FARES PLEASE! April 2016 News from the Ballarat Tramway Museum A New Venture Photo: Warren Doubleday 5/4/2016 Inside: The launch of “Cuthberts 939” “Two Way Traffic” – E.S.Co & the H.T.T. Ballarat Trams are Ballarat History 2. Fares Please! “Cuthberts 939” Tuesday 5th April 2016 marked a new era for Representatives of the RSL were invited to the the Museum with the launch of Cuthberts 939, event and Alexandra Tascas, President of the our new function tram. Ballarat Branch, spoke along with the Museum’s Vice President, Paul Mong, about In 2014 the State Government provided grants the project. to several of the regional transport museums under the Transport Investing in the Regions Following the formalities, invited guests initiative. Through the Registrar, Tourist & boarded the tram to enjoy morning coffee Heritage Railways, Adrian Ponton, the Museum whilst they travelled at a very sedate pace was granted $40,000 to reconfigure and through the beautiful gardens. Peter Waugh rehabilitate former Melbourne Restaurant Tram and family excelled themselves in providing No 939 (Valentine) so it could be used as a some twenty five espresso coffees and cake in multi purpose function tram in Wendouree what was a very new experience for them. Parade. They looked very professional in their black BTM aprons. The tram was originally designed to serve prepared meals with the most basic of facilities. Following extensive use of the new dishwasher It was also very tired after many years in and a quick wiping down of the tables, service. Over the last eighteen months an members and friends were invited to travel on a ingenious, fully compliant, kitchen has been second journey and also enjoy the experience. installed. The tram has been repainted and the There was excellent coverage of the event in interior rehabilitated. The smaller end has been the local media. altered to provide a small lounge area. A major task was to replace much of the air conditioning Our thanks go to Tim Westcott, Maree system. The paperwork to accredit the tram to McNeilly and Angela Daraxoglou of the operate on our tramway took a horrendous Department of Economic Development, Jobs, amount of work over a period of fourteen Transport and Resources for their assistance. months. In addition to the grant, the Museum Why Cuthberts? invested almost $15,000 in the project. Avid readers of this publication will recall the Representing the Minister for Public Transport, article in the October 2015 edition of Fares Jacinta Allan, local MLA, Sharon Knight Please! which recounted the story of Sir Henry officiated at the launch which was attended by Cuthbert and the major roles he played in the Mayor, Councillor Des Hudson, the federal Ballarat and in the politics of Victoria in the member for Ballarat, Catherine King MHR, second half of the 19th century. His role Joshua Morris MLC, several city councillors relevant to the Ballarat tramways was that he and other distinguished guests and many of the was the first chairman of the Ballarat Tramway Museum’s volunteers who assisted to bring the Company. As to be expected he was on board project to fruition. when our Horse Tram No 1 first visited the th President, Greg Rodgers, in his introduction, gardens on 26 December 1887. emphasised the contribution that the project had The Museum has created a new business name made to the local economy. for the venture, Cuthberts 939, and a web page The launch of Cuthberts also gave the Museum www.cuthberts939.com.au. There you will the opportunity to launch a very ambitious plan find information detailing the various hire to create an Interpretative Centre alongside the options. current building in conjunction with the Bookings are at [email protected] Ballarat branch of the Returned Service League. April 2016 3. Fares Please! 939 on 28 January 2015 939 on 5 April 2016 The Launch of “Cuthberts 939” Above: Sharon Knight, MLA addresses guests, members and friends. President, Greg Rodgers is standing alongside. Above: Invited guests enjoy morning coffee and cake. Above: Our first crew Left: Careful planning was the order of the day. Photos: Peter Winspur, Warren Doubleday, Roger Gosney, Peter Waugh April 2016 4. Fares Please! An Interpretative Centre Around the Museum For many years, the Museum has considered Begonia Festival the possibility of developing a suitable display Great weather led to another very busy three hall with proper public facilities. It would need days over the Labour Day weekend. Last year to be built on the south side of the existing the Museum broke the record on the Sunday for building. In the current building we are very the greatest number carried on one day ever. constrained as to the way we can properly This year we still carried 2733 passengers and display our collection. The project has always at 3009 passengers the Monday was the busiest been a very long term objective due to the cost since 2004. Considering that trams do not and its complexity. operate all day due to the procession and people Over the past few years, Paul Mong has worked tend to leave earlier on the last day this was a hard to arrange plans and obtain the necessary wonderful result. A total of 7788 people heritage permits to enable the Museum to seek travelled on the trams over the three days. funding for what would be the largest and most Twenty-five of our members volunteered their expensive project the Museum has embarked time, twelve of them for the whole three days. on. Several stumbling blocks continue to They worked for a total of over 400 hours. occur. The cost will be in the millions of Many of us unwound at a suitable pub on dollars and funding can only be raised with Saturday and Sunday evening with a meal and a government support. To obtain suitable grants few drinks. The weekend remains the best of this magnitude, the facility needs to be open opportunity for our workers to get together, every day and there needs to be a business case ‘play real trams’ (always hard work) and enjoy that it will contribute to the economy of each other’s company. Ballarat. An article about the proposal was Fire protection published in the April 2014 “Fares Please!” Through much hard work and a few major Concurrently with the Museum seeking a headaches, Neville Britton has overseen the solution, the Ballarat branch of the Returned installation of a high tech fire monitoring Services League is also looking for a suitable system in the depot building. We can only home for its extensive collection. hope it is now never needed. The installation Preliminary discussions led both organisations was funded from the Bill Kingsley bequest. coming to the conclusion that the two could The Summer Power Bill come together to provide a facility which would The Keith Atkinson bequest was used to fund be open every day and would lead to increased the installation of the solar panels on the roof of tourism to the south gardens. The facility the building and in conjunction with this a would be near the Ex Prisoners of War further upgrade to the substation. Recently, the Memorial and also the Arch of Victory. It treasurer received the regular three monthly would allow us to properly display the most electricity account. Even with the extra historic of our trams and provide more extended running and a much busier workshop flexibility in the current depot. the total bill would have been the envy of most Recently the Museum and the RSL have signed domestic power users. a Memorandum of Understanding which is the New Badged Clothing for Volunteers first step towards progressing the idea. Plans for an enlarged facility have been approved and To better identify our volunteers when they are both organisations are now in a position to seek not working in the traditional SEC uniform on funding for the project. It is envisaged that it the trams a range of clothing items with a BTM would be managed separately from the day to logo has been designed. Regular volunteers day operations of the tramway. have been issued with an item of their choice and we hope to have a range available for sale soon. April 2016 5. Fares Please! Operations The Depot “Fan” For the first time trams ran every day from the Beautification of the area in front of the Begonia Festival until Easter. Results were Museum, considered by the Board to be one of mixed. Good Friday was the 60th anniversary the most pressing projects, commenced on of the closure of the Geelong Tramways and the Monday 11th April when our contractor, John Museum noted the occasion by running former Shaw, and his work team assisted by our Geelong trams Nos 13 & 14 over Easter. weekday workers, commenced to dig up the School holidays followed Easter and patronage area and replace of most of the sleepers under was quite good. As usual, a very small band of the track. volunteers kept the trams ‘on the road’. We had first commenced laying two road Recently joined member, Andrew Martin, has outside the building in September 1972 using qualified as a conductor and Hugh McKelvey second hand nine foot long sleepers obtained has completed his training as a driver. Liam from the railways. Each one was cut down by Davies is our most recent assistant conductor. hand to seven feet using a huge cross cut saw. We were young then! Suffice to say there was “Mentors” little left of them when the track was exposed With the influx of an encouraging number of this month.