The Bellcord: Issues No 1 to 50

Melbourne Tram Museum produces a members’ newsletter several times a year. It is named The Bellcord after the main method of communication between tram conductor and tram driver.

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

Issues from No 51 onwards are available here.

 

Issue No 50 – June 2021 (PDF, 3337K)

  • Holden Street’s lost tramway – Geoff Brown, Brian Weedon and Warren Doubleday
  • Warrandyte via Doncaster: tramway bus expansion – Geoff Brown

Issue No 49 – March 2021 (PDF, 3989K)

  • Holden Street's forgotten tram works – Geoff Brown, Brian Weedon and Warren Doubleday
  • The best student job in Melbourne – Greg Noonan
  • Headway recorders – extract from Tramway Topics, September 1949

Issue No 48 – December 2020 (PDF, 3673K)

  • Upfield light rail: a flawed proposal – Geoff Brown
  • Lost loops of the PMTT – Mal Rowe
  • The role of Depot Starter – Kevin Stanes
  • Brunswick West substation: tramway heritage – Geoff Brown
  • Malvern Depot and Brunswick Road substations – Miles Pierce

Issue No 47 – September 2020 (PDF, 3203K)

  • When will that cable break? – Warren Doubleday
  • Melbourne’s abandoned tram lines – Geoff Brown
  • St Kilda Junction: local intersection to city bottleneck – Russell Jones
  • Tram to the seaside: Point Ormond – Russell Jones
  • 1919 Flu Pandemic – Geoff Brown and Brian Weedon

Issue No 46 – June 2020 (PDF, 3967K)

  • Port Melbourne’s lost tramway – Geoff Brown
  • On the buses – Kevin Stanes

Issue No 45 – March 2020 (PDF, 1709K)

  • Bridging the Yarra: the origins of the Church Street tramway – Alan Scott
  • Designing tramway rosters – Barry George

Issue No 44 – December 2019 (PDF, 1382K)

  • What time is the next tram? – Geoff Brown

Issue No 43 – September 2019 (PDF, 2176K)

  • Birth of a Tramways Titan: centenary of the Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board – Geoff Brown
  • Money, money, money – Russell Jones

Issue No 42 – June 2019 (PDF, 1225K)

  • Melbourne’s emergency tramways – Mal Rowe
  • In the days of horse omnibuses – extract from the Argus, 1 November 1930
  • M&MTB Payroll – Dean Gilbert

Issue No 41 – March 2019 (PDF, 1476K)

  • Introducing low-floor trams to Melbourne – Geoff Brown
  • Overnight testing – Ron Scholten
  • Conductor tales: schoolkids – Kevin Stanes
  • Transporting Art – Russell Jones

Issue No 40 – December 2018 (PDF, 2215K)

  • Light Rail comes to Melbourne – Geoff Brown
  • Life as a Junior Clerk at M&MTB Head Office – Dean Gilbert
  • Tram ticket catches murderer – Warren Doubleday

Issue No 39 – September 2018 (PDF, 2880K)

  • Melbourne’s Cable Tram System: was it the largest? – Geoff Brown and Miles Pierce
  • “Rolling the groove” into Melbourne's tram rails – Warren Doubleday
  • Transporting Art Exhibition – Geoff Brown
  • Driver Training Tales – Kevin Tierney

Issue No 38 – June 2018 (PDF, 1224K)

  • Maximum Traction – Geoff Brown and Mal Rowe
  • Most Popular Conductress – Russell Jones
  • Tram Museum hits the airwaves – David Kemp

Issue No 37 – March 2018 (PDF, 2200K)

  • Melbourne Trams in the 1960s: a decade of challenges – Dale Budd

Issue No 36 – December 2017 (PDF, 2267K)

  • Echoes in the north: remnants of The Melbourne Brunswick and Coburg Tramways Trust – Mal Rowe

Issue No 35 – September 2017 (PDF, 1945K)

  • Victoria’s first municipal tramways trust – Frank McCulloch
  • Risky business: South Melbourne’s first electric tramway – Geoff Brown

Issue No 34 – June 2017 (PDF, 685K)

  • Tram ticket catches murderer: fact or fiction? – Warren Doubleday
  • Vimy House: a tramway hospital and its WWI links – Noelle Jones
  • How fast can she go? Controlling the speed of electric trams – Mal Rowe
  • Behind the camera – David J. Kemp

Issue No 33 – March 2017 (PDF, 1799K)

  • Point Ormond tramway – Warren Doubleday
  • Where past and present co-exist – Raelene Boag
  • In the driver’s cabin – Greg Robinson
  • Wallen Road bridge works – Adam Chandler and Warren Doubleday
  • Domain Road tramway – Geoff Brown

Issue No 32 – December 2016 (PDF, 1721K)

  • Class reunion – Ron Scholten
  • Decorated tramway bandsman: Robert Henry Keir, a Tramway ANZAC – Noelle Jones
  • Electrolysis: the destructive by-product of electric traction – Mal Rowe

Issue No 31 – September 2016 (PDF, 4383K)

  • From gripman to soldier – Charles Henry Haar, a Tramway ANZAC – Noelle Jones
  • 125 Years of Trams in Acland St, St Kilda – Geoff Brown

Issue No 30 – June 2016 (PDF, 4514K)

  • The tram through the park: the origins of the West Coburg tramway – Geoff Brown

Issue No 29 – December 2015 (PDF, 590K)

  • Burke Road Level Crossing Removal – Russell Jones

Issue No 28 – July 2015 (PDF, 1454K)

  • Z1 81 / Karachi W11 joins Museum collection – Russell Jones