"Okay, so here's your introduction to the cab of a Mk.1 Double Saloon tram. Yeah, it's even simpler than the "Fiducia" layout as this is a 1920s design.

We'll run through the items from left to right.

Firstly, the speed controller and magnetic brake. Moving it clockwise will step through the speed controller notches to increase power - you've got four settings up to 'full series', three more notches up to 'full parallel' on this tram, and four 'parallel' notches on '151' as it uses a slightly different controller. Remember, only go past notch 4 on hill climbs, and only if no other tram is climbing out at the same time. Unlike the 'Fiducia' type trams, this has no emergency dead-man's handle: take your hand off the controller, and nothing happens!
Moving the controller anti-clockwise will turn the motors into generators, which in turn will feed current to a magnetic shoe that will start clamping itself down to the rail. It's pretty darn effective, though we only use it as emergency braking.
Oh yeah, you'll also be instructed later on the last emergency stopping methods, or as I call them, "Crazy Ivan" or "desperation" braking. These methods are the tram equivalent of throwing your car into reverse gear while moving forwards - one with power on, one with power off. We don't do these unless it's absolutely necessary, it has the potential to stress the tram up and there's only three of this type running on the entire planet.

Next is the drive selector. Push it forward to go forward, pull it back for reverse if you need to, and move it to 'neutral' when you stop. You can't move the speed controller until you're in forward or reverse, that's a feature. Pull the 'key' out of the selector when you're leaving the tram and put it in a safe place.

The tram bell, or 'gong', you'll be using a lot to warn people you're coming. Give it a good hard stamp to ring it.

If you experience wheel slip you can drop sand on the track ahead of the wheels by pressing down on that foot pedal behind the tram bell.

The rope? That's a 'retriever' that we attach to the pole rope when this end of the tram is at the rear. Make sure that the two ropes are secured through the loops, and that the window is open enough for the rope to swing freely outside. We need this rope system as unlike the 'Fiduca' trams - or 'Fids' - the Double Saloons are single pole trams, so we have to swing the pole from one end to another at each end of the line. This means we can't use built-in mechanical retrievers on each end like on the 'Fids' which have a pole at each end. Don't forget to secure the pole rope to the retriever - if the pole comes off the overheard, we need the retriever to pull the pole down again!

Air brake... this is the brake we'll be routinely using. This type is known in the trade as a "lapping" airbrake - no, I don't fully understand why it's called that, there's probably a YouTube video that covers it. But the important thing is that it works differently to every other brake you've come across, so it'll take a bit of getting used to. While fully left is brakes off, and fully right is brakes fully on, the centre position of the brake handle is a 'null' or 'lap' position where air is neither being released from or added to the brakes. The upshot of this is that if you want to apply a little bit of brake, you move the brake handle to just past right of the 'lap' position and allow air into the brakes, then when you feel the tram start to slow move the handle back to 'lap' position - the brakes will then stay applied at that small amount. If you've applied a bit too much brake, move the brake handle to just past left of the 'lap' position until you hear air coming out then move the handle back to 'lap' position. You'll be using a lot of this apply-air-move-to-lap-then-release-air-and-back-to-lap technique - the older drivers call it 'fanning' - for controlling the tram going down slopes at the beach end of the run. Yeah, it's not intuitive for a start, but once you grasp the concept it's actually quite useful.
Of course, if you have to stop in a hurry, you can just move the brake over to hard right.

The air-pressure gauge tells us how much braking air is in the air tank, usually between 60 and 80psi worth. Yeah, it's pre-metric. So is the tram.
No, there's no speedometer. You can use one of those speedometer apps for your phone if you want, I do.

Finally, that big wheel is the hand-brake. No, despite what many people think, that's not the steering wheel. As you know, we don't need one as the rails guide us where we're going. Yeah, we have three sets of brakes and no steering! Wellington Tramways back in the day insisted on three brake systems for safety as the trams ran over a lot of hills - and stopping in an emergency is kinda important.
Turn the wheel clockwise to engage the handbrake. To release the handbrake, kick out the pawl at the bottom of the handbrake unit and let the handbrake wheel turn counter-clockwise. Remember to kick the bottom pawl back and turn the handbrake wheel clockwise to the first click when you're done.

No, there's no door control for the passenger doors. You have to go around and personally open and close each door as well as the safety bars in the centre section. Yeah, "health and safety" wasn't a thing in the 1920s - it was only when some poor conductor was killed when hanging outside of a fully-loaded tram that they made it mandatory for all New Zealand trams to allow the conductor to move from one end of the tram to the other inside the tram without having to use the outside step...
And you have to make sure the outside step is raised and lowered for the embarking or disembarking side. Yeah, it's much more work than the doors on the 'Fids'. And it's a bugger if you get to the other end of the line and find the step is extended on the wrong side of the tram.

Well, technically the tram does have a windscreen wiper, but I've never seen it run and I'm not sure if it works. You probably won't need it much as when the weather looks a bit inclement we run the 'Fids' instead of the Double Saloons, and if it rains that hard we probably won't have passengers anyway.

So... any questions?"

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