What Do We Collect - Heavy Industries
The Transport Collection
Transport and its development is an essential part of industrial history and the history of Sheffield.
The development of the factories and of the "workshop of the world" was only possible
as the transport network developed. Equally the development of the transport network was reliant
on the technology of industry, particularly those in Sheffield.
Sheffield was a world manufacturer of parts, such as railway springs, buffers, axles, wheels, gear
boxes and wagon wheels. Sheffield also produced whole vehicles such as railway carriages, bicycles,
motorcycles, cars and lorries. The main museum building was built as a power generating station in
1897 for the city’s original tram system.
The collection consists of items of transport and of transport related material. The items of actual
transport number 15 and include carts, a “Brougham Carriage”, bicycles, motorcars, motorcycles
and a locomotive. These were made or used in Sheffield and range in date from the 1850s to the
1950s. Items to note include a Sheffield Simplex Motorcar (one of only three surviving) and a
Boneshaker bicycle made by John Crowley of Kelham Island. Additional items include architectural
fragments from tram depots, name plates and railway wagon wheels and carts, models, a fragment
of armoured plate from a warship. More recent collecting includes items which relate to Supertram,
such as costume, tickets, advertisements, photographs and a sample of the tram track.
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