TRAM MUSEUM ANTWERP REOPENING
New video - added this weekYouTube name: Tram Fan.
Language: Dutch.
Date: June 20, 2019.
City: Antwerp (Belgium).
The video shows
Vlaams Tram- en Autobusmuseum (VlaTAM)
Open regularly
Description
It al started in 1961 when a group of tram lovers started a association for a tram museum with the difficult name “ VETRAMU”.
They did it because that decade there was a giant transformation going on where a lot of the beautiful tram lines and trams itself where replaced by the ugly and especially CHEAP new transport vehicle, the bus.
With this association they wanted to prevent that many of the tram cars would ended at the scrap yard.
I will make another video about the history of the Belgian trams and tram lines.
In 1962 they opened the first museum in a place called SCHEPDAAL. This museum name was BUURTSPOORWEGMUSEUM or URBANRAILMUSEUM.
It was a good place to store the first collection of tram cars.
After awhile the collection kept on growing and the museum was not big enough anymore to store all the cars.
After many years the association had the chance to build a tram museum in the urban parts of Antwerp at a place called “ FORT V in a town named EDEGEM.
So in 1982 the ANTWERPS Tram en Autobusmuseum (ATAM) started.
Here they hat the same problem, the collection kept on growing and the location became too small and they where searching again for a new and bigger location.
In 1998 they found this location and you see it behind me.
The old tram depot GROENENHOEK in BERCHEM ANTWERP.
This classified building was builded in 1912 and started services one year later in 1913. At that time the depot stored 140 2 axis tram cars.
In 1965 they changed the track arrangement because of the new trams, the PCC cars.
After many years of service the tram depot was classified because it’s historical and architectural value. They got classified in 1996.
In 1997 the depot definitively went out of use.
On 21 oktober 1998 the board of direction of DE LIJN decided to use the old tram depot as the new tram museum.
On juli 2000 the entire collection of the former museum in EDEGEM was transported to the new museum and the next year on may the 5 the museum was offficialy opened by former minister for public transport Steve Stevaert.
And finaly on the 30 oktober 2010 they decided to close the museum for urgent renovation works. Especially the roof was in such a bad shape it could collided on the cars and people.
And now after 9 years the museum finally opened again and they are, rightly, proud of it and I’m gonna show you the results.
