too.

Until I moved up to Bendigo, I'd always seen the W's as 'the classic tram', which to be honest, is exactly what it is for Melbourne; The B's as completely awesome, the A's as a little B (true from a technical point of view, but the styling is very similar too), and the Z's... I just always saw them as 'there'. Funny what you learn to appreciate when it disappears.

So, the Z's we have (Z1.11 & Z1.74) are in their Met livery, the green & yellow, which I think looks the nicest. The original colour scheme looked horrid (brown & orange, very 70's, which is fair enough when you consider that's when they were built), and the Yarra Trams livery leaves a lot to be desired. The original conductors desk is long gone (took up way too much space and caused loading bottlenecks), and the original flip-blinds for the destination display is also long gone, replaced with a dot-matrix display. it's a very comfy ride, for both passengers and driver, and it really is a pity we don't use it more often.

We went to the Gasworks to pick up the Z in the morning (we have no spare space at the main depot, so spare/long term store trams goto the gasworks depot), did all the powerup tests, and headed out.
Even that is an event really - because road visibility coming out of gasworks is literally zero. If a car is heading along Weeroona ave., they are not going to stop for you (assuming they can even see you, which I doubt), so you really need a 2nd body there to direct you for traffic clearance. Once out, everything's easy. The Z's are equipped with a pantograph instead of a pole, so de-wirements are virtually eliminated; foot pedals are a lot easier to hand controls - once you get used to them, and from there, it's pretty smooth sailing.

So, I managed to do that for about 3 or so hours, and it really is cruisy; also, the motors, whilst having a different control system from the later Z/A/B class, still have a similar clean sound whirring at high speed. Just hearing that kept making me smile.

I'll include some of my photos once I can get them off the camera; in the meantime, here's an older picture of Z.74 which was originally posted on VicSig.net