When not in traffic on Adelaide’s streets, the trams were held at depots at Hackney, Angas St, Port Adelaide and, later, Glengowrie. They were generally stored under cover, in running sheds, so called because trams in service could be run into or out from them under their own power.

Traffic crews would drive trams out into service and the trams remaining were given any necessary attention for minor maintenance and repairs during the day. When the traffic crews brought the trams back after the days running, they left notes to report any faults on the cars they had used and at night the brakes were adjusted and other minor repairs such as replacing light globes, repairing leather strap mending windows would be done ready for those trams to run again the next day-and then this minor maintenance cycle would be repeated

‘Pit-men’ worked underneath the trams, while other tradesmen worked inside them.

The main workshops were built behind the running sheds. Trams could run out of the rear doors of the depot and move into the workshops using a traverser.

Major repairs to bodywork or running gear were done in the workshops. There were the paint shop, car-building shop, armature shop, machine shop, truck stop, wheel store and smithy. In the Hackney workshops, major repairs and maintenance were carried out on the entire MTT fleet - some 332 trams and 91 electric trolley buses. In addition, 3 completely new ‘drop-centre’ trams (and 31 trolley buses) were built and about 23 trams were remodelled in the Hackney workshops.

During World War 11 (1939 – 45), in spite of shortages of workers and materials, the workshops kept 97% of the trams and buses on the road. In addition, as part of the war effort, the workshops also worked on aircraft.

By the 1930s with the increase in motor traffic, ‘safety zones’ were made at tram stops in and near King William St. and later in North Tce. The first safety zone was a disc design atop a tubular pole fixed on a disc base with a kerosene hurricane lamp hanging from it.

Later, these substantial concrete based pylons were erected with elaborate lighting and yellow dotted lines painted on the road.

It was not unusual to see the pylons ‘bowled over’ on a Sunday morning.

There were originally six signal cabins around the city area, with five surviving to the last years of tramway operation.

The North Tce/King William St. corner had a Ôgrand unionÕ layout where trams could run in any direction.

The signalman, in his cabin, set the points and red and green signals to control tram movements through the intersection.

The tram system used direct current (DC) power at 600 volts, so it was quite different from household power, which was alternating current (AC) at 240 volts.

The MTT had its own power station at Ocean Steamers Wharf at Port Adelaide. From there the power was carried at high voltage to sub-stations in the suburbs.

In the sub- stations it was stepped down to 600 volts and fed into the overhead trolley wire.

‘Permanent way’ is the generic term used by railways to describe the track works, including rails, ballast, and sleepers. After the initial construction of the tracks and overhead system by contractors, the MTT formed a permanent way department to maintain the track work and an overhead department to maintain the poles and trolley wire and deal with emergencies such as wires falling down.

Later, extensions, relocations, duplications and track renewals were also carried out by the MTT’s own employees. Often, with track modifications, overhead wires also had to be altered. In later years the Overhead Dept. replaced centre poles with poles erected at the kerb line along many streets. They also maintained the MTT’s telephone system installed along all tram tracks.

The ‘Perway’ Dept. worked from Welland and the former horse car depot at Maylands. The Overhead Dept. was based at Hackney Depot.