page_title: Trams in Brisbane
section_title: Brills
hierarchical_section_title: Trams in Brisbane / Types of trams / Electric trams / New-built electric trams / Brills
caption_attribution_description: English: Brisbane 12 Bench "toastrack" tram operated by the Brisbane Tramways Company at the Toowong Terminus in Elizabeth Street Toowong.
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: These 20 cars were officially "bogie open tip-over cross-bench cars". They were a standard design tram built by J G Brill and Company of Philadelphia, although two were built by the Brisbane Tramways Company, presumably under licence from the Brill Company. They each had 4 fixed back-to-back benches and 8 tip-over benches. The first 8 had clerestory roofs, the remainder had plain roofs. The first 8 were also fitted with couplings for trailers, but the trailers were eventually motorised (see "light twelve bench cars" below.) As these trams only had hand brakes, operating a coupled set was physically demanding on drivers. In later years these workhorses were very dilapidated and had diagonal cross bracing on each bulkhead to reduce body sway. One tram was involved in a bad accident in 1944 and was converted to centre aisle design (see Special Dreadnoughts). They were gradually withdrawn from service between 1937 and 1952.
caption: Brill at the Toowong terminus – note the trailer coupling at the front of the tram
exif: {}