Swing Door

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Swing doors, more commonly known as 'Dogboxs' or 'Doggies' are trains that once ran on the the Melbourne suburban network. They get their name from the fact that they had no through corridors, only a series of compartments that stretched right accross the car with a door on each side.

They were converted to electric traction in the early 20th century from steam-hauled passenger cars, and remained in service until 1974. The fleet was made up of M, (Motor car)T, (Trailer car) and D (Driving trailer) cars, which could be seen running in any arrangment from 1 car, (Using one of the double-ended M cars) to 8 cars. They were capible of running in multiple unit with the Tait trains, so occaisionally mixed sets occured. 10 Dogbox M cars were converted to parcels vans, (Numbered 6CM to 15CM(1CM to 5CM were Tait motors)) and two M cars, 156M and 113M were modified for use as shunters in the Jolimont workshops.

As of 2006, the only two operational cars are 107M and 137M, which are used on occasional tours run by Elecrail, a division of Steamrail Victoria.

A number of other cars are under restoration.