The Bogie Tramcars

The first bogie tramcars came to
Ballarat in 1945 and Jean Maxwell recalled:

"They were better than the small
tramcars to work on. They were harder to connie, they'd all queue up and you'd have two in
the back and a packed load up front. You'd have to be tactful. Sebas people were the worst
for that, they were like a lot of sheep. I said ‘one of you gets in the front and you
all stop in the front. Get inside, you make it too hard'. They'd all go in the front for
some reason when they came in. People said 'you've got a new tram, where did it come
from?' People liked them though, they weren't quiet as high. I liked them because they
didn't have that sway all the time."

The bogie tramcar came to Ballarat just
after the end of the Second World War in Oct. 1945. They carried more passengers than the
earlier tramcars and had a smoother ride. While they may have been called ‘new
tramcars', they were just as old or older than most of the four wheelers in Ballarat
having being built for Melbourne in period just before and during the first world war.

Bogie tramcar 15 waits to run out to Mt Pleasant while single truck
No. 24 is behind. The City of Ballaarat's Town Hall looks over the location known as
Tramway Centre

Photo: State Electricity Commission of
Victoria, late 1940's

The bogie tramcar is an eight-wheeled
vehicle. All previous tramcars had only four wheels, these are known in tramway parlance
as 'single trucks'.   Bogie tramcars are also be known as ‘double truck'
tramcars.

The Museum has two of this type of tramcar,
including the one featured in the photo of loading the pram (No. 38) in its collection.
For more details see the Ballarat Tramway Museum's Tramcar Register.

A bogie tram bound for the City and then to Lydiard St. North
crosses Albert St. after leaving Sebastopol in 1969.

Photo: The Ballarat Courier