Wellington Tramway Museum facts for kids
| Established | 1965 |
|---|---|
| Location | Queen Elizabeth Park |
| Type | Railway museum |
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The Wellington Tramway Museum is a special place where you can see and ride old trams! It's located in Queen Elizabeth Park on the lower North Island of New Zealand. You can find it near McKay's Crossing, between Paekākāriki and Paraparaumu. Trams have been running on a track through the park since 1965. The museum is about 45 kilometers (28 miles) from Wellington. The trams here are from the 1920s and 1930s. They used to carry people all around Wellington city between 1878 and 1964.
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Discover the History of Trams
The museum looks after almost 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) of tram tracks in Queen Elizabeth Park. They also have many trams from the old Wellington tram network. Some of these trams are working and you can ride them! Others are stored or being fixed up.
The museum also has a tram from Brisbane, Australia (No. 236). This tram is currently used by the Tramway Historical Society in Christchurch. They also have parts of a tram from New Plymouth and a small collection of old diesel and trolley buses from Wellington and New Plymouth.
From 1969 to 1974, a person named Saul Goldsmith was the president of the Tramway Museum.
When Can You Visit the Museum?
The museum is open every Saturday and Sunday from 11 AM to 4:30 PM. The last tram ride leaves at 4 PM. It's also open on most public holidays, but not on Christmas Day. After Christmas, the museum opens every day from Boxing Day (December 26) until Wellington Anniversary Day in late January. Sometimes, it also opens during school holidays. You can check their website for those dates.
When the museum is open, you can take a ride on a historic Wellington electric tram. The ride is nearly 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) long! You can also explore the different exhibits inside the museum.
Meet the Wellington Trams
Here's a look at some of the trams at the museum. The color tells you what condition they are in:
| Key: | In Service (you can ride it!) | Under Overhaul/Restoration (being fixed up) | Stored (waiting for its turn) | Static Display (you can see it, but it doesn't move) | Scrapped (no longer exists) |
|---|
| Tram Number | Type | Built By | Year Built | What's Special About It |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Cable car grip tram | Mark Sinclair, Dunedin | 1901 | This cable car was used in Wellington until 1978. It's on display but can't run on the museum's tracks. |
| 5 | Cable car trailer | Unknown | c.1880s | This trailer was once a horse tram! It's now being looked after by a special workshop. |
| 6 | Cable car trailer | Unknown | c.1880s | Another old cable car trailer, also on display. It can't run on the museum's tracks. |
| 17 | Combination | British Electric Car Company | 1903/4, rebuilt 1911 | This is the oldest Wellington tram still around! It's being restored to run again. |
| 82 | Palace | Rouse and Hurrell, Wellington | 1911, rebuilt 1913 | This tram was taken apart for useful parts. |
| 86 | Palace | Rouse and Hurrell, Wellington | 1911, rebuilt 1913 | This tram was found inside a building! It's now stored at the museum. |
| 151 | Double saloon (Mark I) | Wellington City Council Tramways Department | 1923 | This tram was one of the first donated to the museum. It's used regularly! |
| 159 | Double saloon (Mark I) | Wellington City Council Tramways Department | 1925 | This tram was almost sent to the USA, but now it's a regular runner at the museum. |
| 185 | Double saloon (Mark II) | Wellington City Council Tramways Department | 1925 | This tram was found on a farm! It's waiting to be restored. |
| 207 | Double saloon (Mark II) | Wellington City Council Tramways Department | 1929 | This tram was bought by the museum when the Wellington system closed. It's being restored. |
| 235 | "Fiducia" single saloon | Wellington City Council Tramways Department | 1937 | This is the oldest "Fiducia" tram. It's stored and parts are used for other trams. |
| 238 | "Fiducia" single saloon | Wellington City Council Tramways Department | 1937 | This tram is stored and waiting to be restored. |
| 239 | "Fiducia" single saloon | Wellington City Council Tramways Department | 1937/8 | This tram is working and used regularly! |
| 244 | "Fiducia" single saloon | Wellington City Council Tramways Department | 1939 | This tram was the first to use a new tramway extension in 1940. It joined the museum in 2021. |
| 250 | "Fiducia" single saloon | Wellington City Council Tramways Department | 1939/40 | This tram was bought for spare parts. |
| 260 | "Fiducia" single saloon | Wellington City Council Tramways Department | 1952 | This was the very last tram built for a traditional street tramway system in New Zealand! It's now fully restored and runs regularly. |
The Museum's Special Location: US Marine Camps
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The museum is built on a site that was once part of two US Marine camps, called Camp Russell and Camp Mackay. These camps were here between 1942 and 1944 during World War II. In 2012, a special ceremony was held at the museum on Memorial Day to remember the US Armed Forces who were in New Zealand. The trams would have been very familiar to the Marines when they visited Wellington!
