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
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, public holidays, and during school holidays on Wednesdays
Owner	Australian Electric Transport Museum (SA) Inc.
Public transit access	No public transport
Nearest car park	Ample on site; free

The Tramway Museum, St Kilda is a special museum in Australia that shows trams from the 1800s and 1900s. These trams were once used in Adelaide, South Australia. The museum is located in St Kilda, about 24 kilometres (10 miles) north of Adelaide city.

It is run by volunteers from the Australian Electric Transport Museum (SA) Inc. This group works to learn about, save, and fix old trams that were used or built in Adelaide. They also have a small collection of buses and trolleybuses. When you visit, you can enjoy unlimited free tram rides after paying the entrance fee. The trams travel along a 1.6 kilometres (1.0 mile) track between the museum and a fun adventure playground.

What You Can See at the Museum

Adelaide's first electric tram, Tram no. 1, is one of 24 electric trams at the museum.

This museum is one of the few in the world that has at least one example of every main type of tram used in a city.

The museum started on an empty piece of land in 1958. By as of 2024^[update], it had 24 electric trams, 2 horse trams, a horsebox pulled by a tram, 5 trolleybuses, and a diesel bus. This bus is like the ones that ran when the city's tram network closed in 1958.

Inside the museum, you'll find an entrance area, a bookshop, and displays that explain the history of trams. There's also an archive with old documents. The museum has workshops to fix and build trams, plus storage sheds.

Volunteers run the museum, and it mostly uses money from visitor tickets to pay for its work. Bigger projects get help from donations and sometimes from government grants. In 1972, the local council helped get money to build the tram track and put up electric wires. The tramway started testing in 1973 and officially opened in 1974. Over the years, more workshops and depots were built to hold the growing collection of trams.

Meet the Tram Fleet

Your entrance fee lets you ride trams for free to and from St Kilda's adventure playground. Here are some trams you might see: Type G "Birney" no. 303, Type H no. 360, Melbourne W7 Class no. 1013, and Type D no. 192.

The museum has trams from different time periods.

Horse Trams (1878-1917)

You can see horse tram no. 18 from the Adelaide and Suburban Tramway Company. This company was one of 11 that operated over 150 horse trams on about 120 km (75 mi) of tracks. Next to it, you'll see tram no. 15 from another company. It's shown in its old, worn-out condition, which is how many trams look before they are fixed up.

Electric Trams (1909-1958)

Electric trams started running in 1909. The MTT (Municipal Tramways Trust) managed them until 1958, when most of the city's tram system closed. The MTT owned over 300 trams and operated on about 100 km (62 mi) of tracks. After 1958, only the 10.8 km (6.7 mi) line from Glenelg to Adelaide remained.

The museum has at least one tram of each main type from the MTT era. It also has two trams from Melbourne. One, W-class Melbourne tram no. 294, was actually built in Adelaide by Holden's Body Builders. The other (W7 class 1013) has been changed to allow easy wheelchair access. A third tram, a Sydney R1 Class tram, is on loan from the Sydney Tramway Museum.

Trolleybuses and Motor Buses

The museum also keeps several trolleybuses. These include a 1925 Garford, a 1937 AEC 661T, a 1942 double-deck Leyland, a 1945 single-deck Leyland, and a 1952 Sunbeam MF2B. You can also see a 1954 AEC Regal IV motor bus.

How the Museum Operates

The museum follows strict safety rules, just like all modern Australian railways. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019 and 2020, the museum stopped running trams. This allowed them to update their safety plans to meet new requirements. During this time, the Salisbury Council also made improvements to the tram line. They fixed curves, replaced poles, and adjusted the overhead wires. The public tram service started again in May 2021.

Visiting the Museum

The museum is open on Sunday afternoons. It's also open on Wednesday afternoons during school holidays and public holidays. A community bus from Salisbury Council offers three return trips on Sundays. It leaves from the Parabanks Shopping Centre, near the Salisbury railway station and bus interchange.

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, before it was saved from a backyard and restored

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

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  Type A trams, including nos 14 and 15, were used again during World War II. Many were linked in pairs called "Bib and Bub."

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  Type B ("toastrack") tram no. 42, looking as it did in 1909

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

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

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  Type E tram no. 118, built 1910

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

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  Type F1 tram no. 264, built 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 1929. Tram 378 is shown as a restaurant car from the 1990s.

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  The MTT's last tram built, the only Type H1 ("streamliner") no. 381, built 1952

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

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

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  Adelaide-built Melbourne W2 class tram no. 294, built 1924, on the museum's tram line towards the St Kilda Playground

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

See also

• St Kilda adventure playground
• Tram museum website