The Hawthorn Tramways Trust was a tram operator in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, Australia. Its assets and liabilities were transferred to the

Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board The Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board (MMTB) was a government-owned authority that was responsible for the tram network in Melbourne, Australia between 1919 and 1983, when it was merged into the Metropolitan Transit Authority. It had be ...

on 2 February 1920.

History

The Hawthorn Tramways Trust (HTT) was formed pursuant to the ''Melbourne to Burwood Tramways Act, 1914'', to construct and manage electric tramways within the cities of

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

, Hawthorn, and

Camberwell Camberwell ( ) is an List of areas of London, area of South London, England, in the London Borough of Southwark, southeast of Charing Cross. Camberwell was first a village associated with the church of St Giles' Church, Camberwell, St Giles ...

, and to acquire a horse tramway from the Melbourne Tramway & Omnibus Company (MTOC). The Trust operated the Hawthorn tram depot and was also responsible for the acquisition of Wattle Park in the suburb of Burwood in 1916. The HTT was the only early electric tram operator to open a route into the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the Commerce, commercial and business center of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides wit ...

(CBD), although it and the inner suburbs were well served at that time by the extensive Melbourne cable tramway system. The main route was from

Princes Bridge Princes Bridge, originally Prince's Bridge,, ''...he wished that it might be distinguished by the name of "Prince's Bridge," in honour of the Prince of Wales, whom he hoped would yet be the Sovereign of their colonies...'' is a bridge in centra ...

to Burwood, with a branch line to Wattle Park. The Trust also took over the MTOC's Hawthorn horse tram, and the electric tramway that replaced it operated as a shuttle service between the Richmond cable tram terminus and Hawthorn Depot. On 6 April 1916, the first section of the Trust's tramways to open was that from the HTT Depot, at the corner of Riversdale Road and Power Street in Hawthorn, to the city terminus in Batman Avenue at Princes Bridge. The section to Auburn Road was brought into operation on 7 May, with the line to Bowen Street, Camberwell, just past the Junction, commencing services at the end of that month. The final section, to Boundary (now Warrigal) Road in Burwood, was opened on 10 June. With the opening of the Power Street and Burwood Road tramway to Hawthorn Bridge on 21 June 1916, the HTT reached its maximum mileage. Passenger services were initially provided by ten small four-wheel M-class trams, and ten larger Maximum Traction N-class bogie cars, all built by

Duncan & Fraser Duncan & Fraser Limited was a vehicle manufacturing company founded in 1865 in Adelaide, South Australia that built horse-drawn carriages and horse trams, and subsequently bodies for trains, electric trams and motor cars, becoming one of the larg ...

Adelaide Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...

. It was soon realised that they were totally inadequate for the traffic offering, and four O-class Maximum Traction bogie trams were purchased from the neighbouring Prahran and Malvern Tramways Trust in August 1916. Although they had also been built by Duncan & Fraser only four years previously, they were of a different design to the Trust's other tramcars and proved to be not as good. A repeat order of 15 car was placed with the builders, to the original designs, except that each was longer, to provide more leg room in the open sections. Eight were P-class Maximum Traction bogie cars, and the remaining seven were M-class four-wheel trams. Due to a combination of circumstances, the smaller trams were never used, and the bodies were sold to the Footscray Tramway Trust. Unusually, the Trust's trams were painted in predominantly French Grey — at a time when nearly all other trams in Melbourne were painted in variations of brown liveries. The Trust was dissolved on 20 February 1920, and control passed to the

. All but five of the trams built for the HTT saw further service after their time in Melbourne, being sold to other operators. A number of those tramcars have been preserved, including Tram 8 at the Melbourne Tram Museum. Of the 24 surviving tramcars, 21 are operating (or operable) at various tram museums across Australia, as well as overseas.

History

References

Further reading