They were introduced in 1910 by the Victorian Railways as steam locomotive hauled cars, and converted to electric traction from 1919 when the Melbourne electrification project was underway.

Incandescent lighting, a ceiling with pressed tin patterns, luggage racks above head height, and beautifully stained woodgrain walls were fitted inside each compartment.

[3] From 1971, the interior was simplified to cut maintenance costs, with some doorway windows being replaced by metal and plywood, and the wooden louvred sun blinds being removed.

However, most diagrams show the raised letter with the newer code, perhaps because they were drawn during the construction phase, around the same time as the recoding was being planned.

That gives a rough indication of when the decision was made to proceed with a 1500V DC overhead wiring system for Melbourne's electrification, as opposed to earlier proposals to use a third rail.

In 1921, a decision was made to supplement the mail/newspaper distribution fleet with double-ended motor cars, having the interior of a typical bogie guards' van of the CE/CW/CV types.

That was partially paid for by the Electrical Engineering Branch, with a modified design featuring a centre cupola for viewing of the overhead wires.

When planning the initial electrification project, it was expected that some lines could be operated with single-carriage or two-carriage trains instead of requiring a full consist.

The circle indicated to crew members that the vans were not fitted with a handbrake or emergency brake taps, normally found in carriages with the raised-profile roof of the guards' compartment.

As a testbed for the new Harris cars then being developed, the body of incomplete 441T was reworked to a more modern design and released into service in 1950, with three sets of doors per side.

That was a temporary provision until the planned conversion of the carriages into driving trailers, but eventually the equipment proved safe enough for daily use and the cars were left as-was.

The brake equipment was used when shunting an M-T-G unit onto an M-T-T-M block, to build up the length of trains during peak periods.

[13] As noted above, in peak traffic periods such as the Easter and the Christmas holiday seasons, the G type carriages were withdrawn from suburban service and used to boost the capacity of country trains.

However, in some cases, M-T-D sets ran on particularly flat, short-distance lines where late running, although annoying to the passengers, would not disrupt the entire system.

In May 1968, an eight-car Tait train was tested on the Frankston line, made up of three motor cars and five trailers, and entered service under the new timetable in August 1968.

[14] In 1936 a short-lived experiment involved the exclusive use of six Tait carriages on a special train running from Flinders Street to Port Melbourne, to meet passengers off international ships.

[16] Shipping companies would publish in newspapers their six-monthly planned departures from Port Melbourne (P&O, Orient, Shaw Savill, Aberdeen & Commonwealth to England and Matson to the United States); ships to be met by The Boat Train would have an additional comment that the train was to leave Flinders St Platform 10, about 90 minutes prior to the vessel's departure time.

The train ran as required until October 1939, when disappointing patronage and the outbreak of World War II caused the service to be withdrawn.

The two Harris cars were fitted with rail greasing equipment for tight curves, and the five-piece train made regular runs around the electrified network.

The two Harris motors were subsequently fitted with the upgraded pantographs and ran in rail greaser service until suffering a major breakdown in 2003.

[18] 76 seven-car sets of Tait cars were assembled as M-T-T-M-G-T-M, for use on the Broadmeadows to Sandringham (20), Williamstown Pier to Dandenong and Frankston (34), Glen Waverley to Fawkner and St Albans (19), Lilydale and Upper Ferntree Gully (1) and Thomastown and Hurstbridge (2) lines.

[18] 14x G cars were included in otherwise Swing-Door sets on the Box Hill lines, and a further four on the Thomastown and Hurstbridge group; two driving trailers were allocated to the Newport to Altona shuttle, and one M, two T and one G to the E Trains running towards Stony Point and Healesville.

Anything spare was used on the North Melbourne (or occasionally Camberwell) group of lines, which at the time did not have a connection to the City Loop, where wooden trains had been banned account fire risk.

6-car sets would be used on the Sandringham route, split offpeak and shared with the St Kilda and Port Melbourne lines, and if a path could be found across the junction, Epping and Hurstbridge.

Tait trains were not allowed in the City Loop after 1982, due to fire hazard presented by their wooden bodies, so they spent most of their final years on the Port Melbourne, St Kilda and Sandringham lines.

[22] Due to asbestos found in the brakeblocks,[23] amongst other industrial problems, the last of the 7 Tait trains were withdrawn from service by 27 December 1984.

[1] On Friday 15 February 1985, the "great carriage auction" was held at Newport Workshops with large quantities of vehicle bodies sold and proceeds donated to the Australian Railway Historical Society's museum.

Due to the lack of door locks and other safety issues, the Tait cars had been banned from operating on the Melbourne rail network between 2004 and 2016.

The special was organised, from the West end, as D3639, 317M, 230D, 208T, 381M and K190, and operated by Steamrail Victoria and V/Line on behalf of the Level Crossing Removal Authority's festivals at Ormond, McKinnon and Bentleigh stations.

The funding will be used to reinstate the automatic stopping trip system, provide radios and speedometers for the first time, and restore and upgrade the mechanical and electrical components to modern standards as required.