The Zurich Tram Museum (German: Tram-Museum Zürich) is a transport museum in the Swiss city of Zurich, specialising in the history of the Zurich tram system. The main museum site is located at the former tram depot Tramdepot Burgwies, which is on tram route 11 in the city's Hirslanden quarter. The museum also maintains a workshop at the much smaller former tram depot of Wartau on tram route 13 in the Höngg quarter.[1][2][3]
The main museum site at Burgwies is open to the public on several days a week, with exact opening hours varying by day of the week and season of the year. The museum also runs an occasional historic tram service between Burgwies and the city centre, billed as tram route 21. In 2011, the museum opened on Wednesday to Sunday from April to October, whilst route 21 operated a half-hourly service on the last Saturday of each month between May and October.[2][4] From November 2011 the museum is open Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from 1pm to 5pm and the Museum line 21 will run every last weekend of the month.
The museum's collection includes some 20 preserved tram cars, the majority of which are operational. Besides cars from Zurich's city owned fleet, the collection includes cars from the private companies that operated routes around Zurich in the early days, including a car of the Strassenbahn Zürich-Oerlikon-Seebach dating back to 1897, and a car of the Limmattal-Strassenbahn from 1900. Cars from the city fleet chart ongoing developments, from cars very similar to these early private sector vehicles, through the 1930s Elefant bogie cars and 1940s Swiss Standard trams, to trams only just retired.[1]
The museum also includes a mezzanine level with smaller exhibits. These include a model tramway layout illustrating the city's street scene over the years, together with a selection of documents and photographs. The museum shop stocks a selection of books, postcards, models and souvenirs.[1][2]
The museum building, the former Tramdepot Burgwies, is also a significant exhibit in its own right, and is shared with a branch of the Migros supermarket chain. The building is inscribed on the Swiss Inventory of Cultural Property of National Significance.[5]
The tram museum is run by an association, the Verein Tram Museum Zürich, that has been in existence since 1968. At first it used various borrowed locations to store and work on its exhibits. In 1989 it took over the tiny former tram depot at Wartau, big enough to hold five tram cars, and opened its first public museum. In 2008 the museum moved to the significantly larger site at Burgweis, although Wartau has been retained as a workshop and store.[1]
The preserved tram fleet of the museum includes the following vehicles:
| Number | Type | Year | Notes | Image |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ce 2/2 | 1897 | Two-axle motor tram originally built for the Strassenbahn Zürich-Oerlikon-Seebach (ZOS) and preserved in their green livery. This is the oldest operable electric tram car in Switzerland.[6][7] | |
| 2 | Ce 2/2 | 1900 | Motor tram originally built for the Limmattal-Strassenbahn and preserved in their yellow livery. Known as Lisbethli.[6][8] | |
| 2 | Ce 2/2 | 1928 | Two axle motor tram built for the Städtische Strassenbahn Zürich of a class popularly known as schnelläufer (fast runner).[6] | |
| 102 | Two-axle motor tram. | |||
| 119 | B | 1935 | Light rail trailer car originally from the Lausanne tramway, acquired by the Forchbahn in 1962 and preserved in the latter's red livery. Because of its origins, popularly known as lausanner.[6] | |
| 176 | Ce 2/2 | 1909 | Two-axle motor tram. A later and updated version of the design seen in car 102, with a riveted frame and four larger windows in place of 102's five windows, this is the youngest car in the museum to retain longitudinal seating.[6][9] | |
| 321 | Ce 4/4 | 1930 | Four-axle centre-entrance motor tram. One of a class of 50 similar vehicles popularly known by the name elefant (elephant). With a weight of 27 tonnes and four 80hp motors, these cars were used to haul up to three two-axle trailers over Zurich's considerable gradients.[10] | |
| 626 | Tram trailer. | |||
| 687 | C | 1931 | Tram trailer.[6] | |
| 732 | Tram trailer | |||
| 1392 | Swiss Standard four-axle motor tram of a type popularly known as kurbeli.[11] | |||
| 1430 | Be4/4 | 1960 | Motor tram of a type popularly known as karpfen (carp).[6] | |
| 1530 | Be4/4 | 1949 | Swiss Standard four-axle motor tram of a type popularly known as pedaler.[6] | |
| 1905 | Xe 2/2 | 1962 | Depot shunter popularly known as laubfrosch (tree frog). Built in 1962 using parts from withdrawn trams, its open construction and single central controller was an efficient design for shunting trailer cars, used especially during peak periods.[6] | |
| 1935 | Xe 2/2 | 1914 | Motor works car popularly known as besenwagen (broom wagon).[6] |