Editing Trams in Melbourne (section)

====Victorian Railways Electric Street Railways====
[[File:Two Victorian Railway trams.jpg|thumb|right|Two [[Victorian Railways]] trams]]
The [[Victorian Railways]] line came about when [[Thomas Bent]] became [[Premier of Victoria|Premier]]. A leading land boomer, he stood to benefit from construction of the line, through the increased value of his large land holdings in the area, and pushed through the legislation to enable to building of the line by the VR in 1904.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.hawthorntramdepot.org.au/papers/bent.htm |title=Bent by name, Bent by nature |author=Russell Jones |year=2003 |work=Friends of Hawthorn Tram Depot |access-date=23 October 2011 |archive-date=22 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110822235125/http://www.hawthorntramdepot.org.au/papers/bent.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

The VR tram was called a "Street Railway" and was built using the Victorian Railways {{Track gauge|5ft3in}} [[broad gauge]] instead of the cable tramway [[standard gauge]] of {{Track gauge|impsg}}, and connected it with the [[St Kilda railway station]], which would allow trams to be moved along the St Kilda railway line for servicing at [[Jolimont Yard]].<ref name="VR electric street railways">{{cite web |url=http://www.hawthorntramdepot.org.au/papers/vrtram.htm |title=VR electric street railways |author=Russell Jones |year=2003 |work=Friends of Hawthorn Tram Depot |access-date=23 October 2011 |archive-date=22 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110822235824/http://www.hawthorntramdepot.org.au/papers/vrtram.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The line was opened in two stages, from St Kilda railway station to Middle Brighton on 5 May 1906 and to Brighton Beach terminus on 22 December 1906.<ref name="The early days"/>

A fire at the Elwood tram depot on 7 March 1907 destroyed the depot and all the trams. Services resumed on 17 March 1907 using four [[Sydney C-Class Tram|C-class trams]] and three [[Sydney D-Class Tram|D-class trams]] from [[Trams in Sydney|Sydney]], which were altered to run on VR trucks salvaged from the fire. These trams sufficed until [[Newport Workshops]] built 14 new trams. The St Kilda to Brighton Beach Electric Street Railway closed on 28 February 1959 and was replaced by buses.<ref name="VR electric street railways"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tramway.org.au/reflections.php?p=vr_tramway_reminisences |title=V.R. Tramway "Reminisences." |author=Paul Nicholson |date=June–July 1969 |work=Running Journal |access-date=28 October 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110220032730/http://www.tramway.org.au/reflections.php?p=vr_tramway_reminisences |archive-date=20 February 2011 }}</ref>

VR opened a second, standard gauge, electric tramway from [[Sandringham railway station]] to [[Black Rock, Victoria|Black Rock]] on 10 March 1919, it was extended to [[Beaumaris, Victoria|Beaumaris]] on 2 September 1926. The service was withdrawn on 5 November 1956 and replaced with buses.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tramway.org.au/reflections.php?p=the_sandringham_tramway |title=The Sandringham Tramway |author=Arthur Stone |date=October–November 1969 |work=Running Journal |access-date=3 June 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706130417/http://www.tramway.org.au/reflections.php?p=the_sandringham_tramway |archive-date=6 July 2011 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://localhistory.kingston.vic.gov.au/htm/article/237.htm |work=[[City of Kingston]] |title=Did You Know?: Trams |access-date=3 June 2011 |archive-date=6 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706122730/http://localhistory.kingston.vic.gov.au/htm/article/237.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>