Monday, August 16, 2010

Tram Museum









In Brisbane's earlier days the main transport was trams which operated between 1885 through to 1969 when the network was finally closed down. Brisbane was one of the last capital cities to close down with the exception of Melbourne which still currently running their trams today.

In 1968 the Tramway Museum Society was formed to preserve our trams history and in 1980 located themselves at Ferny Grove on the Northside to operate the Museum and house the trams. It's only open once a week on a Sunday afternoon for about 4 hrs and is run by volunteers who dress up in their tram conductors uniform.

We went 2 years ago and had the best time even though it's basically a little paddock and a couple of sheds to house the trams and decided it was time to go again. You jump on the tram and the conductor tells you about that particular trams history and then they drive it up to the top of the hill to the shed, we all jump out and then they get another tram out and we jump on that one and the tram goes down the hill and they tell you about that tram. They then drive you back up the hill and repeat the process by getting another tram out of the shed. It's interesting and fun at the same time and local for us so it's a great afternoon for the kids.

The conductor got the kids to help him pull on the rope to pull the pole to connect it to the wire which they loved and then we had some pictures with the conductors hat which are very cute. The museum has 24 trams in total which they look after and preserve and keep in working condition. We were riding trams from the 1940's which is just amazing really and they have the old advertising signs up for dances, advertising (BEC's) the headache tablets back then. It was a great afternoon and you just keep riding the trams until they close if you want.

2 comments:

  1. How fantastic is this!
    I love it and will definately have to take my boys soon.

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  2. Tram riding is so much fun and a huge part of life here in Melbourne. Looks like a great day out and some new fodder for scrapping!

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