James Hall Transport Museum (JHTM) is a

transport museum A transport museum is a museum that holds collections of transport items, which are often limited to land transport (road and rail)—including old cars, motorcycles, trucks, trains, trams/streetcars, buses, trolleybuses and coaches—but can als ...

that aims to preserve and promote the history of over 400 years of transport in South Africa in particular, and Africa in general. It is the largest transport museum in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. It is located at Pioneers' Park beside the

Wemmer Pan Wemmer Pan is a lake and recreational area in Johannesburg, South Africa. It's located to the south of the city centre, in the suburb of La Rochelle. History "Pan" is an Afrikaans and South African English word for a shallow lake. The Wemmer Pa ...

La Rochelle, Johannesburg La Rochelle is a suburb of Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest u ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. It was established in 1964 by Jimmie Hall and the

City of Johannesburg The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality is a Metropolitan municipality (South Africa), metropolitan municipality that manages the local governance of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is divided into several branches and departments in or ...

Exhibits

Carts (1870-1910)

The museum exhibits carriages from the period 1870 to 1910. These include Cape carts, two-wheeled carriages that were specially adapted for use on the South African roads; also

rickshaws A rickshaw originally denoted a two- or three-wheeled passenger cart, now known as a pulled rickshaw, which is generally pulled by one person carrying one passenger. The first known use of the term was in 1879. Over time, cycle rickshaws (also ...

, hearses,

mail coaches A mail coach is a stagecoach that is used to deliver mail. In Great Britain, Ireland, and Australia, they were built to a General Post Office-approved design operated by an independent contractor to carry long-distance mail for the Post Office. M ...

and ox wagons. Levis motorcycle-001

Bicycles and Motorbikes (1886-1960)

Some of the two-wheeled vehicles housed within the museum are penny-farthings, tandems, tricycles, and vintage and classic motorcycles.

Buses and Coaches

This collection includes several double decker buses formerly used in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban. There are vehicles from Daimler, Leyland, AEC and Guy. A 1952 RT double-decker London bus has been preserved, in working order, and is used for sightseeing tours. It also has a 1958 Guy double-decker diesel bus, one of 30 ever produced.

Fire Engines and Equipment (1877-1960)

The exhibit has a range of fire engines and

firefighting Firefighting is the act of extinguishing or preventing the spread of unwanted fires from threatening human lives and destroying property and the environment. A person who engages in firefighting is known as a firefighter. Firefighters typically ...

equipment, from a 1913

Merryweather Merryweather may refer to: People * Alice Merryweather (born 1996), American alpine skier * Andrew Merryweather (born 1961), Australian rules footballer * George Merryweather (1794–1870), English inventor of the tempest prognosticator, a leech-ba ...

Steam Pump to a 1947

Dennis Dennis or Denis is a first or last name from the Greco-Roman name Dionysius, via one of the Christian saints named Dionysius. The name came from Dionysus, the Greek god of ecstatic states, particularly those produced by wine, which is someti ...

with an 8-cylinder

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

engine. Others include the 1936

Magirus Deutz Magirus GmbH is a truck manufacturer based in Ulm, Germany, founded by Conrad Dietrich Magirus (1824–1895). It was formerly known as Klöckner Humboldt Deutz AG, maker of the Deutz AG, Deutz engines, so the brand commonly used was Magirus Deutz ...

with a 45-metre extension ladder and a Ford Thames fire engine from the Randburg Fire Department. Firefighting artefacts included in the exhibit are extinguishers, fire buckets,

fire alarms A fire alarm system warns people when smoke, fire, carbon monoxide or other fire-related or general notification emergency, emergencies are detected. These alarms may be activated automatically from smoke detectors and heat detectors or may also ...

, hand pumps, and hoses, and the original alarm board and switch box mechanism from the

Berea Fire Station The Berea Fire station was constructed to serve the northern district of Johannesburg in 1910. It is situated in stand 927/8 on Mitchell Street in Berea. It is sometimes known as the ''Doll's House'' and it is the oldest functioning fire station ...

. Other fire engines include: * 1928 Morris Magirus Tower Ladder fire engine from the Johannesburg Fire Department * 1935 Leyland Tower Ladder fire engine from the East London Fire Department * 1939 Magrius Tower Ladder fire engine from the Johannesburg Fire Department James Hall Drehleiter

Motor Vehicles (1900-1980)

The museum has variety of motor vehicles with the oldest being a 1900

Clément-Panhard Clément-Panhard is an automobile designed in 1898 by Arthur Constantin Krebs, manager of Panhard & Levassor co, from his 1896 patent of a car fitted with an electromagnetic gearbox, whose licence was acquired by Émile LEVASSOR. When Adolphe Clé ...

. The Clément-Panhard took part in the 1928 Emancipation Run and finished with an average speed of 22 kph. It has a 1959 Mayoral Rolls-Royce.

Steam-driven vehicles

The museum has a number of steam powered vehicles on display. From "Texas Jack", a famous

steam tractor :''This article refers to the steam-powered agricultural tractor; for other types of steam tractor, see: Traction engine'' A steam tractor is a vehicle powered by a steam engine which is used for pulling. In North America, the term ''steam t ...

used in the

Witwatersrand The Witwatersrand () (locally the Rand or, less commonly, the Reef) is a , north-facing scarp in South Africa. It consists of a hard, erosion-resistant quartzite metamorphic rock, over which several north-flowing rivers form waterfalls, which ...

mines. A

Sentinel Sentinel may refer to: Places Mountains * Mount Sentinel, a mountain next to the University of Montana in Missoula, Montana * Sentinel Buttress, a volcanic crag on James Ross Island, Antarctica * Sentinel Dome, a naturally occurring grani ...

steam wagon A steam wagon (or steam lorry, steam waggon or steamtruck) is a steam-powered truck for carrying freight. It was the earliest form of lorry (truck) and came in two basic forms: ''overtype'' and ''undertype'', the distinction being the position of ...

served to transport coal and haul away scrap at the mines. Other vehicles include: * 1933 Sentinel

steam bus A steam bus is a bus powered by a steam engine. Early steam-powered vehicles designed for carrying passengers were more usually known as steam carriages, although this term was sometimes used to describe other early experimental vehicles too. H ...

from Pilgram's Rest * 1939 John Fowler B7 "Lion"

Jib crane A crane is a type of machine, generally equipped with a hoist (device), hoist rope, wire ropes or chains, and Sheave (mechanical), sheaves, that can be used both to lift and lower materials and to move them horizontally. It is mainly used for l ...

Trams and Trolley Buses (1896-1986)

The museum houses the first

horse-drawn tram A horsecar, horse-drawn tram, horse-drawn streetcar (U.S.), or horse-drawn railway (historical), is an animal-powered (usually horse) tram or streetcar. Summary The horse-drawn tram (horsecar) was an early form of public rail transport, wh ...

which was in use in Johannesburg from 1891 to 1902. It had maximum speed of , drawn by two horses on a track laid in the middle of the road. The museum also has the last tram ever ran from 1906 to 18 March 1961, and double-decker electric trams on display. Other trams and

trolleybuses A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tramin the 1910s and 1920sJoyce, J.; King, J. S.; and Newman, A. G. (1986). ''British Trolleybus Systems'', pp. 9, 12. London: Ian Allan Publishing. .or troll ...

include: *

Brill Brill may refer to: Places * Brielle (sometimes "Den Briel"), a town in the western Netherlands * Brill, Buckinghamshire, a village in England * Brill, Cornwall, a small village to the west of Constantine, Cornwall, UK * Brill, Wisconsin, an un ...

electric tram that ran in

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia * Kimberley (Western Australia) ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley * Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania * Kimberley, Tasmania a small town * County of Kimberley, a ...

from 1913 to 1939 * BUT AEC trolleybus that ran in Johannesburg from 1948 to 1974 * Daimler trolleybus No. 177 that was run by

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

City Transport from 1949 to 1972

Gallery

File:Merryweather-Fire engine-001.jpg, Merryweather fire engine File:James Hall Transport Museum, Johannesburg.jpg, Entrance File:Bristol 20 Crawler Tractor.jpg, Bristol 20

crawler tractor Continuous track is a system of vehicle propulsion used in tracked vehicles, running on a continuous band of treads or track plates driven by two or more wheels. The large surface area of the tracks distributes the weight of the vehicle b ...

File:Ford Torpedo 1912.jpg, Ford Torpedo from 1912 File:Renault AX-001.jpg, 1908 Renault AX Roadster File:Traveling library-TJ9956-001.jpg, A travelling library used in Johannesburg, between 1955 and 1965. File:Protea car-001.jpg, The South African manufactured Protea sports car.

References

External links

*
South Africa Museums

Beautiful Photos - photos taken at the James Hall Museum of Transport
{{Authority control Transport museums in South Africa Museums in Johannesburg