page_title: Tram types in Adelaide
section_title: Type G
hierarchical_section_title: Tram types in Adelaide / Trams of the 20th century / Type G
caption_attribution_description: English: A four-wheeled tram -- Type G, no. 303 -- on the Glenelg tram line runs over a level crossing on Greenhill Road during an Adelaide "centenary of transport" festival in 1978. The tram is a "Birney Safety Car" built by the J.G. Brill Company of Philadelphia, USA, in 1935 before assembly in the workshops of the Municipal Tramways Trust, Adelaide, South Australia..
context_section_description: Four Type G cars were built by the J.G. Brill Company in Philadelphia in 1924 and were placed in service in 1925. They were the company’s standard "Birney safety car" – named after their designer, Charles Birney – that had become popular on lightly trafficked lines in the US. They incorporated several safety features and used little power, but owing to their small wheelbase were said to ride "like a rowboat out to sea".
  The trams filled a niche demand for economic operation over the lightly patronised Port Adelaide system,  carrying only 50 passengers. They incorporated folding doors and steps and several safety features, and used little power, but due to their small wheelbase tended to "ride like a rowboat out to sea". They were the only trams in Adelaide able to be operated by the driver alone, doing away with the need for a conductor. Until the arrival of the 100 Series Flexity and 200 Series Citadis trams more than 80 years later, they were also the only trams in Adelaide to be entirely constructed overseas.
  The Type G trams ran for 10 years before the Port Adelaide system was closed in 1935. The following year, the four were sold to the State Electricity Commission of Victoria for use in Geelong, joining two other, new, Birney cars. In 1947 the Commission transferred the four former Adelaide cars to its Bendigo tramways, to be followed by the remaining two in 1949. There, the trams were in revenue service until 1972 when the system was closed down.
caption: Type G car 303, on the Glenelg tram line, runs over a level crossing on Greenhill Road during an Adelaide "centenary of transport" festival in 1978
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "144", "Image YResolution": "144", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Pixelmator 3.6", "Image DateTime": "2019:05:29 18:05:31", "Image ExifOffset": "150", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2019:05:13 14:24:19", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2019:05:13 14:24:19", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1580", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1318"}