The A type Adelaide tram was a class of 70 drop-end, Californian combination trams built by Duncan & Fraser,

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater A ...

in 1908/09 for the

Municipal Tramways Trust The Municipal Tramways Trust (MTT) was established by the Government of South Australia in December 1906 to purchase all of the horse-drawn tramways in Adelaide, Australia. The Trust subsequently also ran petrol and diesel buses and electric tr ...

(MTT). They were used on tram lines to Kensington, Marryatville, Maylands,

Payneham Payneham is an eastern suburb of Adelaide in the City of Norwood Payneham St Peters. It is part of a string of suburbs in Adelaide's east with a high proportion of Adelaide's Italian-Australian and French-Australian residents, many of whom can be ...

, Wakerville,

North Adelaide North Adelaide is a predominantly residential precinct and suburb of the City of Adelaide in South Australia, situated north of the River Torrens and within the Adelaide Park Lands. History Surveyor-General Colonel William Light of the colon ...

, Parkside,

Unley Unley is an inner-southern suburb of Adelaide, South Australia, within the City of Unley. The suburb is the home of the Sturt Football Club in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL). Unley neighbours Adelaide Park Lands, Full ...

and Hyde Park. In later years they were cascaded to quieter services to

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extens ...

and the isolated

Port Adelaide Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...

network."Adelaide's Toastrack Trams" ''

Trolley Wire The Sydney Tramway Museum (operated by the South Pacific Electric Railway) is Australia's oldest tramway museum and the largest in the southern hemisphere. It is located at Loftus in the southern suburbs of Sydney. History Construction of t ...

'' issue 258 August 1994 pages 3, 8.A type tram 1 (1908)
Tramway Museum, St Kilda Their California combination description encompassed their combination of a central saloon compartment and open cross-bench seating at each end; a design that had proved popular in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

, with its climate similar to Adelaide's. When the MTT introduced an alphabetical classification system in 1923, they were designated A type. Many were retired in the 1930s, but most returned to service during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

operating in coupled pairs to conserve manpower. These were nicknamed ''Bib & Bubs'' after comic characters created by children's author May Gibbs. The remaining examples were withdrawn in 1952. They were never fitted with air brakes, instead using handbrakes for normal stops and magnetic track brakes for emergencies. All 70 were originally fitted with Brill Winner style (tip-over) seats in the saloon section; in 1937 20 cars swapped their seats with Hale & Kilburn fixed rattan seats from 20 C type trams. Numbers 10, 69 and 92 were sold to the

State Electricity Commission of Victoria The State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV, ECV or SEC) is a government-owned electricity supplier in Victoria, Australia. It was set up in 1918, and by 1972 it was the sole agency in the state for electricity generation, electric power ...

and placed in service in

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands of Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. Within months of Vi ...

as numbers 21, 23, and 22. The former remained in service until the system closed in 1971.Ballarat tram 21 (1909)
Tramway Museum, St Kilda

Preservation

Two have been preserved: *1 and 10 by the

Tramway Museum, St Kilda The Tramway Museum, St Kilda is Australia's principal museum of the 19th and 20th century trams of Adelaide, South Australia. It is situated at St Kilda, north of the centre of Adelaide. It is operated by the Australian Electric Transport M ...

References

Adelaide tram vehicles {{SouthAustralia-rail-transport-stub