ST KILDA (Museum Notes and News - December 2005)
from Colin Seymour
Salisbury Council Assistance
Salisbury Council has shown its strong commitment to the Museum by becoming a corporate sponsor and converting the unused portion of their recent grant to the Museum for public liability cover as part payment in advance of a sponsorship sum based on $5,000 a year for the next 3 years.
Council recently commissioned a Marketing Review and Proposal for the Museum. A detailed draft report has been received and is currently being studied by the Executive. The report indicates that Council can help the Museum in a number of ways to attract much needed additional income.
Road 10 has Overhead
As mentioned in the November 2005 News, a recent bequest to the Museum together with Members' donations has enabled Road 9 in the Northern Depot (and the aisle between Roads 9 & 10) to be concreted, enabling the whole of the Northern Depot to be open to the public.
Following on from this work, Kym Smith led a team which completed the overhead for Road 10 on 17 November 2005. There is now an overhead frog where Road 10 joins the main line. This will make the periodic shunting of trams to and from our operating depots much easier.
Glenelg Trams
TransAdelaide called for tenders in August 2005 for 10 operational and 5 non-operational 'H' type trams and the restaurant tram (378).
On 18 November we were advised that we were successful with our tender for car 364. This gives the Museum a comprehensive representation of the life of the 'H' cars:
360 - restored to circa 1929 original
362 - silver 1950s/1960s appearance
364 - 1980s style refurbishment
It also gives us consecutively even numbered cars 360 - 362 - 364.
We have been advised that car 364 will become available from late 2005 to the early months of 2006.
Unfortunately we were not successful with our tender for the restaurant car 378. This car together with another 'H' car has been allocated to Glossop High School in the Riverland (between Barmera and Berri). This is a little disappointing, but the Tender Selection Committee obviously took other factors into account.
It is pleasing to report however, that 8 of the cars (including 364) have gone to Australasian tramway museums for preservation.
357, 358 - Sydney Tramway Museum
364 - Tramway Museum, St Kilda, SA
368 - W2 568 Group, North Fitzroy Depot, Melbourne
369 - Bendigo Tramways
371, 372 - Perth Electric Tramway Society
373 - Tramway Museum Society of Victoria
COTMA successfully tendered for many of the spare parts. These parts will be stored at St Kilda pending requests from other tramway museums to COTMA.
Museum General Manager, Ian Seymour has been busy liaising with the new owners of a number of the trams not going to museums in order to acquire spare parts still attached to these trams.
In somewhat unusual circumstances 'H' 365 which is destined for a bed & breakfast in the Adelaide Hills was delivered to the Museum on 20 December 2005. As car 365 is one of the operational trams being disposed of, an agreement was reached with the new owners to remove the operating equipment at St Kilda before the tram begins a new life.
Sydney R1 1971
An agreement has been reached with the Sydney Tramway Museum for one of their R1 trams (1971) to be housed at St Kilda. The need to shift two of their trams from Canberra to Loftus has created space problems at Loftus. AETM offered to provide storage for 1971 at St Kilda.
The car arrived at St Kilda on Sunday 4 December 2005 attracting the interest of our Sunday visitors. It was unloaded onto the unwired Road 9 the following morning. The car ran a number of test trips that same day. The car remains the property of the Sydney Tramway Museum and is to be returned to them following an agreed amount of notice. The arrival of 1971 has been incorporated into Museum publicity to attract visitors over the holiday period. It will be in regular traffic at St Kilda on most operating days for several months.
Bib and Bub Project
Good progress continues to be made with the reconstruction of car 15 as part of our 'Bib & Bub' set - cars 14 & 15. The drop end roof which was removed from the body of A type car 17 earlier in the year has now been transplanted on to the roof of car 15. A rope pulley block attached to the Bodyshop roof was used to haul the roof end off of the floor and suspend it while it was fitted to car 15. Five members of the 'Friday Gang' were involved in the roof transplant procedure. Other work done on car 15 (and car 14 where indicated) during 2005 included:
- Scraped down. All interior woodwork removed
- No 1 cabin largely reinstated
- All clerestory and saloon windows for 15 (and 14) made ready
- Etched glass for doors of 14/15 procured and installed in 8 doors. Two held as spares
- Saloon sides re-screwed
- Most woodwork inside saloon refurbished and re-installed
- No 1 drivers cabin now largely intact
- 2 uprights at no 2 end replaced by two uprights from a C car
- 2 sets of steps (from car 17) installed
- Letter boards on 15 being installed
- Further roof repairs being carried out
Some woodwork for car 14 has also been refurbished and ready for installation.
W7 1013
Following completion of the Road 10 overhead, W7 1013 was temporarily relocated to Road 10 as it provided better light than the Workshop for those involved in repainting some of it. This gave members of the public an opportunity to view the tram on operations days.
History Trust Grant
A grant of $4,000 has been received from the History Trust of SA to engage a consultant to develop a concept plan for the Museum site. This is a critical factor in maintaining our History Trust accreditation and will fit in nicely with the Salisbury Council's marketing review findings.
Other News
A roller shutter was recently fitted to the external window of the Museum Administration section in the Northern Depot in an effort to dissuade break ins.
In accordance with Rail Safety regulations, the majority of our tram drivers completed their medical assessments by mid December 2005 as required.