REGISTER

A.U. Wishnia

A. Dip. EE.

The 64 seater Glenelg trams have conveyed people over the 11 kilometres of track between Adelaide and the seaside resort of Glenelg for over half a century.

The city office and dep6t of the Metropolitan Tramways Trust was opened for operation at Victoria Square on the 4th of April 1917. The city depot commenced operations on the 11th December 1923 with 11 tramway bays and an additional eight tracks were subsequently added. The administrative offices were opened on the Victoria Square facade on the 6th of May 1933. This depot was used to house 30 fuel buses back in 1965, giving it a dual operational role. The city depot remained this way until the new Tram Depot was opened at Glengowrie in 1986 when all the maintenance and operations associated with the trams moved to take up residence in its present modern environment. The old depot at Victoria Square is prime real estate and its sale will be used to offset the cost of constructing the new depot.

Having made the decision to relocate, the final consideration was the method of controlling movements into and out of the depot. The old method in the city was simple. Spring operated switches and handles :ie manual operation. The final solution adopted was considerably more complex at Glengowrie. This was due to the problems introduced by the level crossings at Morphett Road and Maxwell Terrace and main line speeds allowed in this area.

Several alternatives for operating the depot were considered but the one chosen was a remote automatic route selection system. This system was required to automatically select the main line routes in the absence of an instruction to the contrary from a tram and to set up a route which would enable trams to enter or leave the depot upon receipt of a signal from the tram. It should be noted that most service movements over the area are main line movements and it is only necessary to make a request to alter the road when leaving or entering the depot. Also, operation from a central or local control panel was rejected due to traffic requirements and operation into and out of the depot was to be achieved from the tram. It is for these reasons that an automatic main line selection is made after every tram has completed its movement.