South Australian Rail Page - Birney Cars in Australia

Bendigo Birney No.28 at the Bendigo depot.

Photo by Douglas Colquhoun, National Railway Museum DAC6526

The Birney Safety Car was the brainchild of Charles O. Birney, an engineer working for Stone & Webster, a company running streetcars in several North American cities. Designed as a challenge to falling patronage in off-peak periods, it appeared in 1916 and became an immediate hit with most traction companies.

Known as the Birney Safety Car, it featured such refinements as interlocking to stop the car moving off while the doors were open, "dead man's" controller, stressed skin body (later used in aircraft construction), curved roof, etc. It was both strong and light, and cheap to build, and its 25hp motors supplied rapid acceleration, even when fully loaded. Many thousands were built over a ten year period; primarily for North and South America.

Only eight came to Australia (in 1923-24); four to Adelaide, and two each to Melbourne and Geelong. All except Melbourne's X.218 (built by the St. Louis Car Co.) were built by J. G. Brill of Philadelphia. All but the St. Louis car survive to this day; six at Bendigo and one at the St. Kilda Tramway Museum, South Australia.

The four Adelaide cars were classed G and given the fleet numbers 301-304 by the Municipal Tramways Trust. Placed in service on the isolated Port Adelaide system, they worked there until the system closed in 1935, being then sold to Geelong. In 1947, along with the two original Geelong cars, they were sent to Bendigo where, with the exception of the No.27 (Adelaide MTT No.303 which is now at the St. Kilda Tramway Museum), all cars remain at Bendigo.

The Melbourne Birneys (X217 and X218) are also preserved, X217 as part of the Melbourne heritage fleet, and X218 (in dismantled condition) held by the Tramway Museum Society of Victoria at Bylands, Victoria.

ROSTER OF BIRNEY CARS IN AUSTRALIA
Class	Road Nos.	Builder	Date in Traffic	Geelong Nos.	Date in Traffic	Bendigo Nos.	Date in Traffic	With- drawn
Melbourne and Metropolitan Tramways Board
X	217	J. G. Brill	1924	-	-	-	-	2-1957
X	218	St. Louis Car Company	1924	-	-	-	-	2-1957
Electric Supply Co. of Victoria, Geelong
-	14	J. G. Brill	27-8-1924	-	-	11	4-1950	-
-	15	J. G. Brill	29-8-1924	-	-	15	14-4-1949	-
Municipal Tramways Trust, Adelaide
G	301	J. G. Brill	16-12-1925	30	29-1-1936	30	13-8-1947	-
G	302	J. G. Brill	16-12-1925	29	6-2-1936	29	24-9-1947	-
G	303	J. G. Brill	26-12-1925	27	17-1-1936	27	14-2-1948	-
G	304	J. G. Brill	26-12-1925	28	24-1-1936	28	30-10-1947	-

BIRNEY CARS IN AUSTRALIA - DIMENSIONS
.	Melbourne Cars		Geelong	Adelaide
.	X-class 217	X-class 218	-	G-class
Trucks	Brill 79E	St. Louis No.7	Brill 79E	Brill 79E
Motors:
Type	GE264	WH510	GE264	GE264A
No. & Rating	2 x 25 hp	2 x 25 hp	2 x 25 hp	2 x 25 hp
Weight	8.2 tons	8.5 tons	7 tons	7.6 tons
Body:
Length	28' 0"	28' 0"	28' 9"	28' 9"
Height	10' 0"	10' 0"	-	10' 1¾"
Width	8' 4½"	8' 4½"	-	-
Capacity:
Seats	33	33	32	32
Standees	17	17	18	18

Notes:

1. The Melbourne and Geelong cars were equipped with two trolley poles. The Geelong cars were unique in having longitudinal seats.

2. Mileages for G-Type cars at closure of the Port Adelaide system:

301	-	183, 288
302	-	192, 920
303	-	198,791
304	-	202,811

References:

J. C. Morphett, Notes from MTT correspondence files.

Destination Eaglehawk: K. S. Kings, Traction Publications, 1965.

Destination Paradise: R. T. Wheaton, Traction Publications, 1975.

Destination City: Norman Cross, Dale Budd and Randall Wilson, Transit Australia Publishing, 1993.

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