Railways and Tramways of Australia

Desert Gold

 

Adelaide’s first C type tram entered service on 3 April 1918.

 

During the First World War (1914–1918) passenger journeys on Adelaide tramways increased markedly and the city’s tramcar fleet struggled to cope with the demands placed upon it. An order was placed for 20 trams manufactured to an existing California Combination design, consisting of an open section at each end and a central enclosed saloon. Duncan & Fraser of Adelaide built the new trams, which were numbered 171–190 and entered service from April 1918 to September 1919.

 

The Municipal Tramways Trust (MTT) referred to the new trams as ‘straight-roof cars’, in contrast to existing trams in Adelaide, which had clerestory roofs. They were designated as the C type in 1923. Seating was provided for 40 passengers.

 

Fitted with 50-horsepower (37-kW) motors, the C type trams were Adelaide’s fastest trams at the time. This resulted in them gaining the nickname ‘Desert Golds’, after a successful New Zealand racehorse of the era. Their main service was on the line to Croydon and Kilkenny, with some operation on the Port Adelaide system in the 1930s.

 

During the 1920s the fast Desert Golds were used as ‘nark’ trams to compete with private buses during peak hours. They operated without schedules, and the motormen were instructed to take passengers from the buses by running ahead of them. The buses later came under control of the MTT.

 

The C type trams were withdrawn by March 1954, and all the bodies were sold or scrapped. The bodies of nos 173 and 186 were eventually obtained by the Australian Electric Transport Museum. A bicentennial grant enabled no. 186 to be restored to operational condition and it re-entered service at the museum in March 1989.

 

Desert Gold can still be found in the Adelaide suburbs.

 

Bibliography

CA Andrews, LM Fenner, JW Hoffmann & R White, The Tramway Museum, St. Kilda, S.A., Australian Electric Traction Museum, Adelaide, 1982.

CG Seymour, ‘Adelaide’s Desert Gold trams’, Trolley Wire, no. 237, May 1989, pp 3–10.

‘South Australian trams’, The Tramway Museum, St. Kilda, S.A., www.trammuseumadelaide.com/sa-trams, accessed 29 March 2026.

‘St. Kilda … Australian Electric Traction Museum’, Trolley Wire, no. 237, May 1989, pp 38–47.

RT Wheaton, Destination Paradise, 2nd edn, Australian Electric Traction Association, Sydney, 1975.