The Bellcord

The quarterly journal of the Melbourne Tram Museum, The Bellcord, is named after the main method of communication between tram conductor and tram driver.

Medium resolution copies of all back issues are available for download.

Members are notified by e-mail when new issues of The Bellcord are released.

 

Issue No 62 – June 2024 (PDF, 4480K)

• Brunswick Depot: a new beginning – Geoff Brown
• Why W? Classifying the M&MTB’s electric trams – Russell Jones
• A mystery tool – Warren Doubleday

Issue No 61 – March 2024 (PDF, 3536K)

• Brunswick Depot’s hidden past – Geoff Brown
• PCC No 1041 and the Bourke Street mall – Warren Doubleday
• E. Murphy and a golden medallion – Noelle Jones

Issue No 60 – December 2023 (PDF, 5311K)

• 100 years of the W class tram – Russell Jones
• Building the W class tram – Warren Doubleday
• Victoria rules! The 1948 interstate tramway football carnival – Noelle Jones

Issue No 59 – September 2023 (PDF, 4385K)

• Glen Huntly Depot: 100 years old – Noelle Jones and Mal Rowe
• DUDS: designs that failed the Melbourne tramways – Mal Rowe

Issue No 58 – June 2023 (PDF, 4468K)

• Bundoora's tramway: part of reshaping the network – Geoff Brown
• From the archives: The Great Depression – Warren Doubleday
• Family research, Trove and an art tram – Russell Jones

Issue No 57 – March 2023 (PDF, 3216K)

• P.M. Ireland: tramway engineer and ANZAC – Noelle Jones
• Victoria Street Flemington tram line – Warren Doubleday
• Tramway hostels and overseas recruitment – Russell Jones

Issue No 56 – December 2022 (PDF, 4165K)

• Bundoora’s tramway: the backstory – Geoff Brown
• The Heatherton Sanitorium tramway – Brian Weedon
• Scanning our collection of plans & drawings – Kevin Taig
• Building the Latrobe Street track – Warren Doubleday

Issue No 55 – September 2022 (PDF, 3846K)

• The end of the Caulfield horse tramway – Duncan MacAuslan
• Marching behind the union banner – Peter Jewell
• The story behind the photographs: Camberwell Junction – Russell Jones
• More on woodblocks – Mal Rowe

Issue No 54 – June 2022 (PDF, 3694K)

• The beginning of the Caulfield horse tramway – Duncan MacAuslan
• One block at a time – Russell Jones
• Wallen Road South: a short history – Alan Scott
• From the museum’s collection: Elizabeth Street – Warren Doubleday
• The Nicolson models – Warren Doubleday

Issue No 53 – March 2022 (PDF, 4219K)

• Fiddling with the middle: changes to drop centre seating in Melbourne's classic trams – Mal Rowe
• The story behind the photograph: Sydney Road cable tram – Warren Doubleday and Noelle Jones
• Bright as a button: the story of an M&MTB bus conductress – Robyn Caddy
• M&MTB uniforms and their buttons: a brief history – Noelle Jones
• A relic of Melbourne's cable trams – Warren Doubleday

Issue No 52 – December 2021 (PDF, 3391K)

• Promises, promises: building the East Burwood and Vermont South extensions – Geoff Brown
• Silent trams – Geoff Brown
• Wombat Creek Tramway – Geoff Brown

Issue No 51 – September 2021 (PDF, 3913K)

• Planning the East Burwood extension – Geoff Brown
• The Lost Tramways of Essendon – Mal Rowe
• Tramway Brass: the Coburg Tramway Band – Noelle Jones

 

Issues 1 to 50 of The Bellcord are available here.