Museum of Transport and Technology
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The Museum of Transport and Technology (MOTAT) is a science and technology museum located in
MOTAT was established in 1960 by a combination of groups including the Old Time Transport Preservation League, which was formed in 1957 and preserved trams and railway locomotives. MOTAT was formally opened in 1964.[2]
MOTAT – Great North Road
MOTAT was built around the site of a
Exhibits include trams, trains, vintage traction engines, carriages, cars, buses, trolleybuses and trucks, particularly fire engines, electrical equipment, space flight exhibits including a
The MOTAT printery demonstrates type making, type setting and printing on a variety of different manual and mechanical printing presses operated by Volunteers printing giveaways and small publications. A volunteer bindery group also demonstrate their talents and hold classes.
In the 1970s visitors to MOTAT were entertained by the MOTAT Chorus, a group of barbershop singers who later became the Auckland City of Sails Chorus.[3]
The 'Pioneers of Aviation' Pavilion holds memorabilia of early aviators. The displays include miscellaneous parts from
The Road transport collection rotationally displays in excess of 100 cars, trucks, motorbikes and emergency vehicles. Some of the iconic vehicles in the collection include one of the first
MOTAT also houses a small collection of Police vehicles, including former New Zealand Transport Department, later
Trams are displayed at MOTAT 1 and operate daily between MOTAT 1's Great North Road Site, via Western Springs Park and Auckland Zoo to MOTAT 2.[5] The extended line was opened by then-Prime Minister Helen Clark on Friday 27 April 2007.[6]
MOTAT Aviation Hall – 98 Motions Road
MOTAT Aviation Hall's NZ$15 million extended aviation pavilion housing the "Sir Keith Park Memorial Aviation Collection" opened Friday 9 September 2011.
Also known in the past as the 'Sir Keith Park Memorial Airfield', named after
There is also a military section which restores and demonstrates a selection of Second World War military trucks, light tracked vehicles and tanks of Allied forces. The military section has regular open days when the Military Reenactment Society displays and demonstrates the vehicles and uniforms.[7]
MOTAT Aviation Hall also has an operational railway with 1 km of track, stations and a selection of former New Zealand Government Railways, light industrial locomotives, wagons and carriages.
On 9 September 2011 a new and larger display hangar was opened at the MOTAT Aviation Hall.[8] The existing blister hangar was moved and restored as part of the same project. With the construction of the new hangar it was now possible to display the restored De Havilland Mosquito and Lockheed Hudson. Short S25 Sunderland Mk V and Short S45A Solent Mk 4 were in moved inside as their overhauls and external painting was completed. Aircraft including the NAC DC3 Dakota can be seen inside the maintenance Blister Hangar.
Collections
MOTAT features several major collections of transport vehicles:
- Air Chief Marshal Keith Parkmemorial at the entrance.
- Railway locomotives and collection – includes seven steam locomotives from a pioneering 1874 NZR F class to the iconic NZR K class steam locomotive, smaller branch line, industrial and logging tank locomotives. Also six diesel, petrol and petrol electric locomotives, including the DA class which was built to replace the K class from the 1950s through the 1960s and became the most prolific mainline locomotive in New Zealand. This is operational and able to be viewed on Live Days which occur every third Sunday of the month.
- Railway carriages – the collection also includes stations, carriages, wagons and other rolling stock.
- Tram collection – the collection includes over 20 electric, steam and cable trams, many of which are operational, with support equipment and vehicles from former New Zealand tramway systems of Auckland, Wellington, Wanganui and the Mornington Cable tram system in Dunedin. Auckland's horse-drawn tramway opened in 1884 and was replaced by the electric tram system in 1902, closing in 1956. The final closure of an original street tramway was in Wellington in 1964. An 1883 Dunedin Cable Car trailer is the sole South Island tramway exhibit and there are additional trams from Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. Street furniture used on the Auckland Tramways can be seen on the Western Springs Tramway including traction pole skirts and cast iron pillar boxes dating from the 1900s, concrete safety zones, platform information signs, Cincinnati Recording Clocks, Queen Street Dispatchers Cabin all dating from the 1920s and some used into the trolleybus era. The museum is one of five operational Museum and Heritage Tramways in New Zealand.
- Petrol / diesel bus collection – contains a significant collection of historic buses from the Auckland region, including a 1924 White Motor Company 4-cylinder side-valve petrol engine, wooden-bodied 23 seat omnibus, through a 1954 Bedford SB, petrol engine, 35-seat lightweight wooden-body bus specifically built for Grafton Bridge services, through to a 1978 M.A.N SL200 No.1603 retired in the 2010s.
- Trolleybus collection – this collection contains a representative cross-section of trolleybuses which operated in Auckland between 1938 and 1980. First used on a 1 km department store-operated route in central Auckland from 1938, the trolleybus system later duplicated and then replaced the aging tram system between 1949 and 1956. The trolleybuses were in turn replaced by diesel buses in 1980.
Tram service
Tramlines on sleepered track set under bitumen were laid within the museum boundaries with trams commencing operation on 16 December 1967. The Museum tramline was later extended beyond the Museum grounds along Gt. North Road and opened on 19 December 1980. A further extension along Motions Road to Auckland Zoo commenced services on 5 December 1981 using rail set in mass concrete. In 2006–07 the tram line was further extended by a distance of 636 metres, to the aviation hangar at MOTAT 2, the service commencing on 27 April 2007. The tramway is dual gauge, employing 4-foot and 4-foot 8+1⁄2 inches gauges, the rail welded and set in mass concrete.
Trams are operated daily between MOTAT, alongside the Western Springs Park and precinct, past Auckland Zoo to the MOTAT Aviation Hall and connect both Museum sites.[9]
See also
References
- ^ "Museum of Transport and Technology Act 2000". Archived from the original on 13 February 2018. Retrieved 1 August 2008.
- ^ "MOTAT Official Website – Corporate Information". Archived from the original on 13 February 2018. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
- ^ "Various issues". MOTAT Museum News. Archived from the original on 30 May 2019. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
- ^ "Walsh Memorial Library". MOTAT. 31 August 2023. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
- ^ "MOTAT Tram Information". MOTAT. Archived from the original on 12 May 2019. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
- ^ Western Springs Tramway Extension Archived 25 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine. MOTAT. Retrieved 8 August 2010.
- ^ Official Museum Website Archived 17 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ MOTAT – Aviation Hangar Archived 27 July 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Tramway & Tramcars Archived 12 May 2019 at the Wayback Machine (from the official museum website)
External links
- MOTAT – Museum of Transport and Technology (official website)
- The MOTAT Society – Supporting Society of MOTAT
- MOTAT Online Collections
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