1950 decade HAY FORK - A local invention. Bill and Arthur Gillespie and Bon Barrie In the early 1950’s Bill Gillespie of Bulmans Lane had been experimenting in developing a machine to improve the collection of hay sheaves at harvesting and stack building time. The ripened crop was cut by a reaper and binder which bundled the storks into sheaves tied with binder twine. The reaper and binder was towed by a tractor by the mid 1940s previously teams of draught horses were used to pull the reaper and binder. A photograph taken at the Barrie farm shows three binders the first being towed with a tractor and the others with horse teams. Two workmen were needed to operate the binder when cutting a crop. The sheaves collected on the binder and released onto the ground and were scattered across the paddocks. Using a conventional two pronged pitch fork the harvest hands collected the sheaves and placed each one cut edge on the ground in an upright position and layered with about 15 sheaves into an apex shape to form was is known as a stook. The shape of the stook allowed for drying and draining of water if rain had occurred. Prior to the invention of the mechanical hayfork this was a laborious task requiring each sheaf to be pitched onto a tray truck and moved to the location of the haystack. The mechanised HAYFORK was operated by one person on tractor greatly reducing the need for gangs of labourers. At harvest time farmers had relied on itinerant teams of workers descending on the district looking for work. The three Barrie brothers on their adjoining farms combined forces to cut their crop at its optimum time while the weather was in their favour. Up to many 20 workers at times formed a team in earlier times. Agricultural university students were also keen to gain practical experience in the field. Each of the brothers had a particular skill, and Tom Barrie was the expert on stack building. The district haystacks had a distinctive shape and could be recognised by their builder. Bill Gillespie’s first operational HAY FORK consisted of a large 13 pronged fork situated forward of the truck cabin. It was attached with iron girders and mounted on the rear of the cabin to the tray of his British Bedford truck. It was constructed in metal and iron and welded in the farmers work sheds. The mechanism was raised and lowered by the driver scooping along the ground to pick up a complete stook to raise high enough to deposit all the sheaves in one stook onto the stack or truck tray. The fork section was released by a rope and operated by the driver in the cabin. This model was trialled on the Barrie farm at Ferris Lane. It proved to be very successful and the Barrie/ Gillespie brothers went on to develop a HAYFORK which attached to a tractor and was operated with a series of levers and was raised and lowered hydraulically. It was detached from the tractor when stacking was completed. In its early days farmers travelling along the Western Highway called at the Barrie farm at Ferris Lane to inspect its construction and operation of the invention. It became a widely adopted by farmers throughout the State. It was being used on Wattie Palmer’s farm on Bridge Road Melton South in 1997. Farming in Melton, hay growing and stack building. agriculture, local identities

Set of 14 colour photographs of the installation of the No. 2 end motor into No. 28's 21E truck on 20/2/2000 and its subsequent checking on Wendouree Parade. 1321.1 - Pushing truck with only No. 1 motor installed onto No. 5 road - Alan Snowball watching. 1321.2 - Motor on crane, with motor suspension bearings lying by rail. 1321.3 - Motor in position - still on crane 1321.4 - Bear caps being fitted - Warren Doubleday fitting cap 1321.5 - Lunch 1321.6 - Bearing caps in position, with split pins and cables joined and insulated with heat shrink 1321.7 - Gear end of motor frame showing previous welding repairs for cracked gear case support arm. 1321.8 - Dipstick tubes being fitted to oil boxes. 1321.9 - Packing motor suspension bearing boxes 1321.10 - St Aidans Drive - truck towed by 661 and service car 26. 1321.11 - ditto 1321.12 - ditto with out 26 - Alastair Reither and Simon Jenkins looking on. 1321.13 - truck with 661 at St Aidans Drive 1321.14 - placing truck under No. 28.21e trucks, motors, 28, btm, tram 26, tram 661

Set of 12 reports, photocopied onto heat sensitive paper from various magazines. Documents match the image numbers. .1 - 2 pages, from The Commonwealth Engineer, 1/10/1917 - "New Cars for the Melbourne Brunswick and Coburg Tramways", written by Straun Robertson. .2 - 2 pages, from The Commonwealth Engineer, 1/3/1919 - "Double Bogie Combination Tram Car - St Kilda Brighton Electric Line". .3 - 2 pages - Electrical Engineer - 15/6/1924 - "One Man cars for Melbourne and Geelong Vic. The Brill Birney Safety Car" .4 - 1 page - Electrical Engineer - 15/11/1925 - "Standard Car for Melbourne Tramways" - has sketch of W2 369. .5 - 2 pages - Electrical Engineer - 15/8/1927 - "New Bogie car for Melbourne Tramways" Y class. .6 - 2 pages - Electrical Engineer -15/3/1936 - "Tramcar of New type for Melbourne - Large car for Two-man or One-man operation" - Y1 class .7 - 3 pages, The Electrical Engineer and Merchandiser - 15/3/1932 - "Modern Tramcars for Melbourne - Design for reduction of noise and construction with electrical Welding" W3 class. .8 - 2 pages, The Electrical Engineer and Merchandiser - 15/11/1933 - "New Tramcars for Melbourne" - has sketch of the W4 class tram. .9 - 3 pages, The Electrical Engineer and Merchandiser - 16/12/1935 - "Melbourne's Lates Tramcars, comfortable Accommodation and modern traction equipment" - W5 class .10 - 3 pages - The Electrical Engineer and Merchandiser - 15/3/1939 - "Improved Type Tramcar - advanced truck design, pneumatically operated doors, special lighting, acceleration 3pmh per sec." SW5 class. .11 - 3 pages - The Electrical Engineer and Merchandiser - 15/9/1950 - "Noiseless Tramcar - first Australian Vehicles - Bogies fitted have special noise reducing features - motor drive through bevel gears, dynamic braking" - PCC 980 (See also Reg Item 5601 for a similar report) .12 - 1 page - handwritten on the rear of a copy of item 11 - Editorial from the Oct. 1951 issue of same magazine looking at the rate of acceleration. Reprint of .7 added 30/7/2019, from papers ex Robert Green - in poor condition, has been folded, both left and right hand edges in multiple tears. The photos are good. Measures 282H x 220W.trams, tramways, mmtb, mbctt, new tramcars, vr, bogie trams, birney, x class, w2 class, y class, y1 class, w3 class, one man trams, w4 class, w5 class, sw5 class, pcc class, tramcar design, electrical engineering