Mug Shot — «Zurich - Tram Museum»

City: Zurich Country: Switzerland Edition: 2008 Icon Edition Belongs to: 601 users (28 trading, 163 seeking)

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. It is a mixed hub for railways, roads, and air traffic. Both Zurich Airport and railway station are the largest and busiest in the country. Permanently settled for around 7,000 years, the history of Zurich goes back to its founding by the Romans, who, in 15 BC, called it Turicum. During the Middle Ages Zurich gained the independent and privileged status of imperial immediacy and, in 1519, was the place of origin and centre of the Protestant Reformation in German-speaking Switzerland, led by Ulrich Zwingli. Zurich is a leading global city and among the world's largest financial centres. The city is home to a large number of financial institutions and banking giants. Also, most of the research and development centres are concentrated in Zurich and the low rate of tax attracts overseas companies to set up their headquarters there. According to several surveys from Zurich was named the city with the best quality of life in the world as well as the wealthiest city in Europe. Many museums and art galleries can be found in the city, including the Swiss National Museum and the Kunsthaus. Zurich also hosts one of the most important theatres in the German-speaking world.

The Zurich Tram Museum 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

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edited by mobydick74

  Switzerland, Zurich MIC, MIT, MIC/MIT, Zurich

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