Tramway Museum, St Kilda facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Tramway Museum, St Kilda

Established	1958 (1958)
Location	300–360 St Kilda Road, St Kilda, South Australia St Kilda, South Australia 5110
Type	Tramway museum
Collections	Trams and trolleybuses made or used in South Australia
Collection size	As of 2024[update]: 24 trams, 1 tram-hauled horsebox, 5 trolleybuses, 2 horse trams, 1 diesel bus
Visitors	Open noon–5 pm on Sundays and most public holidays.
Owner	Australian Electric Transport Museum (SA) Inc.
Public transit access	No public transport
Nearest car park	Ample on site; free

Welcome to the Tramway Museum, St Kilda! This amazing museum in St Kilda, South Australia is Australia's main place to learn about the old trams from the 1800s and 1900s that used to run in Adelaide, South Australia. It's about 24 kilometres (14.9 miles) north of Adelaide's city center.

The museum is run by a group of dedicated volunteers called the Australian Electric Transport Museum (SA) Inc. They work hard to study, protect, and fix up trams that were once used in Adelaide or built right there. You'll also find a small collection of old buses and trolleybuses.

When you visit, your entrance fee includes unlimited free rides on the trams! These special rides take you along a 1.6 kilometres (1.0 mile) track built just for the museum. The track connects the museum to a fantastic large adventure playground, making it a fun day out for everyone.

Discovering the Tram Collection

Adelaide's first electric tram, Tram no. 1, is one of many cool trams at the museum.

This museum is very special! It's one of only a few places in the world that has at least one example of almost every main type of tram that ever ran on a city street. Imagine seeing how trams changed over time!

The museum started on an empty piece of land in 1958. Today, in 2026, it is home to 24 electric trams, 2 horse trams, a special horsebox pulled by a tram, 5 trolleybuses, and a diesel bus. This bus is just like the ones that replaced the street trams back in 1958.

Inside the museum, you'll find an entrance gallery, a bookshop, and cool displays that tell the story of these vehicles. There's also an archive with historical information. To keep all these old trams running, the museum has two workshops, a special building for fixing wheels, and storage sheds. They even have a "travelling workshop" which is an old Melbourne W2 class tram itself!

The museum runs thanks to its amazing volunteers. They use money from visitor tickets to help with their work. Bigger projects get help from museum members and sometimes from the South Australian Government or the Salisbury Council. For example, the Salisbury Council helped get money in 1972 to build the tram track and put up the wires. Tram trials started in 1973, and the tramway officially opened in 1974. Over the years, more workshops and depots were built to restore and house the growing collection of trams. In 2017, the original workshop was replaced with a brand new one.

Meet the Trams: A Journey Through Time

Your ticket lets you enjoy free tram rides to the adventure playground! You might ride on trams like Type G "Birney" no. 303, Type H no. 360, Melbourne W7 Class no. 1013, or Type D no. 192.

The museum shows us how trams changed over the years.

Horse Trams: The Early Days (1878-1917)

Before electricity, trams were pulled by horses! You can see horse tram no. 18, which was part of a big network with over 150 horse-drawn vehicles. Next to it, you'll find tram no. 15. It's displayed in its "before restoration" state, showing how much work goes into bringing these old trams back to life.

Electric Trams: A New Era (1909-1958)

Electric trams started running in 1909. They were managed by a group called the MTT. This group owned more than 300 trams and had a network of about 100 km (62 mi) of tracks. In 1958, most of the street tram system closed down. Only the line from Glenelg continued to operate. It was a long time, 47 years, before trams started to become popular again in Adelaide!

The museum has at least one tram of every main type from the electric era. You can also see two trams from Melbourne. One, W-class Melbourne tram no. 294, was actually built in Adelaide! The other, W7 class 1013, is special because it has been changed to be easy for wheelchairs to access. There's even a Sydney R1 Class tram on loan from the Sydney Tramway Museum.

Trolleybuses and Buses

Besides trams, the museum also preserves trolleybuses. These are like electric buses that get power from overhead wires. You can see models from 1925, 1937, 1942, 1945, and 1952. There's also a 1954 AEC Regal IV motor bus, showing another type of public transport from that time.

How the Museum Operates Safely

The museum is officially recognized as a rail transport operator. This means it follows strict safety rules, just like all modern railways in Australia.

During the tough times of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 and 2020, the museum stopped running trams. This allowed them to work on updating their safety documents and procedures to meet the requirements of the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator. During this time, the Salisbury Council also made some big improvements to the tram line. They fixed curves, replaced parts of the track, changed some overhead poles, and adjusted the overhead wires. The public tram service happily started again in May 2021.

Visiting the Museum

The museum is open on Sunday afternoons from 12pm until 5pm. If you need public transport, a Salisbury Council community bus runs three return trips on Sundays. It leaves from the Parabanks Shopping Centre, which is close to the Salisbury railway station and bus interchange. You can learn more about the opening hours and how to get to the museum by calling 08 8280 8188 or sending an email at enquiries@trammuseumadelaide.com.

Gallery

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  Horse tram no. 18, one of about 160 vehicles that served Adelaide from 1878 to 1917

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  Horse tram no. 18 in 1963, as it was before being retrieved from a suburban back yard and restored

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  Tram no. 1 (called "Type A"), looking just like it did in 1909 when electric trams first started

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  Type A cars, including nos 14 and 15, were used again during World War II, often in pairs nicknamed "Bib and Bub"

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  Type B ("toastrack") tram no. 42, looking like it did in the first electric fleet of 1909

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  Type C ("Desert Gold" or "Bouncing Billie") tram no. 186, built in 1919, leaving Shell Street, St Kilda

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  Type D tram no. 192, built in 1917, with a tramway signal box behind it

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  Type E tram no. 118, built in 1910

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  Type E1 tram no. 111, built in 1910 as a Type E and changed in 1936; the right side was enclosed with smaller windows

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  Type F1 tram no. 264, built in 1929; these F and F1 types were the most common electric trams in Adelaide

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  Type G no. 303, a Brill "Birney Safety Car", brought from the US in 1924 to run in Port Adelaide

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  Two Type H ("Glenelg" or "Bay") cars, built in 1929; 378 is shown as a restaurant car from the 1990s

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  The last tram built by the MTT, the unique Type H1 ("streamliner") no. 381, built in 1952

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  Former Type A tram no. 10, built in 1909, was sold in 1936 to run in Ballarat as their no. 21

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  Sydney R1 class tram no. 1971, built in 1936, seen at the St Kilda Playground stop

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  Adelaide-built Melbourne W2 class tram no. 294, built in 1924, on the museum's tram line

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  Melbourne W7 class tram no. 1013, built in 1955 and changed by the museum for easy wheelchair access, at the St Kilda Playground stop

See also

• St Kilda adventure playground