The Tramway Museum, St Kilda is a museum of the historic trams of Adelaide, as well as a few from other areas of Australia. There was a network of trams in Adelaide from 1878 until most of them were removed by 1958, leaving only the Glenelg tram operating mostly as light rail. The tramway museum is located at St Kilda north of Adelaide, and has a dedicated track offering rides on some of its collection of historic trams. Adelaide had an extensive tram system, beginning with horse trams in 1878, moving to electric trams in 1909 and reduced in 1958 to a single tram line which then ran from Adelaide's Central Business District to Glenelg. Built on the site of a 1902 school, the Tramway Museum, St Kilda showcases trams and trolleybuses that were either used or built in Adelaide. The museum is operated by the Australian Electric Transport Museum Inc, a not-for-profit volunteer organisation accredited with the History Trust of South Australia and dedicated to preserving and restoring Adelaide’s former transport vehicles. The museum houses over 30 electric trams, horse trams and electric trolley buses, many of which are restored and operational. Visitors can ride the electric trams along 2 km of purpose-built track that runs between the museum and the adventure playground.Work commenced in 1958 with the arrival of donated vehicles, the first of which was an old trolley bus from the Municipal Tramways Trust, and the museum was opened in 1967 as a static display. Workshops were built to enable the restoration of the old trams to operating condition and, in 2001 a large additional museum building was completed to house the increasing number of donated trams. ICI, then operator of the nearby salt lagoons, donated land for the tramway along the side of St Kilda Road from the museum towards the sea with funding obtained from the State Unemployment Relief Scheme. The tramway opened for trials in 1973 and was officially opened in 1974 by Harry Bowey, then the Mayor of Salisbury, and Frank Kneebone, Minister for Lands, to coincide with St Kilda's centenary.The tram used in the opening ceremonies and now housed at the museum was Adelaide's first electric tram, which had its trial run on 30 November 1908 and first operated in 1909. The museum's collection continues to expand with Adelaide tram 104 the latest acquisition. After spending 48 years as a shack on the Yorke Peninsula it will be stored, and possibly restored, at the museum on behalf of the Sydney Tramway Museum.
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