St Kilda museum a record of every tram type from 1878 to the 1950s that ran on Adelaide's big network

St Kilda Tramway Museum's collection includes several Adelaide-built Melbourne trams, two Adelaide horse trams and four electric trolley buses.
Image courtesy St Kilda Tramway Museum

The Tramway Museum at St Kilda, north of Adelaide, features every type of tram than ran on Adelaide's metropolitan network from 1878 to the mid 1950s when it had 24 lines servicing the suburbs.

The museum was built by the Australian Electric Traction Association in 1974 but its collection was started in the 1950s and continued with volunteers restoring the vehicles and other tram mementos for public display.

The museum’s collection includes several Adelaide-built Melbourne trams, two Adelaide horse trams and four electric trolley buses, including Australia’s first. It offers historic tram rides on 2km of track that ran between the museum and the St Kilda adventure playground.

Trams built in New York and Philadelphia that were imported for the Adelaide system are also maintained and the museum has Australia's first electric trolley bus plus a drop-centre tram that served millions of commuters from the 1920s.

Among the St Kilda museum exhibits is the H1 type Car 381, the last Adelaide tram to be produced in the 20th Century. It went into service in 1953 and was used the Kensington and Henley North lines (that were through routed the same year Car 381 was built).

Car 381 was the last to operate over the Kensington line before it was closed in 1957. Withdrawn from service, it was stored at Hackney depot/workshops. In 1958, it was moved to city depot on Angas Street, Adelaide. In 1959, it was shifted to the permanent way depot at Maylands where it remained until 1965 when it was donated to the St Kilda museum. 

Tramway Museum vounteer William Adams created an interactive online map of old extensive Adelaide tram network, featuring 1300 images.