A few hours at the Tasmanian Transport Museum

The museum advertised their opening hours as 1pm - 3pm. By 10 past dad and I were just about to leave because there didn’t seem to be anyone there; that's when another man and his son came to the entrance and told us they had called during the week to make sure the museum would be open, so dad and I waited a few more minutes. I’m glad we did, for just a few minutes later a man came to the gate took our money and let us into the museum.

We spent the three full opening hours browsing through all the trains, trams, busses and other displays on Australian public transport. Climbing up into the carriages and ‘riding’ on the old trams and busses. Pulling the cords to alert the driver we wanted to hop off at the next stop. Pulling and pushing leavers that operated the tracks and signals for the drivers, and generally having a good time.

The Tasmanian Transport Museum is open Saturday and Sunday each week from 1pm(ish)-3pm. We spent the whole three hours looking around the museum and learning about the different modes of transport.
The first stop in the transport museum was a special section just inside the entrance. The Tasmania Fire Museum – run by volunteer ex-fire fighters who lovingly find and restore old fire trucks, this is a great addition to the Transport Museum. Dad and I chatted for some time with the two men learning about the trucks and other items on display.

Next stop was the big shed full of old trains. Each train has information about the train, where it came from and what sort of work it did during it’s working life. Within the museum, there are Locomotives, Railcars, carriages, wagons, even a full size railway station where on the third Sunday of every month you can wait for a train to come along and take you for a ride. At the station, I came across a couple who were waiting for the train. They had a long wait, as the train left last Sunday. Inside the train station was a great collection of photos of all the past and present Australian Airlines, including my favourite, Ansett, my family for the ten years I worked for them.

The Museum is the project of the Tasmanian Transport Museum Society whose members have worked in a voluntary capacity for its establishment and officially opened on December 3, 1983. In 1960, the Metropolitan Transport Trust for preservation donated a Hobart tramcar. As a result, the Society formed in 1962 with the aim of preserving representative items of transport interest from those that were disappearing from the daily scene.
The first ten years saw the preservation of many items either by purchase or by donation. It was not until 1972 that the present site was leased from the Glenorchy City Council. After the laying of rail track, the first items were moved to the site in 1976.

Construction of permanent buildings commenced in 1978 (Electric Traction) followed by the Railway Station (1980) Steam Technology (1983) Carriage Shed (1984) Round House (1986) and the Fire Services Museum Building in 2004.

The Society has steadily acquired an extensive range of exhibits, which together with relics; models photographs etc. will portray many facets of the history of Tasmanian transport.

I didn’t think I would enjoy the museum as much as I did and got a surprise when I was walking out that it was nearly 3pm.