page_title: Trams in Brisbane
section_title: Converted electric trams
hierarchical_section_title: Trams in Brisbane / Types of trams / Electric trams / Converted electric trams
caption_attribution_description: English: Brisbane Customs House, 1898. Image includes an electric tram and various horsedrawn vehicles. To the right are the premises of Jolliffe &amp; Coy. coach builders.
context_page_description: The Brisbane tramway network served the city of Brisbane, Australia, between 1885 and 1969. It ran on standard gauge track. The electric system was originally energised to 500 volts, and subsequently increased to 600 volts. All tramcars built in Brisbane up to 1938 had an open design. This proved so popular, especially on hot summer nights, that the trams were used as fundraisers and often chartered right up until the last service by social groups.
  Most trams operated with a two-person crew – a driver and a conductor, who moved about the tram collecting fares and issuing tickets. The exceptions to this arrangement were on the Gardens line where the short duration of the trip meant it was more effective for passengers to simply drop their fare into a fare box as they entered the tram; and the "one man cars" which operated in the early 1930s.
  The peak year for patronage was in 1944–45 when almost 160 million passengers were carried. The system route length reached its maximum extent of 109 kilometres in 1952. The total track length was 199 kilometres, owing to many routes ending in single, rather than double, track.
context_section_description: Delivery of early combination cars was delayed and as a result the tramway company decided to convert many of the horse tram to electric operation, as a temporary expedient. Despite this, many of these converted cars remained in passenger service well into the 1930s.
caption: Saloon Car in Queen Street, 1898
exif: {}