Tait & Swingdoor Electric Suburban Trains - Newport Workshops 2020

A tour of most of the fleet of preserved Tait and Swingdoor wooden suburban electric cars, which are housed at Melbourne's Newport Workshops. They are in the care of Elecrail, which is the electric division of Steamrail Victoria. The Swingdoor cars (often called Dogboxes) were built as steam hauled passenger cars in the 1880's, and converted to electric traction in the late 1910's early 20's. The Tait cars were purpose built as electric cars from 1910, but were also steam hauled until electric services began in 1919. None of these cars have been allowed to operate on the mainline since 2004 due to accreditation issues, however Steamrail/Elecrail have been working hard to resolve this and are expecting to be able to run tours again in the next few years (check www.steamrail.com.au for updates). The first car we see in the video is Swingdoor motor 107M, which along three other restored Dogboxes was tragically destroyed by arson in 2015, leaving only 107's cab. Looking past 107M you can just glimpse Tait cars 257D and 267M stored right down the back of the workshops. Next we walk past Tait Parcels Van 2CM, which had been pulled out of the depths of the workshop for public inspection for the first time. It is in as-withdrawn condition, and shows much wear and tear from regular service. The next car we see is 327M, which has been stored since the 90's but appears to have had recent work done. Next up is Tait double ended motor 470M. Four Tait M cars were converted to double ended operation for one car operation on the Altona, Alamein and Hurstbridge lines. 470 has been restored to operational condition but has not yet had a chance to run. Outside we see a five car set assembled of 317M-230D-341T-208T-381M. All these cars with the exception of 341T are painted in the attractive 1930's rose red and moonstone grey livery. This set has recently received a lot of work and some modernisations to allow it to (hopefully) run on the network again. This video was taken at the Newport Workshops open day weekend on 9th of March 2020.

Since filming this video, Elecrail has been able to return to the mainline. For videos of the Tait set in action, have a look here:    • Historic Melbourne Electric Trains