It has been open for a number of years but I have never visited the museum. It is almost inner suburbs, so it is not like some Australian museums where trams can be outside on display and you can even take a ride at times. The museum has an excellent
website with lots of information.
For those with long memories, Australia's Governor General, the Queen's representative in Australia sacked our Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and just below the then still operating depot was the posh Leonda restaurant. I, along with hundreds of others made our displeasure felt to the drunkard GG Sir John Kerr when he dined there.
Our tram franchise company won't allow the trams to leave the old Hawthorn Tram Depot, which makes me cross as
Yarra Trams don't own the tracks, overhead wires and infrastructure. That is all owned by the government body VicTrack, as is the depot and land itself. I remember old trams being used for tourists to the zoo, to St Kilda, to loop around the city and to travel to Wattle Park. Now there is nothing and what a wasted resource and tourism opportunity.
I spent about an hour there, listening to a twenty minute talk inside an old cable tram car trailer and taking photos. The gift shop, of course the exit, was good with lots of as usual highly priced but interesting merch for sale. The museum was better than I expected and there were quite a number of visitors with a disproportionately high number of Asian couples with young children. In spite of having my camera on some odd setting, I am quite impressed with the photos taken in low light conditions. Tram class identification where I did not know from vicsig.net .
W2 Class.
L Class.
Y Class.
S Class. This tram is very old.
This was a prototype tram from the 70s called a PPC car. I think it has Scandinavian origins. With some modifications it became the basis of Melbourne's first fleet of Z (1) trams built from 1975, none having being built since the Melbourne Olympic Games in 1956. Z1 trams were only retired in 2016, a bit past the standard of 30 years of service for a tram.
Later removed, Z Class trams had a console where the conductor used to sit and issue tickets as passengers passed by. With the number of people using trams now, it seems laughable and even back when the were seated conductors, at times they could not work quickly enough and at some busy city locations assistant conductors used to stand at the back door and sell tickets from a machine.
I remember these luggage racks on trams. At some point they were removed.
The driving bits. I think the pedal on the left is different but the control panel looks pretty well the same as on trams built much later, say the B Class.
The cable grip car that had the mechanism to grip the cable running under the roadway, with the trailer behind. Yes, as trailers would follow behind.
Hard seating in the cable car but nicely decorated with good ventilation. Your guess is as good as mine as to why seating needs ventilation. I have one theory, but I am too polite to write it.
These are clerestory windows, just before the roof curves.
Is that a handle to hold on, I asked. No, it is a guide for the bell cord and you can see the hole in the panel where the cord went through.
Another Y Class.
A Class. Looks like it is the oldest electric tram at the museum.
This is a Z1 Class tram decorated by visiting Pakistanis before our Commonwealth Games in 2006. We caught the tram one evening as it ran the City Circle route and what fun it was. I've mentioned our ride a few times in the past, but
this post is probably the best. The first video I think is mine, with the bells of St Paul's merging to Pakistani pop music.
Much of the depot has been repurposed. This area in front of the depot where all the tracks come out is known as the depot fan. I get that. The tracks fan out.
This part of the depot used to hold the clothing store, where staff uniforms were made. It is now apartments.
Lookee see, a park I noticed while I waited for the tram home.
Nice work on the traffic light control boxes.
Very attractive, a part of the river bank I have not seen.
You can see the murky waters of Yarra River in the distance.