The tracks or roads in the
depot are assigned a road number. The depot in Wombat Creek has five
roads, numbered from 1 to 5. 1 to 3 is in the main depot, 4 and 5 are
assigned to the tracks next to and in the old depot.
The run-in board is used
by the Depot Starter – who is responsible for managing tram
operations at the depot – to show arriving crews which road to
berth their tram on, by writing the tram number under the appropriate
road number. If a tram number didn’t appear on the run-in board, the
driver would stop on the entry track, and go into the Depot Starter’s
office and ask where to berth the tram.
This is important, as
different roads have different purposes. Only roads 1 and 3 have
maintenance pits, where the pit-man can perform basic maintenance
such as adjusting brakes. The Depot Starter will ensure trams needing
maintenance are place on run-in on road 1 or 3. The run-in board is
also a key tool used by the Depot Starter to position trams ready for
next day’s operations.
The run-in board is
modelled from the board from the Hawthorn Depot, Melbourne. Today the
depot houses around 20 vintage trams and is managed by the Melbourne
Tram Museum. The Wombat Creek run-in board only has tram numbers for
roads 1, 2, and 3 since it doesn’t really make sense to list trams
for roads 4 and 5, which are approached through a different set of
points.
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