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M&MTB SW2 No 644
Like No 643, No 644 was also built in 1930 as a late series W2 type tramcar. However, in the early 1950s it was seriously damaged in an accident, which placed it out of service. In 1953 it was radically rebuilt to as a sliding door saloon car, basically modelled on the W7 class then being designed and classified as an SW2 class tramcar. It was intended that this tramcar be the prototype (along with another damaged W2 tramcar, No 275) for the mass conversion of all W2 type tramcars to this format, but this did not proceed due to the high cost of conversion and lack of finance. No 644 was considerably different in appearance and design from earlier SW2 class tramcars, which were conversions from former W1 class tramcars performed in the late 1930s to test design features of the SW6 class then under consideration. Like all W type tramcars still in service, it was modified with marker lights in the early 1970s. The interior of the tramcar appears very like a cramped, narrower version of the W7 type of tramcar. No 644 spent most of its life as a Preston car, serving from both Preston (Thornbury) and the new Preston Depot, before ending its career at South Melbourne Depot. This tramcar is one of eight tramcars on loan to the TMSV from the State Government. It was placed on loan on withdrawal of the tramcar from traffic in 1987. It is intended to keep it in the form and livery of the M&MTB in the early 1980s.
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Last
updated 22
September 2004.
Content
copyright © Russell
Jones 2001-4. Reproduced with permission.
