Preservation
The W-class tramcars are highly popular trams in preservation both throughout Australia and around the world.
A number of W class trams were used in the filming of the HBO mini-series The Pacific, including W3-class tram number 667.
A number of W-class trams have been sent overseas, including five that went to Seattle between 1978 and 1993, where they operated as Seattle's own heritage streetcar line, George Benson Waterfront Streetcar Line, between 1982 and 2005. Since 1990, public outrage over the sale of these popular trams to overseas interest has forced an embargo to be placed on the sale of these trams to any overseas interest.
In February 2004, after some years of negotiation, a W-Class tram was shipped to Edmonton as an ambassador for the City of Melbourne. The tram operates as part of the High Level Bridge Streetcar fleet connecting Old Strathcona to Downtown.
Two unrelated MATAs, the Dallas MATA and the Memphis MATA both run W-class trams on their downtown streetcar service. A highly modified W class tram began running in 2009 along River Street in Savannah, Georgia, its AC motors powered by biodiesel-fueled generators.
In 2005 a tram was restored at a cost of $25,000 and given as a wedding present from the Victorian Government to Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark. Shipping line Maersk transported the tram to Denmark free of charge, waiving the estimated bill of $40,000.
In 2010, New Zealand expressed interest in obtaining a large percentage of stored W-class trams for its heritage tramway in Christchurch, no response has yet been given on behalf of VicTrack, who currently have ownership of the mothballed trams.
Read more about this topic: W-class Melbourne Tram
Famous quotes containing the word preservation:
“If there is ANY THING which it is the duty of the WHOLE PEOPLE to never entrust to any hands but their own, that thing is the preservation and perpetuity, of their own liberties, and institutions.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“I do seriously believe that if we can measure among the States the benefits resulting from the preservation of the Union, the rebellious States have the larger share. It destroyed an institution that was their destruction. It opened the way for a commercial life that, if they will only embrace it and face the light, means to them a development that shall rival the best attainments of the greatest of our States.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“It is my hope to be able to prove that television is the greatest step forward we have yet made in the preservation of humanity. It will make of this Earth the paradise we have all envisioned, but have never seen.”
—Joseph O’Donnell. Clifford Sanforth. Professor James Houghland, Murder by Television, just before he demonstrates his new television device (1935)