page_title: Tram types in Adelaide
section_title: Type H1
hierarchical_section_title: Tram types in Adelaide / Trams of the 20th century / Type H1
caption_attribution_description: English: Municipal Tramways Trust Type H1 no. 381, of 1950s-modern appearance, in silver and carnation red paint scheme, at the terminus of the Colonel Light Gardens line at the intersection of Goodwood Road and Springbank Road, Adelaide. This is a cropped version of "MTT Type H1 tram no. 381 and Type F at Col. Light Gardens terminus, Adelaide, 1 April 1956.jpg".
context_section_description: When Adelaide's street tramways were closed in 1958, Type H1 car 381 was the most modern of the MTT fleet. It was the first of a projected order of 40 cars originally planned in 1939. However, the Second World War intervened, and post-war material shortages delayed construction until the 1950s. Built by Adelaide bus manufacturer J.A. Lawton & Sons as one of two  prototypes, no. 381 was essentially a streamlined, all-steel version of the Type H with many constructional features of buses and one pair of doors in the middle of the tram instead of at the end. Although it captured the public's imagination, commonly being known as "the streamliner", it incorporated only marginal improvements over the Type H. It was introduced in January 1953 and for most of its short operational life it ran on the through-routed Kensington and Henley North lines.
  In 1953, however, time was running out for Adelaide's trams. By February 1950 petrol rationing had ended and families aspired to buy motor cars; patronage on public transport had dropped from 95 million in 1946 to 78 million in 1951. In 1951 the lower house of the parliament of South Australia appointed a select committee to investigate the MTT following a forecast that in June 1952, for the first time since its inception, the trust would be unable to meet its financial obligations without assistance. in February 1952 the committee issued its interim findings criticising many of the operations of the trust, including a failure to plan for the future. Eleven months later, in the same month that the H1 car was introduced, the MTT board, which since 1907 had comprised mainly municipal council appointees, was reconstituted with a new board of state government appointees. The board initiated a complete re-examination of the transport system, and plans were made to replace all the existing tramways, including the Glenelg line, with bus operation.
  Thus tram 381 became one of a kind; a partly constructed 382 was scrapped. It was withdrawn from revenue service in December 1957 and donated to the Tramway Museum, St Kilda in 1965, where it is now operational. Compared with only five years in revenue service it has spent 55 years in preservation.
caption: Prototype, and only, Type H1 tram no. 381, on an enthusiast tour of 1 April 1956, was an uncommon visitor at the terminus of the Colonel Light Gardens line.
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