The only blue tram in Adelaide, car 378 was converted to a mobile restaurant.
The venture was not a big success, presume the trip involved going up and down to from Glenelg to Adelaide twice for one sitting was a lot less eventful and interesting than the Melbourne equivalent.
The tram ran for 2-3 years with contracted pre-cooked meals under a ten-year lease. It operated as Adelaide Tramcar Restaurant and featured a range of food options from elaborate three course dinners to simple afternoon teas. The car generally ran up to 6 times a day.
The tram is a mechanically similar to the 1980s refurbished ‘H’ type cars, but fitted with vigilance control to allow its operation by one tramway staff member, the restaurant staff not having tramway operating capability. However, it normally operated at series speed to lengthen the journey and minimise the impact of any track imperfections.
Unfortunately, the enterprise was not financially viable at that time and went into bankruptcy. A couple of years later, TransAdelaide attempted to resuscitate the business by renaming the tram ‘The Grand Lady’ with meals precooked by the Grand Hotel at Glenelg, but without much success.
The H class Adelaide tram have been the mainstay of the Glenelg tram line in South Australia for 75 years since the line was converted from railway to tramway operation and electrified in 1929. Currently operated by TransAdelaide, most of the class have been replaced by new Bombardier Flexity Classic low-floor trams.
The cars were specially built for the conversion of the line by local manufacturers A. Pengelley and Sons. They have many of the characteristics of American interurban streetcars of that period and their heritage ambience has been carefully maintained. Although the H-class trams have been through several refurbishment programmes over the years (incorporating more up-to-date features like safety glass, fluorescent lighting and upgraded bogies), they still retain varnished wood and etched glass interiors, a classic Tuscan Red and cream exterior colour scheme and neither heating nor air-conditioning in the passenger saloons.
The H-class regularly run as double sets at busier times. All services are operated by a crew of driver and conductor (driver and two conductors on coupled sets).
Most of the H-class trams were replaced during 2006 by new Bombardier Flexity Classic low floor trams with vigilance control. However, five H-class were specially refurbished in 2000, with the intention of retaining these cars for special weekend and holiday operations and are due to be fitted with vigilance control plus electromagentic track brakes.
5 H-class trams are retained in service including the first and last units built. #351, #367, #370, #374 and #380 are kept in service alongside the newer Flexitys although #374 has been in storage since 2004. They are almost always coupled in pairs of two trams.
All the other units were sent to Tram and rail Museums around Australia.
H-class Trams
Track Gauge: 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1?2 in) standard gauge
Power Source: 600 V DC overhead wire
Traction: 4x 48 kW (65 hp) traction motors
Maximum service speed: 80 km/h
Number in class (in 2005): 21 (out of original 30)
- 15 operational
- 5 non-operational
- 1 restaurant tram
Unit numbers:
(most cars have been re-numbered during their lives. Numbers carried today are not necessarily the number as built) #351 – #380
Introduced: 1929
Built by: A. Pengelley & Sons, Edwardstown, S.A.
Passenger Seating Capacity: 64
Weight: 23 tonnes
Тип: traincar