Established 1950 Nearest car park On site Phone +61 2 9542 3646 | Type Tramway museum Website Official Site Founded 1950 | |
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Location Pitt Street, Loftus
New South Wales Australia Address Rawson Ave, Loftus NSW 2232, Australia Hours Closed today MondayClosedTuesdayClosedWednesday10AM–3PMThursdayClosedFridayClosedSaturdayClosedSunday10AM–4:30PMSuggest an edit Similar Brisbane Tramway Museum, Ballarat Tramway Museum, Hawthorn tram depot, Loftus railway station - S, North Cronulla Beach Profiles | ||
The Sydney Tramway Museum is Australia's oldest tramway museum and the largest in the southern hemisphere. It is located in Loftus in the southern suburbs of Sydney.
Contents
Sydney tramway museum national park line
History
The museum was officially opened at its original site on the edge of the Royal National Park by NSW Deputy Premier Pat Hills in 1965. It was relocated to a larger site across the Princes Highway adjacent to Loftus railway station which opened on 19 March 1988.
On 23 October 2015 at about 11:00 to 11:30 pm a museum storage shed caught fire and was destroyed. Located off the main museum site, at its 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. One tram lost, 1898 C12, was within weeks of being completely restored after months of work.
Operation
The museum has an extensive collection of trams from Sydney and cities in Australia and around the world. There are two tram lines radiating from the museum that are used to run tram rides for museum visitors.
One line runs 1.5 km north towards Sutherland railway station, 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 to trains in June 1991. In 1993 the Museum converted the line to light rail standards and connected it to the then existing Sutherland line to establish what is now a most popular means of access to the world's second oldest national park.
The Museum is open, and trams operate, on Wednesdays, Sundays, most Public Holidays and on selected weekdays during school holidays. Charter operations can be arranged for other days
The Sydney Tramway Museum is run entirely by volunteers and self funds its day-to-day activities, restorations and construction programs from gate takings and donations from the 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.