Railways and Tramways of Australia

Prison bound

 

Prison tram no. 948 entered service in Sydney on 25 September 1909.

 

Tram no. 948 was built at the tramway workshops at Randwick. Its layout featured a side corridor leading to six compartments, each with a capacity for six prisoners. The compartments had sliding doors, with windows on the corridor side only. Two of the compartments were typically set aside for women. Folding seats were provided for police and warders at each end. Two motors each provided 48 horsepower (36 kW).

 

The duties of no. 948 were carrying prisoners between Darlinghurst Police Station, Darlinghurst Courthouse and Long Bay Gaol. The letters ‘NO PASSENGERS’ were painted above the headlights at each end of no. 948 to indicate clearly that it was not one of the many passenger trams that passed along the line where it operated. At junctions it was given the right of way. If no. 948 was out of service, then it was replaced by an O Class tram, which had enclosed compartments in the centre.

 

Two prisoners being transported between Long Bay Gaol and Darlinghurst escaped from the prison tram on 4 March 1946. A prison knife was used to cut a hole in the roof. Both men were captured the following day. One of the escapees was Darcy Dugan, who became notorious for his prison escapes.

 

The New South Wales Police Department advised the Department of Road Transport and Tramways in 1949 that they would no longer fund maintenance or repairs for the prison tram or pay costs for the crew to operate the tram. No. 948 required major maintenance work to its underframe and body, and it was instead withdrawn from service in early 1950.

 

Prison tram no. 948 is now an exhibit at the Sydney Tramway Museum at Loftus.

 

Read more

https://www.railtram.com.au/prison-tram-948

 

Bibliography

‘300 police in hunt: both escapees caught’, The Sydney Morning Herald, 6 March 1946, p. 1.

D Budd, Sydney Tramway Museum: visit souvenir, South Pacific Electric Railway Co-operative Society Ltd, Sydney, 2004.

Sydney Tramway Museum, www.sydneytramwaymuseum.com.au.

R Willson, ‘Sydney’s prison van tram’, Trolley Wire, no. 309, May 2007, pp 3–15.

I Saxon, A century of New South Wales tramcars, volume three, the electric era: 1908 to 1961, Sydney Tramway Museum, 2022