Description of the attraction
The tram museum is located in the eastern part of the large Austrian city of Graz. It is called Mariatrost in honor of its main attraction - the Basilica of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary. The museum itself is located 200 meters from this church, and its two outstanding towers are visible from its territory.
The museum itself is a mixture of an open air museum and a traditional museum. Previously, it was the terminal station of the first city tram route. Interestingly, according to the original plans, the tram track was one meter, that is, the distance between the inner edges of the rails was 1 meter, but later the entire tram network of Graz switched to modern European standards, according to which this distance should be more than one meter.
The museum displays a variety of old trams, but also carriages belonging to other forms of public transport. First of all, it is worth noting the show jumping, which appeared at the beginning of the 19th century. In addition to these carriages, which received the interesting name "horse tram", the museum also houses small funiculars, used mainly in the mountains, as well as more modern tram cars. A separate exposition is devoted to smaller details - trailers, motors and other elements of the tram structure.
It should be noted that not all of the cars and carriages shown in the museum were made directly in Graz. Some of them came from other Austrian cities - from Vienna and from Innsbruck, and some copies were made in neighboring Croatia - in the city of Dubrovnik. And the most "exotic" trailer came here from the other part of the Atlantic Ocean - from New York. In total, the tram museum displays more than 30 different items.
Unfortunately, the Tram Museum in Graz does not have regular days and hours of operation, and the excursion must be arranged in advance directly with the staff of this museum.
