![](\"\/images\/journalpics\/082026\/perth_melbourne_tram_sm.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nWhen I went to board the train I introduced myself to the engineer, Shane, who was happy to learn he had a visitor who was a member of Market Street Railway in San Francisco. He extended every kindness to me, beginning with letting me ride in the front with him for part of the journey, I was thrilled! And he was happy to answer all my questions about the tram. Later in our journey we took a small detour to where all the tram barns are and he took a few minutes to tell everyone on the tram about them. He also gave me some tips for later in my Australian adventure, including that I should visit the Sydney Tramway Museum.<\/p>\n
![](\"\/images\/journalpics\/082026\/perth_melbourne_tram_lyz_in_front_sm.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nWhiteman Park also featured a steam train on the Bennett Brook Railway which I also took on a lovely ride through the park on before stopping by the Revolutions Transport Museum which also housed a vintage tram, but this one was a non-operational tram from the USA, so delightful but a little less exciting than the others I’d see on my travels.<\/p>\n
Next stop, Melbourne!<\/p>\n
It turns out that Melbourne has a tram museum, but as I learned from my colleague’s father when I went out to dinner with him and his wife, it’s only open sporadically, and I wasn’t in town long enough to catch one of those dates. During that dinner I learned a lot about Melbourne and the vintage trams, including that they had gone on the Melbourne dining tram before it ended service in 2018. All of this seemed to come as a surprise of my colleague who suddenly found himself at dinner with a bunch of rail nerds, hah! The next day was spent executing on the work event I was actually there for, but Thursday I had some time between our meetings with a couple universities to get some tram time in.<\/p>\n
My first stop was to the Tram Cafe. It’s no ride through the city enjoying a meal, but it was just a short walk from my hotel and they offered a delightful breakfast that could be enjoyed inside a converted vintage Melbourne tram.<\/p>\n
![](\"\/images\/journalpics\/082026\/melbourne_tram_cafe_sm.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\n![](\"\/images\/journalpics\/082026\/melbourne_tram_cafe_inside_sm.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nAfter breakfast, I met up with my colleague for our first university visit which was a short meeting with a faculty member. He stayed to take a call while I headed off for my next tram adventure: the City Circle Tram. Once again we’re on vintage Melbourne trams! This one is a free, vintage service that takes you around Melbourne’s Central Business District (CBD) in a loop that turns around at the waterfront. I hopped on at the stop near RMIT just in time for the rain to start. But rain is no problem inside a tram! It might have been a slightly gloomier ride than I had planned, but it was still wonderful.<\/p>\n
![](\"\/images\/journalpics\/082026\/melbourne_city_circle_tram_sm.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nDuring most of the ride I was in the back, but at the waterfront the tram doesn’t turn around, instead the driver moves to the other side end of the tram to continue the loop going the other direction, which meant I was now in front to conclude my journey around the CBD. On that last stretch I also caught a glimpse of the Tram Cafe I had breakfast at.<\/p>\n
![](\"\/images\/journalpics\/082026\/melbourne_city_circle_tram_view_in_front_sm.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\nMy stop in Canberra was vintage tram-free, but it was also a very short<\/em> stop, since we spent extra time in Melbourne for the university visits and flew out to Sydney first thing on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n In Sydney I spent Sunday visiting my friends Stephen and Lauren, who I last saw the last time I was in Sydney back in 2018. Stephen and I are both in tech, and tried to puzzle out how we met (when we were both in Philly? Or some online tech place?) and never quite figured it out. Either way, he’s been in Australia with his wife for about 20 years now. When I connected with Lauren in chat to meet up I had a suggestion: the Sydney Tramway Museum. They happily agreed and Lauren suggested an itinerary that would get us there around opening time (10AM) in spite of the nearly hour-long train ride out there, and would even get us some delicious lunch at a local club. Nice!<\/p>\n I’d say the heart of their museum is their operational railway line, which allows you to have a ride on some of their restored trams. And you guessed it, most of them are vintage Melbourne trams. Luckily I wasn’t tired of them yet. They had several different models, which was fun!<\/p>\n Upon getting to the museum, you buy your tickets and are invited to hop on the next tram coming along, which for us was the Melbourne W2 class tram No. 249.<\/p>\n We took it on the full run, and while we were stopped I gave my “thank you, I’m visiting from San Francisco!” spiel and volunteer Richard Jones lit up and invited to take me to see the San Francisco PCC car they had in the other side of the barn. Cool! But first, he loaned me his hat for a photo op with 249.<\/p>\n When the tram came to the end of its run, Richard gave the three of us the backstage tour, taking us through the “Obtain permission from OIC before entry” door to the other half of the barn that’s not on open public display. Tucked away in the back, was that beautiful San Francisco Market Street Railway car 1014!<\/p>\n Our adventure continued as he took us into the workshop where we got to see some trams in the process of being restored, and gave us some interesting background of the pair of trams they had there.<\/p>\n Our day concluded by taking another ride, this time on a Melbourne R1 class tram, No. 2001. And of course with a stop at the gift shop where I picked up several goodies, along with some post cards to send home.<\/p>\n With that, my tram journey in Australia came to and end, and it was off to Wellington, New Zealand!<\/p>\n Wellington doesn’t have a running vintage tram to ride, but they do have something very cool: a cable car. And before someone corrects me, yes, strictly speaking it’s a funicular, but cables are involved! And they call it the Wellington Cable Car, who am I to argue?<\/p>\n I arrived in Wellington in the evening, and thought about taking some time to relax in my hotel after the flight, but I had so little time and really didn’t want to miss the opportunity to see the cable car. So about ten minutes after arriving at my hotel, I embarked on the 20 minute walk over to the bottom cable car stop. I bought some souvenirs along with my ticket and hopped on the car. The entire car is built at an angle, since all it does is go straight up and down the mountain (hill?) at a steep, steady incline. Unfortunately by the time I got to the top it was almost 5PM and the museum was closing! And it had started to rain. I did a 5 minute browse of the museum and bought a giant cable car stuffy, and then took it back down.<\/p>\n But I had another opportunity to visit it! After client meetings on Thursday, my colleague and I parted ways for the day and I had some free time to do a midday journey up.<\/p>\n This gave me the opportunity to take some slightly<\/em> less gloomy pictures of the cable car from the top, and to walk around a bit while it wasn’t raining.<\/p>\n![](\"\/images\/journalpics\/082026\/sydney_tramway_stephen_lauren_lyz_sm.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\n![](\"\/images\/journalpics\/082026\/sydney_tramway_lyz_hat_sm.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\n![](\"\/images\/journalpics\/082026\/sydney_sfmsr_1014_collage_sm.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\n![](\"\/images\/journalpics\/082026\/sydney_tramway_workshop_sm.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\n![](\"\/images\/journalpics\/082026\/sydney_tramway_melbourne_2001_sm.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\n![](\"\/images\/journalpics\/082026\/sydney_tramway_melbourne_2001_inside_sm.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\n![](\"\/images\/journalpics\/082026\/wellington_cable_car_lyz_inside_sm.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\n
![](\"\/images\/journalpics\/082026\/wellington_cable_car_from_top_sm.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\n![](\"\/images\/journalpics\/082026\/wellington_cable_car_old_winding_machine_room_sm.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\n