Pages under construction……
Run Numbers for Echuca South Depot…..
A feature of Melbourne Tram and Government Bus operation since the earliest times, the Run Number Plate was phased out of use on trams and buses in the late 1990s. “Echuca South Depot” will bring back the use of Run Numbers, with a set of run numbers made up for use. The Run Numbers in our case are magnetic, and will be displayed on the outside of the vehicle. On trams, they were displayed inside, but on buses, on the outside. As we are buses, we are following the bus practice in this case, of outside display.
Run Numbers in current stock are, ES 1, ES 3, ES5, ES 7 and ES9. No particular reason for this, and maybe in future, the 2, 4 , 6, 8, and 10 numbers will be made. The letters “ES” for “Echuca South” are in use, to respect Essendon Tram Depot’s traditional use of the letter “E”. A precedent for two letter run numbers comes from Glen Huntly Tram Depot, which uses “GH”. Therefore we consider these run numbers to be “correct” in format. The run numbers are produced “full size”, and the letters and numbers are the correct size, as measured against a run number from a Z1 class tram of the period.
A possibility for future run numbers is to also adopt the Black letters on Yellow format, but it my time in the job, the Red on White format was used at our depot.
Photos of the actual run numbers are still to come on this site.
Table Cards
An important part of Tram and Government Bus operations is the Table Card. The format of Table cards was changed in the mid 1990s to a modernised two-sided format. It is this format that will be used for “Echuca Tramway Bus”. The format used around the mid 1990s is starting to disappear, as a result of privatisation of the Trams and Buses. This short lived format will be brought back into use by us.
Table Cards will be written out with reference to a small collection of photocopied table cards from my time as a Conductor, personal memories of the format, and information since found out about the proper format of Bus table cards.
At the time of writing, there are no “current” Echuca South Depot Table Cards, obviously this can’t go ahead until a route is worked out. But….. Samples of table cards to be added to this site when time permits.