Tait (train)

The Tait trains are wooden bodied electric multiple unit trains that operated on the suburban railway network of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. They were introduced in 1910 by the Victorian Railways as steam locomotive hauled cars, and converted to electric traction from 1919 when the Melbourne electrification project was underway. The trains derived their name from Sir Thomas James Tait, the chairman of commissioners of the Victorian Railways from 1903 to 1910. The first cars were built during 1909 with the last entering service in 1952.
Tait trains are initially referred to as "Sliding Door" trains, as opposed to the "Swing Door" trains then in service. From the 1950s, following the introduction of the blue-painted Harris trains, they became known as Reds or Red Rattlers, the latter epithet later being applied to various types of red-painted rolling stock in Sydney.

Layout

Tait trains had a partly open saloon layout with transverse bench seats. The saloon was divided by partitions into a number of smaller areas. Each seating aisle was provided with its own exterior sliding door.
Incandescent lighting, a pressed-metal ceiling, luggage racks above head height, and varnished wood-grain walls were fitted inside each compartment. Interiors were split into smoking and no-smoking compartments until late 1978, after which smoking was banned on trains. Carriages were designated as first or second class until 1958, after which one-class suburban travel was introduced.
The exterior of the trains were in two main styles: the original cars had a clerestory roof, and those built from the late 1920s onward had a simpler arched roof.
From 1971, the interior was simplified to cut maintenance costs, with some doorway windows being replaced by metal and plywood, and the wooden louvred sun blinds being removed. The motor bogies on the trains were originally of pressed steel construction, being changed for a new design in cast steel in the 1930s.

In service

Pre-electrification

The production of Tait carriages began before electrification, with the necessary electrical equipment to be retrofitted when required.
The carriages were grouped as the P type, with codes like AC^P indicating that there was a passageway connecting most of the compartments, rather than the older carriage style with each compartment isolated from its neighbours. In the 1910 recoding project, the ^P was changed to a normal-size, normal-font letter, i.e. ACP. However, most diagrams show the raised letter with the newer code, perhaps because they were drawn during the construction phase, around the same time as the recoding was being planned.
All carriages were roughly long over the buffers, high, and wide, although there was some variation. All compartments were linked with a through-corridor, though internal sliding doors were placed three compartments from one end. The carriages were not initially marked "Smoking" or "Non-Smoking".

AC^P, A^P, BC^P, B^P

Initial construction saw 48 AC^P cars, 62 A^P, 18 BC^P and 62 B^P carriages built in the period 1910 to 1913. The A^P and B^P carriages were of identical design, with capacity for 92 passengers each across nine compartments, except that the second-class B^P carriages had lower-quality seating. Similarly, the AC^P and BC^P cars shared a design in every way other than the seating. Those carriages were fitted with eight compartments for 82 passengers, and the ninth compartment was re-purposed for a train guard, and fitted with a raised cupola for the sighting of signals.
From 1915, more carriages were constructed as the electrification project gathered pace and requirements were locked in. Further ACP carriages 49–106, and BCP carriages 19–80 were constructed in 1915–1916. However, they did not have the standard carriage bogies, but were fitted with plate-framed bogies intended for the later fitting of traction motors. The cars also varied in having a well in the roof designed to accommodate a pantograph. That gives a rough indication of when the decision was made to proceed with a 1500V DC overhead wiring system for Melbourne's electrification, as opposed to earlier proposals to use a third rail.

Conversion for electrification

Conversion of Tait cars for electrification started in 1917, in preparation for trials and driver training on the Flemington Racecourse line, and later on the Sandringham line.
Some carriages were stored after conversion, awaiting traffic requirements. It is thought that those vehicles were held until around 1919/1920.
The converted carriages kept their existing codes, but with D, M or T appended, indicating Driver's compartment, Motor car or Trailer. However, in 1921, the system was regarded as too complex, and coding was simplified, with all motored and driving carriages becoming second class, and all trailers becoming first class.
The conversion program was completed in 1922.

Driving motors—ACPM, BCPM, M

From 1917 through to 1921, ACP and BCP carriages were withdrawn from steam service in preparation for electrification. The carriages which were fitted with traction motors had been built with that in mind, having heavier underframes, bogies designed to support the motors, and a well in the roof to allow a pantograph to be fitted.
Seventeen of the ACP 49–106 range were recoded to ACPM. From 1916 on, a further 26 ACPM cars were built, bringing the fleet to 45. However, the entire class was recoded M in 1921, being given numbers 201M to 284M.
Similarly, 28 of the BCP cars in the range 19–80 were recoded to BCPM and, in 1916, the class grew by 30 units. In the 1921 renumbering, the ex-BC^P/BCPM class became 294M-385M.
Additional M cars, 285–293 and 386–411, were built new in 1922. Further cars, with curved roofs, were built in 1925 and 1926, taking numbers 412M–441M. 442M and 443M were rebuilt from 18M and 44M, former Swing-door motors. Those cars ended up having the thinner Swing-door underframe with the larger Tait body, giving them a rather unbalanced look. The carriages entered service in 1936. Following that, 444M through 461M were built in the period 1944–1949, and the last of them entered service in 1951.
In 1968, four motors, 300M, 398M, 244M and 397M were modified to include driving cab at both ends, taking on new numbers 470M–473M. They were mainly used on the Eltham to Hurstbridge and the Alamein lines, where even a two-car set could not be justified at off-peak times.
In 1979, the deliveries of the new Hitachi fleet were catching up with the Tait numbering block, so some carriages were renumbered, using numbers that were not in use. That started with the gap 462M–469M and 474M–499M, and later cars took numbers of Tait motor cars previously scrapped. By 1983, deliveries of the Comeng fleet made even that measure insufficient, so the 19x remaining Motors had the prefix "1" added to their numbers: e.g. 383M became 1383M.

Parcel motors CM

In 1921, a decision was made to supplement the mail/newspaper distribution fleet with double-ended motor cars, having the interior of a typical bogie guards' van of the CE/CW/CV types.
Coaches 1CM and 2CM entered service in 1921, with a capacity of 25 tons each. In 1923, they were joined by a third vehicle, 3CM. That was partially paid for by the Electrical Engineering Branch, with a modified design featuring a centre cupola for viewing of the overhead wires. 3CM was run with the normal fleet, but was made available for overhead wire inspection if and when required. CMs 4 and 5 entered service in 1925 and 1926 respectively, both using the new arch/curved roof style between their two cupolas. This roof style was derived from the then-recently built vans 16-20CW.
The fleet was used for cash transport, and as a staff-only taxi service for the use of crew members scheduled to start work between 3am and 5am.
Extra coaches were built from the mid-1950s using former Swing Door carriages.
The parcels coach traffic dried up in 1988 when a railways' policy change saw a switch to road transport. Correspondence to stations is now delivered on a few select trains per week, noted in advance.

Driving trailers—ACPD, BCPD, D

When planning the initial electrification project, it was expected that some lines could be operated with single-carriage or two-carriage trains instead of requiring a full consist. The single-carriage, double-ended motors were sourced from the Swing Door fleet, although some Driving Trailer carriages were sourced from the Tait fleet. While it was initially thought that around twenty of those carriages would be needed for service, only eleven were converted in the early stages of the electrification project.
In the first half of 1921, six AC^P carriages and five BC^P carriages were rewired and recoded with a "D" appended. New identities for the ACPD series were 1–2, 8, 10–12, while the BCPD cars kept their old numbers of 2–3, 8–9 and 18.
In 1922, following the simplification of the classification system, the last of the three ACPD cars were converted to M motorised carriages 244, 245 and 204 in 1922. They had previously been heavier-underframe carriages. The remaining eight driving trailers were recoded to D 201–202 and 208 and 211, 204–207 respectively. Further conversions direct from AC^P and BC^P carriages saw the class rise to eighteen D carriages, numbered 201–218.
In 1940, carriage 244T, originally 44A^P, was converted to driving trailer 225D.

"Ringer" Trailers, T

The 48 lighter-framed AC^P and BC^P carriages not converted to driving trailers were known as "Ringer" trailer cars. The guard's compartment equipment was removed and the larger area was made available to passengers, often being used by those with prams or extra luggage. The compartment was identifiable by the lack of the word "GUARD", and a white circle painted on the door. The circle indicated to crew members that the vans were not fitted with a handbrake or emergency brake taps, normally found in carriages with the raised-profile roof of the guards' compartment.
The Ringer trailers had formerly been AC^P 15, 19–22, 24–48 and BC^P 1, 4–7 and 121–133. They took the number range 263T to 286T, 349T to 361T, 362T to 367T and 368T–372T.
From 1926 to 1927, the first batch of Ringer Trailer to Driving Trailer conversions were made, with trailers 365 and 368–372 converted to 224D, 219D, 220D, 221D, 222D and 223D.
From 1965 to 1972, all bar two of the remaining Ringer trailers were converted to full Driving Trailers and coded randomly into the range 226D–265D.