One of the more recent losses to Melbourne’s industrial heritage was the Toorak cable tram engine house on the north-west corner of Toorak Road and Chapel Street, South Yarra. In its place will rise yet another tower of apartments (this one 50 storeys high and approved by VCAT in 2015). Demolition of the old engine house commenced in April 2016 and is now complete.

Melbourne once had one of the largest and best-managed cable tram networks in the world. The system had its genesis with an American, Francis Boardman Clapp, principal partner in the Melbourne Omnibus Company. In 1877 the Company was voluntarily liquidated and reconstituted as the Melbourne Tramway & Omnibus Company in anticipation of the installation of a tramway system. To provide the legal right to implement the system, the Melbourne Tramway & Omnibus Company Act was passed by the Victorian government in October 1883 (against initial stiff opposition to a monopoly from members). A key element of the Act was the formation of a Melbourne Tramways Trust of twelve municipalities to fund and build the tramways and provide the motive power, with the Melbourne Tramway & Omnibus Company to provide the rolling-stock and to operate and maintain the system for a period of thirty years. For this privilege the Company had to meet the interest bill on the money borrowed to build the lines, and also contribute to a sinking fund to redeem the Trust’s debentures in 1914 (later extended to 1916).

The other essential element was George Smith Duncan, New Zealand-born but educated in Scotland, who became a notable engineer and installed New Zealand’s first cable tram in Dunedin, which was completed in 1881. In 1883 Duncan accepted Clapp’s invitation to come to Melbourne to be the engineer for both the Tramway & Omnibus Company and the Tramways Trust. The first line to be completed was that to Richmond, opened in November 1885. It would take six years to complete the system, a total of 44.16 miles of double track. When finished, it would become one of the wonders of the engineering world. The cable was carried in a tunnel under the road with the cable supported on pulleys at regular intervals. A ‘grip’ lowered through a slot between the rails gripped and released the cable under the control of a gripman in the leading of two semi-permanently coupled vehicles called the ‘dummy’. Engine houses providing the power to drive the cable were normally situated at the centre of a route and, preferably, where two routes made a junction, so that more than one cable could be controlled from a single engine house. An example of such an engine house was that controlling the cables for the Toorak west, Toorak east and the Prahran lines.² 

The site for the Toorak engine house was purchased in 1885 for £2200, and, in May 1887, the tender of T. Corley at £12,411 was accepted for the construction of the building.³ By April 1888, with the tramlines nearing completion, the machinery for the engine house was being installed at a cost of £16,000.⁴ It was expected that the tramway system would be opened by late October 1888, with the first trial trip being made on Monday 22 October.⁵ Delays ensued, which were said to have been created by fine adjustments for the number of cable turns required for the route. However, one suspects that an injunction put in place by the Prahran town council against the installation of a tramway siding opposite the South Yarra railway station may have been a more pressing reason.⁶ Politics played a part, even in 1888.

The boilers providing steam for the engine house were provided in two stages. In 1907 there were six boilers on site at the Toorak engine house: two 100hp semi-marine (dryback) boilers built by Johnson & Son’s Tyne Foundry and one by Langland’s Foundry (all built in 1888); with another three identical boilers added in 1890, one by Langland’s and two by Forman & Co. All boilers were fitted with Fox’s patent corrugated furnaces. Most of the tramway engine houses were similarly equipped with the exception of the two earliest: Richmond (corner Hoddle Street and Bridge Road) and Fitzroy (corner Victoria and Brunswick Streets) which had imported 100hp Babcock & Wilcox WIF water tube boilers dating from 1885 and 1886. Even so, Fitzroy had two of the locally built semi-marine boilers to make up its eventual complement of eight, the largest number of boilers of any of the engine houses - the total number of boilers in each installation appears to have varied according to the length and number of curves on each route. The boiler inspector’s comments make it clear that each boiler only worked half a year (as part of a duplicate plant) and, when idle, they were thoroughly cleaned.⁷ The fuel used was predominantly coal or coke, although tar (a by-product of gas production) was successfully burned at a number of the engine houses from 1894.⁸

The majority of the later Melbourne cable tram engines were supplied by the Austral Otis Elevator & Engineering Company Limited of South Melbourne and had 20in diameter cylinders with a stroke of 40in. (The head of the Melbourne Tramway & Omnibus Company, Francis Boardman Clapp, would send his son Harold Winthrop Clapp to be apprenticed at Austral Otis from 1893 to 1895 - Harold Clapp would go on to become Chief Commissioner of the Victorian Railways).⁹ The pioneering Richmond and Fitzroy engine houses were once again an exception; Richmond being equipped with two engines each of 370ihp with cylinders 24in in diameter and a stroke of 48in running at 44rpm (increased to 80rpm in service), supplied by W. Jessup & Sons of Leicester in England, and fitted with Wilson Hartnell’s automatic expansion gear. Close control of engine speed with a widely varying load was critical to the success of the cable system. Fitzroy was equipped with four engines 24in x 48in, each of 375ihp, these being supplied by Alexander Shanks & Son Dens Iron Works of Arbroath, Scotland.¹⁰ Toorak was also an exception, having the two of the 24in x 48in engines, almost certainly (from their appearance) made by Shanks. Each engine house also had an auxiliary donkey engine for reeling new cables. All major repairs were carried out by the workshops in North Fitzroy; running repairs and general maintenance were carried out by the engine house staff. If required, engine cylinders could be rebored in situ using a special portable plant. ¹¹ Since Toorak was one of the later engine houses built, solutions had already been found to the smoke problem (taller chimneys) and machinery noise (rope drives) which had been complained about so much by the residents around the first engine house at Richmond (originally equipped with gear-drive).¹² 

The completion of the Toorak engine house occurred on the cusp of a financial disaster. The depression of the early 1890s, caused by the collapse of the land boom, resulted in much hardship and, inevitably, affected the men working the cable tramway systems. The Melbourne Tramway & Omnibus Company threatened to close the ‘outer suburban’ lines (including the Toorak and Prahran system – then, like many others, being worked at a loss) unless the employees accepted a one-third reduction in wages. This threat gained additional leverage through the number of unemployed men wanting work at almost any wage. Without a strong union to back them, the employees had little choice but to accept the cut in wages.¹³ In 1895, with the worst of the depression wearing off, journalist ‘Ixion’ visited the Toorak engine house and wrote the following description:

When a passenger takes his seat in a tramcar, whirling smoothly and pleasantly along on his journey, he thinks little of the amount of machinery necessary to haul him to his destination. Now and again he passes by one of the big engine house buildings with tall chimney stack, catching glimpses of big wheels moving solemnly around at a seemingly moderate pace. Should he obtain permission to pass in and look around he will find much to see, admire and wonder at. Not many mornings ago I spent a most interesting time at the tram house situated at the corner of Chapel Street and Toorak Road with Mr Richards, engineer, guide, philosopher and friend. It is here that the motive power for the cables of the Toorak Road, Chapel Street and Domain Road lines is generated. It commences in the basement, where the visitor is introduced to six huge boilers, bright and clean, doing their work without noise except when they require feeding at the hands of their guardian. These boilers supply steam to two pairs of engines of 500 horsepower, one pair working while the other rests. They commence their duties each day at 5:15am and finish at 15 minutes after midnight.

The engines set in motion the main driving gear which consists of two seven feet wheels. These again in turn, by means of 20 Manila ropes, revolve the two large wheels 20ft in diameter for the purpose of gaining power. The big wheels in turn drive the cable winding drums, six in all. They are packed with wood in the grooves, which enables them to ‘bite’ the rope. Each pair of wheels is kept going together by cog wheels set in frames.

Next come the tension carriages. These are for the purpose of keeping the cables taut on the drivers. The carriages are moved backwards and forwards, tooth by tooth, over the cogs by rope and tackle. This keeps the cable always fairly taut, the carriages retreating in hot weather, when the wire rope slackens, and advancing in cold weather, when it tightens. The first cable is that which works the Chapel Street Line, the second the Toorak Road east of Chapel Street, and the third Toorak Road westwards and the Domain Road line.

… The method of putting in a new cable and taking off an old one is next explained. The processes are done simultaneously, the same machinery unwinding the new and reeling the old one. … The putting in of a new cable is done on a Saturday night after trams have finished running, and it takes about four hours. All repairs are executed on Sunday morning. A complete cable cut is of very rare occurrence now, as all gripmen are thoroughly experienced. In the beginning of the tram system, when the men were learning, cuts were frequent, and nearly always caused by gripmen forgetting to ‘throw off’ at a crossing. … Sometimes a strand parts through fair wear and tear. When detected it is cut out and a new piece spliced.¹⁴ 

The ‘Lang’s Lay’ wire ropes were a huge cost issue for the Melbourne Tramway & Omnibus Company, amounting to more than £20,000 in 1890 alone. Ropes by American, German and English makers were tried, but the problem appeared to be one of uniformity in steel quality, tempering and workmanship. A rope from one maker might last six months; another from the same maker used on the same route might last only one month. Consideration was even given to establishing a wire rope manufactory in Victoria, but it was believed that uniformity of quality would be just as difficult to maintain as it appeared to be with the imported ropes.¹⁵ 

Nowell Henry Richards, the engineer in charge of the Toorak cable tram engine house was born in Llangollen, Denbighshire, Wales in March 1857, the son of solicitor, Charles Richards and Sarah Charlotte Richards (nee Hammond). By 1881 he was serving on the SS Cyrene as second engineer.¹⁶ He arrived in Victoria circa 1886 and married Rose Amy Vaughan in 1889. The couple would remain childless. Nowell Richards was presumably the engineer at the Toorak engine house from its first operation on 10 October 1888 to closure in 1926, living at 30 Murphy Street South Yarra from 1902 to at least 1925, and living as a retiree in Mentone by 1931. Rose Amy died in 1931, and Nowell Richards remarried, wedding Ethel Amie Hamlyn at Kallista at the age of 74. He died aged 79 in a private hospital at Brighton on 11 July 1936, and is buried in the Cheltenham Cemetery.¹⁷ Between 1886 and 1893, Nowell Richards was prolific in his applications for patents for all manner of improvements to the cable tramway system, from methods of carrying the cable around curves, to grip and brake gear systems, bearing lubricators, rails, and the setting of the wood blocks laid between them.¹⁸ 

Tenders for the conversion of the Toorak Road and Chapel Street cable tramways to electric traction were called in August 1926 and, by November, work was well underway under the charge of contractor, C. D. Timms. The Chapel Street line was expected to be completed in time for the Christmas shopping rush. As part of the conversion, points at the intersection opposite the engine house had to be replaced with a set with wider track centres so, from the evening of Friday 1 October 1926, the Toorak Road service was shut down. In the early hours of the Saturday morning the engines in the Toorak engine house turned for the very last time and, by the end, of the month, the machinery was being removed.¹⁹ The first electric tram ran on the Chapel Street line on Sunday 29 October 1926, and on the Toorak Road Line (extended to Glenferrie Road with electrification) on Sunday 17 April 1927.²⁰ 

In January 1928, the Toorak engine house building was purchased by Edwin Daking Smith for the sum of £11,500, with the aim of converting it into a factory for his automated Capitol Bakeries.²¹ In 1935 the building was enlarged and externally modified by architect Harry Norris. An Art Deco façade was added, with Capitol Bakeries seemingly wishing to project an image of modernity and community involvement,²² but much of the original structure behind the façade remained intact. In December 1970, Capitol Bakeries was sold to Sunicrust Pty Ltd.²³ The sale did not include the building, which was to be sold separately. From circa 1986 the old engine house hosted numerous users as an entertainment complex (complete with skating rink), as a night club, as a furniture store, and as a soda bar. In 2014 the site was sold to Larry Kestelman for a reported $85 million. The last public opening of the complex was on Sunday 3 April 2016, and demolition started the following day.

*Peter S Evans

References

Although the engine house is technically in South Yarra it was always referred to in official documents as the ‘Toorak’ engine house.

For an excellent overview of Melbourne’s cable trams see Sutherland, A. (1888). Victoria and its Metropolis, Past and Present. McCarron Bird & Company, Melbourne, volume II, pages 17-23; also Keating, J. (1970). Mind the Curve: a history of the cable trams. Melbourne University Press.

The Argus, Saturday 11 July 1885, page 11; Saturday 28 May 1887, page 5.

The Age, Saturday 3 March 1888, page 4; Thursday 5 April 1888, page 5; Wednesday 3 October 1888, page 9.

The Age, Wednesday 3 October 1888, page 9; Tuesday 23 October 1888, page 7; The Australasian, Saturday 6 October 1888, page 36.

The Telegraph, St Kilda, Prahran & South Yarra Guardian, Saturday 27 October 1888, page 5; The Argus, Saturday 27 October 1888, page 20. The installation of the siding was ultimately resolved in favour of the Tramways Trust.

PRO, VPRS 7854/P2, unit 4, BIA 0369-0400; unit 5, BIA 0401-0421: the Toorak boilers are unit 4, BIA 0375-0380 inclusive.

The Engineer, Friday 12 October 1894, page 321.

Smith, P. A. (1981), Clapp, Sir Harold Winthrop (1875–1952), In Australian Dictionary of Biography, Melbourne University Press, Volume 8.

The Australasian, Saturday 1 May 1886, page 29; Saturday 28 August 1886, page 27; The Age, Saturday 18 July 1885, page 4; Monday 5 October 1885, page 5; Tuesday 18 February 1890, page 6; The Argus, Thursday 7 May 1885, page 6; Friday 9 October 1885, page 10; Saturday 1 November 1890, page 9; Saturday 20 December 1890, page 12.

MacMeikan (n.d.). Melbourne Cable Tramways: general report on their construction, operation and maintenance. Typescript, Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board, pages 8-34 and 39; Pollock, W. (n. d.). Melbourne Cable Tramways: details of construction and operation of power houses and track. Typescript, Melbourne & Metropolitan Tramways Board, pages 1-4. Both were written by people intimately involved with the operation of the cable tram system.

The Argus, Saturday 28 November 1885, page 11.

The Argus, Friday 10 February 1893, page 6. To be fair, Clapp also voluntarily cut his salary by one-third.

The Australasian, Saturday 12 December 1896, pages 30 and 31.

The Age, Saturday 30 August 1890 page 15.

Wales census 1861, Corwen, piece 4312, folio 73, page 2; Wales census 1881, Cardiff, piece 5286, folio 100, page 8.

Electoral rolls, division of Fawkner, subdivision of South Yarra, 1902-1925; division of Flinders, subdivision of Mentone, 1931; Nowell Richards death certificate 6132 of 1936.

See for example Victorian Government Gazette, Gazette 103 (second supplement), Thursday 20 August 1891, page 3439. A number of other applications are listed in the National Archives of Australia.

The Argus, Wednesday 25 August 1926, page 18; Tuesday 23 November 1926, page 18; Monday 27 September 1926, page 10; Thursday 30 September 1926, page 16; Friday 22 October 1926, page 9.

The Prahran Telegraph, Friday 12 November 1926, page 5; The Argus, Saturday 16 April 1927, page 18.

The Argus, Saturday 2 June 1928, page 27; The Prahran Telegraph, Friday 27 January 1928, page 6.

The Argus, Saturday 17 August 1935, page 22; The Age, Wednesday 16 March 1938, page 10; Record (Emerald Hill), Saturday 12 September 1936, page 3.