Melbourne Cable Tramways – Macmeikan & Pollock Reports

Engine Houses

The engine house layouts were all arranged in very much the same manner, with the offices along the front facing the street and having passages giving exit to the footpath. The engine room occupied the area from the offices to the wall of the boiler house which was situated at the rear of the building. An area on the left hand side of the engine room was occupied by the cable races, drivers, tension carriages, etc., and extended from the offices to the rear of the building, being separated from the boiler house by a brick wall running from the engine room to the rear of the building and parallel with the cable race.

Cable tram engine house, corner of Victoria Parade & Brunswick Street, Fitzroy.

Photograph courtesy State Library of Victoria.

The engines were duplicated, and when one set was closed down, it was overhauled and reconditioned ready for service as speedily as possible. This resulted in one set of first class condition operating, while the other set was standing in readiness for immediate changeover if required. The boilers were also duplicated and were laid off for inspection and repairs as required.

This gave a complete changeover of all engine house machinery, including feed pumps, feed water heaters and cable reels. The duplication of machinery ceased at the rope wheel driver mounted on the engine shaft. This driver wheel carried approximately 16-18 manilla ropes of 7" diameter transmitting the drive from the engines to the 24 foot diameter wheel which revolved the main shaft on which the cable drivers operated. The cable drivers, cable races, tension carriages, pulleys, sheaves, etc., were all individual cable units. The number of these units depended on how many separate cables were driven from any particular engine house.

Engine House	Location	Opened	Closed	Cables	Length (feet)	Terminals
Fitzroy	Victoria Pde & Brunswick St	2 Oct 1886	12 Jul 1930	Collins St	17,000	Spencer St
				Victoria St	22,700	Victoria St Bridge
				Brunswick St	23,000	St Georges Rd & Miller St
Nicholson St	Gertrude & Nicholson Sts	10 Aug 1887	26 Oct 1940	Bourke St	17,000	Spencer St
				Smith St	24,100	Clifton Hill
				Nicholson St	19,250	Park St
Johnston St	Johnston St near Brunswick St	21 Dec 1887	15 April 1939	City	16,700	Swanston St
				Suburban	14,500	Johnston St Bridge
North Carlton	Rathdowne & Park Sts	5 Feb 1889	1 Aug 1936	Rathdowne St	13,400	Elgin St
Richmond	Hoddle St & Bridge Rd	11 Nov 1885	30 Jan 1927	City	25,200	Spencer St near Lonsdale St
				Suburban	14,300	River (Bridge Rd)
Northcote [7]	High & Martin Sts	18 Feb 1890 7 Apr 1894 Mar 1901	7 Jul 1893 7 Nov 1897 26 Oct 1940	High St	25,000	Clifton Hill to Dundas St
Brunswick	Brunswick Rd & Black St	1 Oct 1887	11 Jan 1936	City	22,700	Victoria St
				Suburban	16,750	Moreland Rd
North Melbourne	Abbotsford & Queensberry Sts	3 Mar 1890	29 Sep 1935	City	20,000	Flinders & Elizabeth Sts
				Flemington	13,000	Flemington Bridge
				West Melbourne	17,600	Elizabeth & Lonsdale Sts
St Kilda Rd	St Kilda Rd & Bromley St	10 Oct 1888	2 Jan 1926	City	24,150	Queensberry St
				Suburban	29,990	Brighton Rd & Milton St
Toorak	Toorak Rd & Chapel St	26 Oct 1888	2 Oct 1926	Domain Rd	17,270	Domain & St Kilda Rds
				Toorak	14,950	Irving Rd
				Chapel St	21,810	Carlisle St
South Melbourne	City Rd & Cecil St	17 Jun 1890	7 Mar 1937	City	10,900	Market & Collins Sts
				Clarendon St	22,500	Victoria St & Beaconsfield Pde
				Port Melbourne	17,000	Beach & Princes Sts
Wellington St	Wellington St opposite Marlton Cr	27 Oct 1891	3 Aug 1925	Esplanade	21,300	Barkly St

The instantaneous variation of load on the cable system varies very considerably. With the steam engine and manilla rope drive, these variations were not noticed to any extent, the engine merely slowing momentarily, before regaining its normal governed speed.

The Richmond engine house differed from the others regarding the reduction of speed from the engine shaft to the driver shaft. This was obtained by gear wheels which were very noisy and caused great annoyance to local residents. This noise was reduced by the introduction of gear wheels with renewable horn-beam teeth designed to replace the solid metal gear wheels, as per Figure 2.

Figure 2. Drawing of engine reduction gear wheel as used at Richmond, showing renewable gear teeth.

From the Macmeikan report.

The wheel had rectangular slots (A) around the periphery and through the rim (B). Teeth cut out of horn‑beam (C) with approximate measurements had a tongue (D) which was shorter and narrower that the tooth formation, about 8" by 2" and slightly tapered. This portion (D) was covered with material such as calico impregnated with white lead, and driven tightly into the recess (A) in the wheel as shown at (E).

A steel pin (F) was driven through the hole (H) on each side of the rim of the wheel (B), and through the tongue (D) of the tooth as indicated at (G), locking the tooth firmly in position. The pin (E) was riveted on the outside of each face of the gear wheel. The remaining teeth were similarly fitted, the wheel greased and put into operation. The wheels ran for a very lengthy period and gave satisfactory results. The teeth were always kept on hand, a complete set being machined and finished ready to replace the old ones when worn. The conventional rope drive was later installed, but the gears as described above deferred a difficult and costly changeover.

The engine houses as described above had required capacity to operate the lines for which they were designed. This was satisfactorily performed from the time of their opening to about 1918, but the relentless growth in traffic required use of heavier cables. This was particularly noticeable at peak loading at two engine houses in 1920, requiring a substantial reduction in cable speed due to the limited power available from the boilers.

The first step towards this was to increase the power of the engine house at St Kilda Rd, where a forced draught installation was employed on the boilers to increase their steaming capacity. This provided temporary relief, but later auxiliary power had to be provided by the installation of an electric motor, which was put into operation when required to cope with heavy loading.

An indication of the growth in traffic and hence load on the cable is given by the increase in passengers carried over Princes Bridge: in 1899 a total of 7 million passengers were carried, but this had increased to 23 million annually by 1918.

The Nicholson Street engine house required similar modifications to the St Kilda Rd engine house, but the other engine houses managed to cope with the heavier traffic although some of them were operating at the absolute limit of their capacity.

Engine Houses – Construction

MTOC constructed a total of 11 engine houses, with the Clifton Hill to Northcote & Preston Tramway Company building the twelfth at Northcote. The buildings were of solid brick construction on bluestone foundations with all interior walls in brick. The floors were asphalt in the engine house and brick generally in the boiler houses. All foundations were concrete, as were the cable races and pits. The offices had wooden flooring, and the entire building was covered with galvanised corrugated iron roofing.

A typical engine house layout is shown at Figure 3.

Figure 3. Typical engine house layout.

From the Macmeikan report.

The Fitzroy and Richmond engine houses had Babcock & Wilcox water tube boilers, whilst the other ten had standard Marine water tube boilers. The original boilers were still being used in all engine houses until they were closed. At Richmond, they ran for 42 years, the only renewals being a few tubes in the fire-row, a wonderful performance for a water tube boiler, or for that matter, any type of boiler.

The Marine type boilers were all built in Melbourne, each one being about 7' diameter and 15' long, fitted with Fox’s corrugated furnaces. The working pressure was 100 psi (pounds per square inch), and the gate areas varied between 18 to 24 square feet, giving a total heating surface area of about 750 square feet. Boiler efficiency varied between 67% and 74% on test.

At Fitzroy, Nicholson St and Toorak, steam was delivered to 24" bore and 48" stroke horizontal engines built by Shanks & Co, Scotland, running at 60 rpm and approximately 800 IHP. At all the other engine houses, smaller engines of 20" bore and 40" stroke running at 72 to 80 rpm and approximately 560 IHP were used, fitted with Myer expansion valves. These engines were made in Melbourne by Hughes, Pipe & Rigby, later part of the Austral Otis Engineering Company.

The larger engines had cylindrical expansion valves on the back of the main valve, the ports being diagonal and the expansion being varied by either hand or governor by turning the expansion valve.

Towards the closure of the system, the 24" cylinders at Fitzroy and Nicholson St were replaced with 25" cylinders, to cater for increasing load. In addition, at Fitzroy and Brunswick engine houses the engines were supplemented by a steam auxiliary engine which was connected to the drive shaft to assist with the evening peak loadings.

This was also done at St Kilda Rd engine house as loadings grew, but the auxiliary steam engine was later replaced by an electric motor, as noted previously. When the St Kilda Rd engine house closed down, the auxiliary electric motor was moved to Nicholson St.

Steam drive was discontinued at the Rathdowne St engine house in October 1919, the steam plant being totally replaced by electric motor. A small locomotive type boiler was installed to operate the cable reel donkey engine, for use when ropes were being replaced. The engines from Rathdowne St were used to replace those at Richmond in 1920, which also enabled the noisy geared drive to be replaced by standard manilla rope drive. It should be noted that the first set of manilla drive ropes to be replaced in any engine house had been running for 30 years before renewal.

Engine Houses – Operation

The engine houses were operated by a special staff, controlled by two Superintendents, who were responsible to the Chief Mechanical Engineer, latterly the Chief Engineer. The Yarra River was used as the boundary between the two Superintendents’ areas of responsibility, one being responsible for engine houses and routes to the north of the river, the other to those on the south side.

Interior of cable tram engine house, showing steam engine piston in foreground and rope driven reduction gearing in background.

Photograph courtesy University of Melbourne.

Each superintendent had foreman, or gangers as they were originally called, under his control. These men were provided with transport to oversee the operation and maintenance of the portion of the system for which their Superintendent was accountable.

The staff under the foreman included:

• Engine drivers;
• Boiler attendants;
• Stokers;
• Oilers;
• Greasers;
• Ropemen;
• Trackmen; and
• Labourers.

Crew of Richmond cable tram engine house standing in front of reduction gears.

Photograph courtesy City of Yarra

The general layout of the engine houses was very similar (as per Figure 4), and the type of engines and boilers were generally much the same in design. The hand stoked boilers burnt coal, coke, or similar fuels, and operated at a steam pressure of 80 to 100 psi. The engines drove the engine shaft at about 80 rpm (revolutions per minute), which gave the speed of the main driving shaft a rotational speed of 27 rpm via a rope reduction drive onto the main cable drivers. The drivers varied in diameter over the years, originally driving the cables at 8 mph (miles per hour). Later the speed was increased to 10 mph, and finally 12 and 13 mph by the employment of 13 and 14 foot diameter drivers.

Figure 4. Engine house layout diagram, displaying arrangement of engines, rope reduction gearing and cable race.

From the Macmeikan report.

The exhaust steam was delivered to vertical cylindrical feed water heaters, entering at the bottom, and passing up through quartz pieces heating the feed water, which was sprayed in at the top and drawn off at the bottom by the boiler feed pump. This hot feed water, at about 210 degrees Fahrenheit, accounted for in large part the excellent condition of the boilers.

The cable driven by each driver had its individual race, tension carriage, pulleys, etc. The number of cable operating from a particular engine house depended on the location and the routes operated by the engine house. The speed of the cable from a single engine house could also vary, depending on the diameter of the drivers used to drive each individual cable.

The operation of all cables was the accountability of the engine house superintendent, including the receipt of new cables, their installation, and the transferal of secondhand cable from one route to another.

Engine Houses – Maintenance

The maintenance work in connection with the engine houses was undertaken at the Fitzroy Repair Shops. This work covered all engine, boiler and equipment repairs including renewal of:

• Engine shafts, crank discs and pins;
• Cylinder liners;
• Pistons, rings, rods and glands;
• Slide valves;
• Eccentric sheaves and rings;
• Bearing brasses; and
• Exhaust pipes, sheaves, rope pulleys and sundries.

In addition, workshops personnel were accountable for overhaul and repairs to:

• Feed pumps;
• Feed water heaters;
• Cable reel engines;
• Boilers;
• Stop valves and piping;
• Tension carriages;
• Rope drivers; and
• Tools and plant.

The maintenance and repairs to engine house buildings was also undertaken by the workshops, including plumbing and painting. Ordinary running maintenance was attended to by the engine house staff, the materials for which were requisitioned from the stores at the workshops.

Engine Houses – Fuel

In the latter years of cable operation coke, or coke & breeze was almost the only fuel used owing to the fact that no other fuel could economically compete with it. Coke in those days had a moisture content of anything up to 30% and this figure was quite frequent. Arrangements between the Company, and later the Board, and the Gas Company, allowed us to deduct from the bill all moisture over 8%.

Interior of South Yarra engine house, showing firebox ends of steam boilers.

Photograph courtesy State Library of Victoria.

Samples were taken from each bag delivered by engine house staff, mixed, and 1lb. samples secured from each load. The samples were placed in an oven, dried and the loss measured in grains, dividing this loss by 70 gave the percentage of moisture. This was carried out by the engine driver on shift and the returns sent to the office, where they were checked before being sent to the Gas Company.

Fuel and water tests were carried out at frequent intervals, and always if some fuel other than coke was used. Indicator cards for ropes, machinery, and special traffic were also taken at frequent intervals. Fuel and water tests were usually run for a period of one week, in which special men weighed all the fuel and water used. Indicator cards were usually taken each half an hour during the 18 hour day, except during peak periods when they were taken at ten minute intervals. The number of trams on rope at these periods was ascertained from the District Traffic Superintendent.

As previously mentioned the basic fuel was coke & breeze, but MTOC and the M&MTB have used every type of fuel offering, depending on the price, including the following:

• Tar;
• Wood;
• All types of coal, good and bad, large and small; and
• Briquettes.

Any new fuel offering was immediately subjected to a test as described, and a similar test run with coke and breeze. If the price was right an order was placed, and the fuel used to just as long as the price remained favorable. It is safe to say that MTOC knew more about the relative thermal values of all fuels, both NSW and Victorian sourced, than any other organisation.

For example in November 1933, the M&MTB tested at South Melbourne engine house Maitland coal (nuts), North Maitland coal (main slack), and coke & breeze as supplied by the Gas Company. The results of the test are in the table below.

Fuel	Price per ton	Cost of evaporating 1000 gallons of water	Required price per ton to be comparable to coke & breeze
Maitland coal (nuts)	26/6	14/4	22/7
North Maitland coal (main slack)	25/-	14/3	21/2
Coke & breeze	24/6	13/5	24/6

In July 1893, tar was offered to MTOC for 5/- per 100 gallons delivered. This was too good an opportunity to miss, so Messrs Turnbull & Dahn installed a boiler tar burner which after a very few teething troubles successfully burned nearly 2 million gallons of tar. Tar as a fuel was burnt exclusively at the Johnston Street, Nicholson Street and Fitzroy engine houses, and used occasionally at South Melbourne, until December 1900 when it became uneconomic due to price rises as a result of its use for other purposes.

The tar was delivered from the gas works and emptied into tanks at engine houses, and pumped into an overhead tank fitted with a heating coil. It then gravitated through filters to the furnace. Furnaces were lined with fire brick, and air admitted towards the back of the furnace. No alterations were required to the furnace fronts which would be usual ones as fitted for coal or coke burning.

In the nineteen twenties the M&MTB was for a time unable to dispose of all the tar oil produced as a by‑product of the tar distillation plant, so one of the original burners was fitted to a Babcock and Wilcox boiler at Fitzroy engine house, and the tar oil was burnt quite successfully.

The indicated horse power (IHP) required for the operation of ropes and machinery varied with the different lines, a straight line such as Sydney Road requiring less than a line with the number of curves. It also varied with the time rope had been in use, a new rope taking more power to run than an old one. Total IHP required to operate a rope varied between 100 to 190 IHP, the average being about 175 IHP. The IHP per tram also varied with weather conditions between 10 to 13 IHP when including ropes and machinery, or between 7 to 9 IHP when excluding ropes and machinery.

In 1918 at the St Kilda Road engine house, average power output during traffic hours was 411 IHP with a maximum of 683 IHP during the evening peak, which required the use of the auxiliary electric motor to handle the load. This auxiliary motor was installed in the latter years of cable operation due to the inability of the steam power plant to handle peak loads. This electric motor was first run in a self synchronising mode at constant speed. However, the gearing would not handle the instantaneous peak loads, so this was later changed to run as an ordinary induction motor. The slip obtained by this change gave much smoother operation resulting in no further problems with the gearing.

Footnote

[7] The Northcote line was never operated by MTOC. It was originally operated by the Clifton Hill to Northcote & Preston Tramway Company, and was subsequently operated by a number of persons before being taken over by the M&MTB from the Northcote City Council on 7 Feb 1920.