Tramway Historical Society

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Kitson Steam Tram Engine No. 7 at Ferrymead Heritage Park

The Tramway Historical Society (German: Tram History Society ) is a registered non-profit organization based in Christchurch , New Zealand . The company restores old historic trams , buses and trolleybuses and has a stake in the Ferrymead Heritage Park in Christchurch through the Ferrymead Trust .

geography

The Tramway Historical Society is based in Ferrymead Heritage Park , which also houses the Society's workshop, where members volunteer to restore and maintain the vehicles. The park, in which the association maintains the rail network and operates trams, is located around 7 km southeast of Christchurch city ​​center in the Heathcote Valley district .

history

The company was originally founded on February 8, 1960 with the aim of saving the last two remaining trams from the Christchurch Tramway Board , which had ceased tram operations in 1954. In 1962, restoration work began on the Kitson Steam Tram Motor No. 7 and the Stephenson Horse Tram No. 50 , both of which were thus saved from being scrapped.

Stephenson Tram No 1 in Ferrymead Heritage Park

1963 asked the Tramway Historical Society together with the Canterbury Railway Society the Heathcote County Council (the council of the Heathcote parish ) to buy the land lying around the former station of the Ferrymead Railway for a historical park . The council did so, and after the park was established in 1965, the laying of the rails for the trams began. In 1967, after a fundraising campaign, more land was bought and the workshops for the railways were built. Since most of the original Christchurch trams were scrapped and spare parts were hardly available, trams and spare parts were procured from different parts of the world. In addition to the trams, there was also interest in older buses and trolleybuses , which became part of the museum fleet.

On January 6, 1968, the Tramway Historical Society opened the Ferrymead Tramway in the park and the Kitson Steam Tram Motor No. 7 and the double-decker bus No. 10 could be operated on a short route for tourists. In the late 1980s, Christchurch City Council drafted a concept for tourist transportation in the inner part of Christchurch city ​​center . In 1993 the council then asked the Tramway Historical Society whether they could provide the historic trams for the city. The Heritage Tramways Trust was founded for the professional restoration of old trams and the trams were rented to the city of Christchurch . From February 1995 the first trams drove through the city center again. The Christchurch City Council had created the first 2½ km of railroad tracks, rented the restored trams from the Tramway Historical Society and operated the trams through a company founded specifically for this purpose.

Web links

Commons : Trams in Christchurch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
  • About us . The Tramway Historical Society Inc.,accessed December 28, 2014.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Local History - The Christchurch Tramway . Christchurch City Libraries , accessed December 28, 2014 .
  2. ↑ a b c Background and History . The Tramway Historical Society Inc. , accessed December 28, 2014 .
  3. ^ Ferrymead railway and Heritage Park . IPENZ Engineers New Zealand , accessed on December 25, 2014 (English).

Coordinates: 43 ° 34 ′ 2.2 ″  S , 172 ° 42 ′ 7.9 ″  E