- Ride a tram in Sydney Tramway Museum - https://www.sydneytramwaymuseum.com.au -

National Park old site fire

On Friday night the 23rd of October 2015 , at some time around 11pm a fire was reported in the ‘old site’ shed. By the time the fire brigade had arrived, the shed was well alight and the fire fighting consisted of ensuring the fire didn’t spread in to the rest of the Royal National Park. The fire itself was too intense to control directly.

The shed and it’s contents have been totally destroyed. The site is currently a ‘crime scene’.

The fire has been widely reported both in social and traditional media.

The main museum site and all operational infrastructure is undamaged and the museum is operating as normal.  The loss is restricted to the ‘old site’ and the ‘reserve collection’ items that were stored there, this includes 5 former Sydney trams and 1 former Melbourne tram along with 2 former Sydney double decker buses, 2 former Sydney under floor buses and the chassis of a 1937 Albion double decker.

The Sydney trams destroyed were C12 (built 1898), N710 (1904), K1295 (1912), Sydney R types 1741, 1819 and 1917 (1933-34) and Melbourne tram SW2 432 (1930).

Buses lost included, a 1938 AEC single deck half cab,  Leyland double decker, m/o 2086, ‘Tramway Replacement’ buses, m/o 2788 and m/o 3442.

12038957_10153128502584147_4017302207809453359_o [1]
12038951_10153128502819147_9167439948606188260_o [2]
12186431_10153131214474147_7755451728725819049_o [3]
12185583_10153131213764147_7765427502216518592_o [4]

Four images above, © Sharon Quandt [5]

MG_PA242187_OldSiteFire
The aftermath of the old site fire
After the fire in the old site shed

 

 

 

Matthew Geier

For media enquires please contact one of the following museum directors, Howard Clark, or Greg Sutherland.

Channel 7 news ran a short piece on their evening news on Saturday the 24th.

Another piece found on Youtube that the fire service ‘mopping up’. The person who filmed this has no connection with the museum and we don’t know how or why they were filming. They do appear to be known to the emergency services.

Print media

These links may cease to work after a period of time or disappear behind a ‘pay wall’. The same story has appeared in multiple papers – Fairfax and News Ltd distributing the same copy amongst their various ‘brands’.

SMH – Fire destroys historic trams and buses at Sydney Tramway Museum [6]

News Ltd – History lost: Old trams and buses go up in flames as suspicious blaze destroys tramway museum storage shed [7]

St George Leader – Fire destroys Loftus tram storage shed, police suspect arson: gallery [8]