Museum of Transport and Technology (Auckland)

The first part of the museum is built around a former pumping station that provided water to Auckland. It was built on the instructions of the city council by the famous engineer William Errington and became the first complex to supply pressurized water to the city. The neighboring swamp was turned into an artificial lake 1.8 m deep, which was filled at the expense of three natural sources . Now it is Western Springs Lake and the surrounding park. The pump was driven by a two-cylinder compound machine designed by Arthur Wolfe, built by John Key and Sons of Kirkcaldy, Scotland . The same company manufactured Lancashire boilers , which provided steam to the pump of the machine. The official opening of the pumping station took place on July 10, 1877. In 1928, the steam station was replaced by an extensive system of Auckland dams. In 2002, after the earthquake, the station building was repaired and strengthened; in early 2005, the restoration of the steam engine began. On October 11, 2007, for the first time in 79 years, the car was run on compressed air, and on November 29 of that year it was tested for steam. April 19, 2008 the official commissioning took place. Several other steam engines are operational, including the 1910 Tanguy steam engine and the Campan Calderwood Paisley (Scotland) 1911 triple expansion steam engine, previously installed on the Greycliffe ferry that sank November 3, 1927 after a collision with RMS Tahiti . It was later used at a dairy in Tirau. Instead of lancing up Lancashire boilers, steam for cars is produced by a boiler designed by Daniel Adamson, manufactured in 1957, which previously worked at Frankham's Mill in Tauranga .

Museum exhibits include trams, trains, antique engines, wagons, cars, buses, trolleybuses and trucks, including fire engines, electrical equipment and general scientific and technical samples. Among the exhibits related to space exploration, MGM-5 rockets are presented. A colonial-style settlement with houses, shops, coast guard buildings and a forge is recreated here.

The museum printing house demonstrates printing technology, including the manufacture of fonts, typing and printing. Printing presses are run by volunteers; gift prints and small books are made here.

In the 1970s, visitors to the museum were entertained by a barbershop choir, which later became the Auckland City of Sails Chorus.

The Aviation Pioneers pavilion is dedicated to early human attempts to fly into the air. The exposition presents details of the experimental apparatus of Richard Pierce (according to some sources, he flew before the Wright brothers ), an exact copy of his flying apparatus, and the third apparatus with an inclined rotor, intended for vertical take-off and landing. The pavilion also houses exhibits from the Walsh Brothers flight school, a library and an archive of transport materials named after them and available to all visitors to the museum and website. The exposition is also dedicated to the flight of Charles Kingsford Smith through the Tasman Sea by Southern Cross , the flight of Gene Batten from England to New Zealand and subsequent attempts to set new records. Large civilian aircraft, including the Pan American Airways and Imperial Airways seaplanes of the late 1930s and TEAL flying boats of the 1940s and 1950s, are in the second part of the museum. There is also the engine of the aircraft, the Batken Percival Gull .

The collection of road transport includes more than 100 cars, trucks and motorcycles, which are in the main exposition on a rotational basis. The most interesting examples are one of the first Trekka cars - auxiliary vehicles produced in New Zealand between 1966 and 1973, based on the chassis and engine of the Czechoslovak Skoda . Also featured here are a 1960s Cooper Climax race car, an early 20th century car from the American company Brush Motor Car Company, an International horseless carriage car, an Austin Motor Company beer truck (the first in New Zealand) and a number of other vehicles. Also on display are Ferguson Company tractors, which Edmund Hillary used to create food depots for the British Trans-Antarctic expedition with which he reached the South Pole on January 3, 1958.

The museum also houses a small collection of police cars, including patrol cars and motorcycles from the New Zealand Department of Transportation, whose road police duties were transferred to New Zealand police in the early 1990s. Until 2011, a collection of more than 40 New Zealand police cars was also stored here.

There are trams in the first part of the museum that provide daily communication between the first and second parts of the museum through West Springs Park and Auckland Zoo. In 2007 an additional tram line was put into operation ^[3] .

September 9, 2011 opened the second part of the museum dedicated to the history of aviation - Sir Keith Park Memorial Aviation Collection.

The new part of the museum is named after Keith Park, the hero-pilot of the Battle of Britain and the Defense of Malta . The main aviation collection is located in a separate area adjacent to Vaitemata Harbor and Auckland Zoo. The exposition tells about the pilots of the Air Force of the Fleet of Great Britain and the RAF Bomber Command, the history of radars and aviation equipment, as well as other types of transport, but its foundation is civilian aircraft of New Zealand and some aircraft of the Royal Air Force of New Zealand . The collection includes the 1943 Grumman Avenger TBF-1 NZ2527 torpedo bomber, leased by De Havilland forever by the Douglas A4K Skyhawk jet deck attack aircraft and the Aermacchi MB-339 training aircraft.

The military section also presents restored samples of road equipment of the Second World War: military trucks, light tracked vehicles and tanks of the allied forces. The military section regularly holds open door days, during which vehicles on the move and historical uniforms are demonstrated ^[4] .

The second part of the museum also includes an existing 1 km railway with stations and a collection of locomotives and rolling stock of the former New Zealand State Railways.

On September 9, 2011, a new hangar was built in which new exhibits appeared: De Havilland Mosquito and Lockheed Hudson. Short S25 Sunderland Mk V and NAC DC3 Dakota were also moved here, overhaul of which was completed in 2012.

Museums own several vehicle collections.

• The Aviation Collection is the largest collection of civil and military aircraft in New Zealand that is directly related to the country's history.
• Railway locomotives - seven steam locomotives from NZR F class 1874 to NZR K class, industrial and forestry tank locomotives ; six diesel locomotives, including the DA class, which replaced the NZR K class steam locomotive and became New Zealand's most common mainline diesel locomotive.
• Railway wagons.
• Tram collection - more than 20 electric, steam and cable trams, many of which are in working condition. Equipment and wagons were obtained from the tram systems of Auckland, Wellington , Christchurch and Dunedin .
• Bus Collection - an extensive collection of historic buses from the Auckland area manufactured by White Motor Company, Bedford Vehicles, Mercedes-Benz , MAN .
• Trolleybus Collection - A collection of trolleybuses carrying passengers in Auckland between 1938 and 1980.

Tram rails were laid in the museum on December 16, 1967. Later, the line was continued beyond it along the Great North Road and opened on December 19, 1980. Further expansion along the Moose Road to the Auckland Zoo opened on December 5, 1981. In 2006-2007, the tram line reached the second part of the museum, it started working on April 27, 2007. The tram has a double track: 1219 mm (4 feet ) and 1435 mm (4 feet) eight ¹ ⁄ ₂ inch).

A tram operates daily, connecting the two parts of the museum ^[5] .

• MOTAT - Museum of Transport and Technology (official site)
• The MOTAT Society - Museum Friends Society