Sydney Tramway Museum facts for kids
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| Established | 1965 |
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| Location | Pitt Street, Loftus, New South Wales, Australia |
| Type | Tramway museum |
| Nearest car park | On site |
The Sydney Tramway Museum is a special place where you can see and ride on trams from long ago. It's run by a group of passionate volunteers and is the oldest tram museum in Australia. It's also the biggest one in the entire Southern Hemisphere! You can find it in Loftus, a suburb in the south of Sydney.
Contents
How the Museum Began
The story of the museum starts back in 1956. Volunteers began building it near the Royal National Park. It officially opened in 1965. At first, it was quite small, with just one shed and a short track.
As the museum grew, it needed more space. In the 1980s, it moved across the Princes Highway to its current spot next to the Loftus railway station. This new location officially opened in 1988. A historic tram shelter from Railway Square, which had been taken down in 1973, was carefully put back together here.
A big change happened in 1993. A nearby railway line that went into the Royal National Park had closed. The museum took it over and turned it into a tram line. Now, visitors can ride a tram right into the beautiful national park!
Cool Additions to the Museum
Over the years, the museum has collected some amazing historical items.
- The YMCA Facade: In 2001, a huge, beautiful sandstone front of a building from the 1880s was moved to the museum. It came from a corner of Pitt and Bathurst Street in the city. It makes for a spectacular entrance to the museum.
- Historic Gates: The gates from the original Gladesville Bridge were installed as the museum's depot gates in 2010.
Sadly, in 2015, a fire broke out in a storage shed. The shed was at the museum's old site and held several trams and buses that were part of the reserve collection. The building and the vehicles inside were destroyed.
Riding the Trams Today
The museum is a working museum, which means you can actually ride the trams! It has about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) of track for you to explore.
There are two main tram lines:
- One line travels 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) north towards Sutherland. It runs alongside a main road, just like many of Sydney's old tram lines used to.
- The second line goes 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) south into the Royal National Park. This popular ride takes you to the park's train station, offering a unique way to visit the world's second-oldest national park.
The museum is open on Wednesdays, Sundays, and most public holidays (but not Christmas Day). It also opens on some weekdays during school holidays.
Everything at the museum, from running the trams to fixing them up, is done by dedicated volunteers. The money from ticket sales and donations helps keep this amazing place running.
The Amazing Tram Collection
The museum is home to a huge collection of trams. There are trams from Sydney's past, as well as from other Australian cities like Melbourne and Brisbane. There are even international trams from places like Milan in Italy, San Francisco in the USA, and Nagasaki in Japan!
Some of the trams are very special. There is a Prison Tram that was used to transport prisoners, and a tram that was once converted into a double-decker! The collection also includes buses and other vehicles, like a "Scrubber" tram used for cleaning the tracks.
Many of the trams are in working order, so you can ride them. Others are being carefully restored by the volunteers so that they can run again one day. The collection shows how public transport has changed over the last 100 years.
A Special Award
The museum's work in preserving history has been recognised. It received a special award from Engineers Australia for its efforts in protecting important engineering heritage.
See also
- List of rail transport–related periodicals
