Museum of Transport, Greater Manchester

The Museum of Transport, Greater Manchester aims to preserve and promote the public transport heritage of Greater Manchester in North West England. Owned by Transport for Greater Manchester, it is in the Cheetham Hill area of Manchester.

The museum holds a sizeable collection, one of the largest of its kind in the UK. Due to the size of the building, some vehicles have to be kept off-site, with exhibits changed around every so often. In addition, vehicles often attend events around the country in the summer months.

The museum, owned by Transport for Greater Manchester, was established at Boyle Street, Cheetham Hill, in 1977. It opened to the public on 27 May 1979. The day-to-day running of the museum is carried out by volunteers from the Greater Manchester Transport Society.

The museum building consist of two distinct halves, created from a former Manchester Corporation Transport bus garage. The upper hall and entrance area was completed in 1928 as a dedicated bus garage at a time when the main Queens Road garage was a tramcar facility; and the lower hall was created in 1935 by the construction of a roof over what had been the open space between the 1928 building and the main depot now occupied by First Manchester.

The museum collection is constantly developing and restoration work can be often be seen by visitors.

The museum became a Registered Museum in May 2003, with the GMTS having become a Registered Charity in 1980.

The museum is home to around 80 buses, of which 70 or so are kept on the site. The remaining vehicles are kept elsewhere to allow for restoration work to be carried out and so other vehicles can be exhibited.

Also in the collection are two trolleybuses from Manchester and Ashton-under-Lyne corporations, the prototype Manchester Metrolink tram, and a Manchester Corporation tram from 1901. There is also a host of other related exhibits, from old signs to uniforms, and several items used by Warner Bros. during filming of Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban.

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