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
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