Category: Events and special hires

An old favourite returned Saturday 22nd June as the museum held it’s ever popular ‘Trams After Dark’ to mark the 2024 winter solstice. Despite the wet weather, thousands turned up to experience tram rides in Sydney trams R1 1979 and P 1497, as well as Nagasaki car 1054.

Shuttles in 1980’s heritage buses by Mitch Petersen and Joel Gorton were operated between the museum and Sutherland, where visitors could grab a bite to eat at the unique ‘Car Hole Cafe’.

In addition, displays and stalls from the Illawarra Light Railway Museum, MV Cape Don society and Railway Coins by Cale Seamer were held, giving these great groups extra exposure. We were also grateful for a visit by our local State MP Maryanne Stuart who made it clear to us she enjoyed her time at the event.

Thank you to everyone who made this night a success. If you missed out, check out the photos and videos below!

Despite limited track access, this year’s annual Vintage Tramway Festival was another successful day! The trams operating included cars from interstate in conjunction with our Sydney toast racks, resulting in coupled Sydney O class trams 1111 and 805, Brisbane Drop Centre 295, Ballarat Bogie car 37, Melbourne W2 249, Sydney R1 2001 and Sydney P class tram 1497 all seeing use in service.

Owing to the closure of the National Park line, a rail replacement bus service was in operation from Loftus to Sutherland and to National Park. This service was provided by the Sydney Bus Museum in their Leyland double decker 2186. The SBM also provided services in their vintage Holden FC yellow taxi, with visitors enjoying the option of trips to Sutherland or our North Terminus. We offer many thanks to the SBM for assisting us once again in this year’s festivities.

We are also most grateful to Sydney Trains for making available the four car vintage electric train set F1. The train service operated 2 trips from Central Station to Loftus, with 320 visitors in total enjoying rides on our coupled O class and R1 trams between the museum and Sutherland. We offer our gratitude to both THNSW and Historical Electric Traction who provide volunteer assistance for the event.

Thank you also for the participation of the MV Cape Don Society, Taskforce 72 Model Boat Builders, Model A Ford Club, Recycology and 1st Loftus Scouts during the festival.

Photos

Michael Hatton Collection

Martin Pinches Collection

Videos

On Sunday, 15th October, the museum held its third event for 2023; an Edwardian-themed period day celebrating the 125th anniversary of our C Class tram No. 29. The museum was turned into an Edwardian era streetscape, with period performers, vintage cars and services operated by trams built no later than 1908.

C 290 and N 728 ran shuttle services to Sutherland, where the Cape Don Society and Barocky Chocky held stalls in our substation display hall, with C 29, F 393 and O 805 running convoy shuttles into the Royal National Park.

As an extra surprise, Steam Motor 1A and D class tram 117 were on static display on the workshop traverser. On top of that, no less than THREE heritage train trips ran past the museum in the morning: the Cockatoo Run, the Kiama Picnic Train and 3801’s Steam to Surf run to Wollongong.

The event attracted many visitors to the museum throughout the day and ultimately proved to be a success; we even got an article in the local paper: https://www.theleader.com.au/story/8392051/photos-100-year-old-trams-roll-out-for-special-day-at-loftus/

Check out some of the photos and videos below of the day, and thank you to everyone who made this event possible!

Photo Galleries

---

Videos

The Sydney Tramway Museum has acquired over many years a unique collection of international tramcars. On Sunday 18th June 2023, a rare opportunity was held to enjoy rides in some of these unique vehicles. Berlin 5133, Nagasaki 1054, San Francisco 1014 and Melbourne 249 provided services throughout the day, representing four of the seven continents. Also participating in the event was the Sydney Bus Museum with their iconic London double decker bus – AEC RT 3708 – running services between the museum and Sutherland CBD. The MV Cape Don Preservation Society was also invited to hold a display in our Sutherland Substation exhibition space, where a DVD of trams in Calcutta played for patrons. Ultimately, a very successful day was had by all, with many visitors wanting to take a trip on our international vehicles. A big thank you to those who volunteered their time to make the day as successful as it was.

This year’s Sydney Vintage Tramway Festival exceeded all expectations, with high revenue and patronage resulting in one of the biggest ever takings for the museum on record. Trams – most of which were toastrack cars – were noted to be carrying full loads all throughout the day. Both crews and members of the public were amazed at the large crowds attending. Visitors came from all over Sydney, with large groups from interstate and overseas as well. We also had two large visitor groups attending the festival in the morning and afternoon, arriving in Vintage Electric Set F1. An appreciation of thanks is expressed to all who made this event possible, in particular to Scott Curnow, for his efforts as the festival’s Officer In Charge and organiser. Scott’s planning with attention to detail resulted in a wide variety of trams being in service, whilst a timetable with plenty of staff on hand made for on time running. Thanks also to Ian Saxon who assisted Scott in his duties as OIC, and our workshop team who worked behind the scenes to have all of the required trams available for service. And to our visiting displays; Cape Don Society, Sutherland Shire Historical Society, Recycology, Sydney Bus Museum, Model A Ford club, 1st Heathcote Scout Group and Transport Heritage NSW (Heritage electric train F1) a big thank you as well for participating in our festival.

Sunday 25th September saw the museum hold its much anticipated “Back to the 50’s” day. The event commemorated 65 years since the closure of the Pitt St and Castlereagh St “Green lines” based out of Newtown depot; the first major closure of Sydney tramways which continued over a four year period until the closure of the Maroubra and La Perouse Lines on 25th February 1961. Trams running services during the day were Sydney cars O 1111 and R1 2001 – an authentic Newtown tram – along with Melbourne car W2 249. Sadly plans for San Francisco PCC 1014 to run during the day had to be shelved due to a fault that occurred during testing the day before. Our friends at the Sydney Bus Museum also participated in the event; bringing both their 1948 Leyland double-decker bus 2087 and 1959 FC Holden Taxi 1196. The bus ran to an hourly timetable between the museum and Sutherland, with the taxi available for runs along this same route upon request. Visitors were encouraged to dress up in 50’s gear and enjoy a picnic in Lakewood Park with a few of our members making the effort to do so. The day ran quite smoothly despite some setbacks with the PCC with services well patronised most of the day. A big thank you to our traffic staff who made the effort to help out along with those from the Bus Museum who dedicated their time in making the event as authentic as possible with their vehicles.

The museum was featured as a segment on Sydney Weekender’s Father’s Day episode. Host Darren Coggan was given a tour of the display hall and workshops by Mick Ward and Bill Parkinson respectively, with some of our dedicated volunteers given the opportunity for interviews and to explain the museum’s activities. A big thanks to the Sydney Weekender crew for giving us the opportunity for exposure, with the relevant segment available to check out on YouTube

The museum’s annual Vintage Tramway Festival for 2022 took place on Sunday 27th February. In a line-up similar to last year’s, trams used during the event consisted of LP 154, N 728, coupled O cars 805 + 1111, P 1497 and R 1740 with works trams 99u, 141s and 134s providing demonstration runs between passenger trips. Additionally, a surprise appearance was made by Variotram 2107 which was placed on display in Cross Street. The museum’s post-war AEC double decker bus No. 2619 once again provided shuttle trips between the museum and Sutherland station, with the Sydney Bus Museum also attending the event with their own Leyland double decker No. 1579 along with the Model A Ford Car Club. Sydney Heritage Electric Train F1 made two visits to Loftus in the morning and afternoon as well, with visitors changing for tram rides into the Royal National Park. Overall good crowds were seen throughout the day and a big thank you must be to all our volunteers who worked tirelessly to make the event successful once again.

Below are three YouTube videos which captured some of the excitement of the festival:

Saturday the 19th June 2021 saw the return of our annual Trams After Dark event. This year saw a Melbourne themed night, with three of our Melbourne trams in our collection operating all the evening’s services; these being W2 class 249, Ballarat 37 (ex-MMTB N class 119) and Z2 class 111. Two ex-Melbourne buses (Sydney Bus Museum’s MMTB Half-Cab 352 and KST’s MAN 15.220 519) also made a visit to add to the Melbourne flavour. Opportunity was taken to place Rail Grinder “Essanee” No. 3 and Scrubber 11 (ex-139s) on display in Cross Street as well, with 11’s new strobe lights switched on to take advantage of the nighttime atmosphere. Below are a selection of photos from the evening along with video shot by museum member Greg Travers, who has allowed us permission to upload it here.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•