Moving 255

After several months of careful preparation, Auckland Streamliner 255 is finally on the move! No.255 was the second to last tram built for the Auckland Transport Board, so is the penultimate tram and is the highest numbered Auckland passenger tram left in existence.

No.255, a “war baby” was painted in Bandarillo red and rattan from new in 1942 and barely a teenager when retired prior to the system closure mid-1956. 

On Monday 20th May 2019 Auckland 1935-type streamliner No.255 was lifted from its home of many decades at the Thames Pony and Trekking Club to temporary accommodation at A & G Price in Thames where it was covered under a protective tarpaulin. It will be relocated to Auckland when permanent accommodation has been finalised for the AETT collection.

Funding for the move was made possible by two grants provided by the Albert-Eden and Waitemata Local Boards.

Trust Stages Event for the 2018 Heritage Festival

The AET Trust has been very active in the past 3 months. We have put on a show and exhibition for the Heritage Festival, battled for the preservation of the only Street Tramway in Auckland, the Dockline Tramway and written multiple funding submissions to various local boards. Thanks to the valued support of the Western Springs Tramway we didn’t do it alone!

The Auckland Heritage Festival event entitled Mt Eden by Tram held staged by the Trust at the Mt Eden Village Centre during the week commencing 8th October was a great success.

It brought out the showman in everyone, the stage lighting, music, media and video components from the Trust’s collection and the tech crew running around on talkback making things work took the production values up a notch. It was a new and different way of delivering a talk about tramway heritage.

The event was staged to tell the story of how modern tramway preservation started and how it is now evolving into a craft, almost a science, or as some like to say – a black art.

Albert-Eden Board approves funding

The Albert-Eden Board has approved funding to assist the Trust in the ongoing digitisation of the Ian Stewart Collection. The funds provided will be used to transfer the balance of the 8mm film collection, documenting both the Auckland trolley bus system and the development of the tramway at MOTAT and the 35mm microfilm reels of tramway plans.

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Digitisation of Stewart Collection Continues

On the 16th of December 2017 the Western Springs Tramway (WST) at the Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) will celebrate its Diamond Jubilee. It is incredible to think that a group of dedicated volunteers banded together in 1964 to construct the permanent way and successfully open and operate a tramway only three years later. 

Not only did the WST volunteers construct the permanent way, they also carried out the earthworks and put in place site drainage, along with erecting all the overhead poles for the museum system. The tramway was also dual gauge to allow for the operation of both Wellington and Auckland Cars, and was truly unique in this regard.

16 December 1967
Video credit: Brian White

To commemorate this event the trust has, with the assistance of the WST Social Club, migrated around two and a half hours of 8mm film footage from the Stewart Collection. High resolution digital scans of the fragile films have been made to facilitate future image restoration and colour grading.

Once the migration  of the entire library of 8mm films to digital file has been completed, the original footage will be deposited by the AET Trust with Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision in Wellington.

Car 91

On Friday the 17th of November the Auckland Electric tramways trust undertook its first project, the preservation and relocation of Auckland M class car number 91.

91 had for many years been used as a tea room next to MOTAT’s Cropper House dining rooms, however, as it was not a collection item and MOTAT already had two M Class cars in similar condition in storage, its future was uncertain.

Before demolition of 91 took place, the trust secured ownership and within 3 days of MOTAT’s agreement for the Trust to add the tram to its collection, 91 was on its way to a new temporary home in Mangere via the Waterview tunnel.

91 is now part of the Trust’s permanent collection as the board felt that this tram was both in a restorable condition and is an early example of the most common Auckland Tramcar design. 99 M Class cars were built for the Auckland System between 1907 and 1921.