East AnglianTransport Museum

I have been visiting the East Anglian Transport Museum for about four or five years. I have been really impressed about it.

Let's start with the running details. As the name implies, this is a museum of transport of years gone by. There are trams and trolleybuses and old steam rollers. There is also a narrow gauge railway. The main street is being created as in the period adding a true touch of nostalgia.

Trams:- These ...
...The East Anglia Transport Museum is situated three miles south of Lowestoft. (on the B1384) In North Suffolk. It is listed on the brown signs that show museums and places of interest.
The nearest station is Lowestoft, with connections to Ipswich and Norwich and beyond.
It is just off the A146 Norwich to Lowestoft main road and and about two and a half miles off the main A12 London to Great Yarmouth trunk road. There is a car park most ... more

I have been visiting the East Anglian Transport Museum for about four or five years. I have been really impressed about it.

Let's start with the running details. As the name implies, this is a museum of transport of years gone by. There are trams and trolleybuses and old steam rollers. There is also a narrow gauge railway. The main street is being created as in the period adding a true touch of nostalgia.

Trams:- These are the noisy things that ran on rails in the middle of the road. There were double and single deck varieties. Most big cities and large towns had these, they vanished after about 1955. (In London it was 1952).

Trolleybuses:- These were the quieter modernized version of the above. They had two arms on the roof which collected the electric current from the overhead wires. Not all places had these, some towns went straight from trams to diesel buses, but most of the large cities had a fleet. They vanished in the mid sixties, London in 1962 and Bradford, wolverhampton and Walsall being among the last.

At the EATM, as the museum is known, you can actually ride on a tram or a trolleybus. This is very awe inspiring for younger people who have never seen this form of transport.

I know there are trams from Blackpool, London, Amsterdam and Germany and they are all in working order ,beautifully restored by hard working volunteers.

There are trolleybuses from London, Belfast, Newcastle and Maidstone. Most of the trolleybuses date from around the war years and are still travelling up and down after sixty years.

As well as the running vehicles there are other exhibits, a garage of the period with old cars inside. It is also possible to walk around parts of the workshops and see some of the vehicles undergoing restoration or repair.

There is a shop where there are souvenirs and books and videos and dvds of buses, trolleybuses and trams. Also photographs and magazines on the subject.

No place would be complete without the cafe. where you can buy snacks, tea and coffee and ice cream (weather permitting!!)

Once inside the museum you can wander around to your heart's content. There is a picnic area near the railway.

The railway travels through the woodland and you can interchange from the train or tram and vice versa.
This is the only museum in the UK where you can ride on all these forms of transport in one working museum.

The East Anglia Transport Museum is situated three miles south of Lowestoft. (on the B1384) In North Suffolk. It is listed on the brown signs that show museums and places of interest.
The nearest station is Lowestoft, with connections to Ipswich and Norwich and beyond.
It is just off the A146 Norwich to Lowestoft main road and and about two and a half miles off the main A12 London to Great Yarmouth trunk road. There is a car park most days, but there is a park and ride scheme shown on special days.

There is a special Steam and Vintage weekend on Sat 10th and Sun 11th June. (Sat 1-5pm Sun 11 -5pm) On Sunday July 9th there is a special bus event, with free bus service from nearby Beccles town or Lowestoft (10.30am -5pm)

The end of season is a Trolleybus weekend where the museum stays open late till 9pm on Saturday and you can see all the vehicles running at night On the Sunday its 10.30am -5pm

Museum opening times are from May, Sundays and Bank Holidays from 11am to 5pm and Thursdays from 2 till 5pm
From June the opening times are Thursdays and Saturdays from 2pm to 5pm and July 18th until September they are open everyday where the weekdays are 2pm to 5pm and the Sundays are 11 - 5pm.

Admission is Adults £5.00 OAP's £4.00 children 5 - 15 are £3.50. PLEASE NOTE once inside the museum you ride as many times as you like! Just show your admission ticket and you can spend all afternoon hopping from one vehicle to another.

All in all I think that there is something here to satisfy young and old and I thoroughly recommendit.

If anybody wants to visit and they are unsure about the area and would like help they can drop a message in my guestbook.

I am updating this review because the season is now getting under way and for those of you who may be heading towards the East Anglian part of the country on holiday this could be worth a look.

The museum volunteers have recently completely restored an old Blackpool tram. It has been stripped down and overhauled and is now in a pristine condition like it was in the early years of
its life.

The volunteers work all through the winter when they can to get the museum and its exhibits in great shape for the coming season. In the winter just gone they have managed to renew a lot of track and buildings for the narrow gauge steam railway. As well as this they have done a good bit of landscaping around the area and unfortunately there is quite a bit of tram track that needs to be attended to.

Of course this museum is run entirely on donations from the public and is a registered charity, so I make a plea to anyone in this area this summer if you can visit it will be well worth it for you and beneficial for the museum. There is so much to see for all ages and it brings back to our lives events and transport that we may forget otherwise. 

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