Adelaide-built H Type trams great survivors on Adelaide's lone Glenelg line until Classics arrive in 2006

The Glenelg H Type tram lined up with its successors.

The H Type trams built by A. Pengelly & Co. in Adelaide in 1929 for the Glenelg line survived to become the oldest passenger trams in Australia – on the last remaining tram line in Aelaide after 1958 –  until they were replaced by Bombadier Flexity Classics in 2006.

The second-longest trams ever built, the 30 H Types were also used on the Henley North-Cheltenham and Kensington Gardens lines. The H Type regularly ran as double sets at busier times. All services were operated by a crew of driver and conductor (driver and two conductors on coupled sets).

With a heritage ambience of varnished wood and etched glass interiors, the H Types were were repainted silver and carnation red in1952-56, before being returned to tuscan red from 1971. From 1986, they had pantographs on top as trolley poles were removed.  

Car No. 378, previously sold in 1986, was repurchased and refurbished and in 1990 as the Adelaide Tram Car Restaurant, run by a private operator. It wasn’t successful and the tram was later bought by TransAdelaide and renamed Grand Lady but also failed as a restaurant. The tram was stored at Glengowrie depot and sold in 2006 to the South Australian History Trust that made it available to the St Kilda Tramway Museum, where it has been run on occasions.

In 2000, Car 372 conveyed the Olympic flame from Glenelg to Morphettville as part of the Sydney games torch relay.

With the arrival of the new Bombadier Flexity Classic trams in 2006, five H-class (351, 367, 370, 374 and 380) were refurbished in 2000, with the idea of suing them on special weekend and holidays. By 2012, only 351 and 367 remained with the other three in store at Mitsubishi Motors Australia’s Clovelly Park plant.
The 351 was restored in tuscan red by Bluebird Rail at Islington railway workshops in 2012, briefly operating weekend services in 2013.