The Sydney Tramway Museum (operated by the South Pacific Electric Railway) is Australia's oldest tramway museum and the largest in the southern hemisphere. It is located at Loftus in the southern suburbs of Sydney.

History

2020-04-19 Royal National Park railway line, Sydney

Construction of the museum at its original site on the edge of the

Royal National Park The Royal National Park is a protected national park that is located in Sutherland Shire in the Australian state of New South Wales, just south of Sydney. The national park is about south of the Sydney central business district near the l ...

commenced in August 1956. It was officially opened in March 1965 by NSW Deputy Premier Pat Hills. The facilities were basic, initially a four-track shed built with second hand materials and approximately 800 metres of running track. In 1975, the Government of New South Wales approved the museum moving to a new site across the

Princes Highway Princes Highway is a major road in Australia, extending from Sydney via Melbourne to Adelaide through the states of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. It has a length of (along Highway 1) or via the former alignments of the hig ...

adjacent to

Loftus railway station Loftus, previously ''Lofthouse'', was a railway station on the Whitby, Redcar and Middlesbrough Union Railway. It was opened on 1 April 1875 as the terminus of a line from Saltburn Saltburn-by-the-Sea, commonly referred to as Saltburn, is ...

. Construction commenced in April 1980, with the first trams transferred from the old site in November 1982. It officially opened on 19 March 1988. The former

Railway Square Railway Square is a plaza at the southern end of the Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia, formed by the confluence of Broadway, Lee Street, Pitt Street and George Street. The square itself is a very busy intersection an ...

tramway shelter that had been disassembled in 1973 was reassembled. The last tram left the Royal National Park in May 1989. In 1989, a traverser from Comeng's Granville factory was purchased. Following CityRail closing the two kilometre Royal National Park line in 1991, the museum was able to commence operating services on the line on 1 May 1993.By tram to the National Park '' Railway Gazette International'' June 1993 page 367 In 2001, the museum was the recipient of the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams (philanthropist), Georg ...

facade, that was previously located at the corner of

Pitt Pitt most commonly refers to: *The University of Pittsburgh, commonly known as Pitt, a university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States **Pitt Panthers, the athletic teams of the University of Pittsburgh * Pitt (surname), a surname o ...

and Bathurst Street in the Sydney central business district. The facade was relocated by Meriton to make way for a new building being constructed at the same location. This huge impressive sandstone structure dating from the 1880s makes a spectacular backdrop when entering the museum complex from the front gates. The building is not finished yet, and is still being worked on as funding permits. The gates from the original

Gladesville Bridge Gladesville Bridge is a heritage-listed concrete arch road bridge that carries Victoria Road over the Parramatta River, linking the Sydney suburbs of Huntleys Point and Drummoyne, in the local government areas of Canada Bay and Hunter's Hil ...

were installed as the depot gates in 2010. On 23 October 2015, the museum storage shed was broken into by graffiti artists and caught fire. Located off the main museum site, at the Museums original location in the Royal National Park near Loftus Oval, the shed housed the museum's reserve collection of six trams, four buses and a double-decker bus chassis dating to 1937. The shed and contents were destroyed in the blaze. The 2018 film ''

Ladies in Black ''Ladies in Black'' is an Australian musical with music and lyrics by Tim Finn and book by Carolyn Burns, based on the 1993 novel ''The Women in Black'' by Madeleine St John. Synopsis Set in Sydney in the 1950s, the musical tells the story of ...

'' had both live action scenes and film stock for CGI segments filmed around the

Waiting Shed that is located in the southern end of the museum site.

Operations

The museum has an extensive collection of

tram A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport ...

s from Sydney and other cities in Australia, as well as from other places around the world. The museum operates of track. One line runs north towards

Sutherland Sutherland ( gd, Cataibh) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in the Highlands of Scotland. Its county town is Dornoch. Sutherland borders Caithness and Moray Firth to the east, Ross-shire and Cromartyshire ( ...

, paralleling Rawson Avenue in the way that parts of Sydney's tram system operated. The second runs to the south and utilises the Royal National Park branch railway line that was constructed in 1886 and closed by CityRail in June 1991. In 1993, the museum converted the line to tramway standards and connected it to the then existing Sutherland line to establish what is now a popular means of access to the world's second oldest national park. The line terminates at

Royal National Park railway station Royal National Park railway station is located in Audley, New South Wales and services travellers to the Royal National Park. It is the terminus of the Royal National Park railway line, formerly part of the Sydney commuter rail network and n ...

. The museum opens and operates trams on Wednesdays, Sundays, public holidays (except Christmas Day) and on selected weekdays during school holidays. The Sydney Tramway Museum is run entirely by volunteers and self funds its day-to-day activities, restorations, maintenance and construction programs from gate takings and donations from the generous public.

Preservation

Publications

The Sydney Tramway Museum publishes ''Trolley Wire'' on behalf of most tramway museums around the country. Published quarterly, it carries articles on tramways around the world and news from the various Australasian heritage tramways.

Engineering heritage award

The museum received a Historic Engineering Marker from

Engineers Australia Engineers Australia (EA) is an Australian professional body and not-for-profit organisation whose purpose is to advance the science and practice of engineering for the benefit of the community. Engineers Australia is Australia's recognized or ...

as part of its Engineering Heritage Recognition Program.

References

External links

Sydney Tramway Museum website
{{TramsAustralia Heritage railways in Australia Museums established in 1965 Tramway Museum Railway museums in New South Wales Recipients of Engineers Australia engineering heritage markers Tourist railways in New South Wales Trams in Sydney Tram museums Transport museums in New South Wales