Recent News & Photos

Rear Storage Building being demolished - 26/06/08

The last two trams were removed from our rear storage building over Queens Birthday weekend. The photos below show our New Plymouth Birney Tram No. 8 which will shortly be on its way to the Wanganui Tramway Museum and below that, Wellington Double Saloon Tram No. 185, temporarily wrapped in tarpaulins, being pulled out with our front end loader by Mike Vash and Neil McDonald. The last photo taken on 11th June show the remains of the building piled up neatly in front of where it used to stand.

Photos: Graeme Moffatt

Signing of Memorandum of Understanding with Printing Museum- 21/05/08

A major milestone was reached today with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with the Printing Museum and the joint signing of an agreement with the 'Great Leap Forward' company to undertake a feasibility study for the tramway and printing museums. The Tramway Museum is planning on adding a visitor interpretation centre to the side of the existing tram barn as well as extending its tram lines to the southern entrance of Queen Elizabeth Park. The Printing Museum is seeking approval to re-locate its base from Silverstream in Lower Hutt to a site adjacent to the Tramway in QE Park.

Photo: Graeme Moffatt

In the photo above, Patrick Rainsford, Vice President of the Printing Museum (closest to the camera) and Henry Brittain, President of the Tramway Museum, are seen signing the MOU documents.

Photo: Colin Perfect

In this photo (from the left), Grant Collie, Patrick Rainsford, Jenny Rowan, Henry Brittain and Graeme Moffatt, the people involved in bringing the agreements together with the Mayor of the Kapiti Coast District Council, pose for a comemorative photograph.

Children enjoy School Holiday Programme - 24/04/08

One hundred and seventy nine children and twenty adult helpers enjoyed their day visit to the Kapiti Coast Electric Tramway on Thursday 24th April. Three trams were pressed into service to transport the children to the Whareroa Beach Picnic area where they spent over an hour playing games and having their lunch. They were picked up later in the afternoon before returning to the Poirua area in three Mana Coachlines buses.

Photo: Graeme Moffatt

Tram 17 sees the light of day once again - 16/03/08

For the first time in at least 50 years, Wellington Tram 17 moves on rails once again, albeit on sammie trucks and only moving around 30 metres from one building to another. As part of the re-development taking place at the tramway, all trams in our rear storage building are being moved out so the building can be demolished to make way for a new and better building to protect our aging fleet.

Tram 17 was among the first electric trams to arrive in Wellington in 1904, part of a batch of 25 supplied in kitset form from Britain. After being taken out of service in the late 1940's, it served as a small holiday cottage just north of the tramway site in Raumati South, before being rescued and moved to the tramway museum's premises. The tramway recently had a conservation report prepared on the tram and we are now looking at ways to raise the estimated $1,000,000 it will take to restore it back to the configuration it was in when it came out of service.

Tram 17 has played its part in history as it was the car from which, on the evening of 13 September 1913, a conductor fell to his death on Oriental Parade in Wellington. The accident resulted in the tramcar and the deceased conductor featuring in a nationwide union action aimed at stopping conductors from being injured or falling to their deaths whilst collecting fares. Subsequently, the Tramways Amendment Act of December 1913 included the provision for modifying the interiors of tramcars to include what became the centre aisles.

Photo: Trevor Burling

The photo above was taken as tram 17 paused for photos halfway between the rear storage building and its temporary home in the main tram barn on Sunday 16th March 2008.