On 25 May 1873 the first horse-drawn tram ran in Antwerp from Meirbrug to St. Willibrord Church in Berchem, which back then was outside of Antwerp. On Sunday 28 May 2023, 150 years later, the Flemish Tram and Bus Museum or Vlaams Tram- en Autobusmuseum (VlaTAM) and heritage umbrella organisation META hold a Tramfest centered in ‘t Eilandje neighbourhood.  As I didn’t have photos to illustrate that post, I went to the museum with Thanh.

Located in the listed Groenenhoek tram shed from 1912, the Flemish Tram and Bus Museum showcases trams and public transport buses from Flanders in the olden days. 

In the collection there is rolling stock and vehicles from Antwerp, Ghent and the Campine (de Kempen).

The VlaTAM is very straightforward. It’s a shed, with quite a collection of trams and buses. Some are accessible, some are not. The museum is run by volunteers and most of them have… let’s say… a certain age.

This is totally fine. It’s laudable people make time to run freely a museum. But this means the presentation is a bit old fashioned and opening hours are limited. You’ll find information in four languages here.

So?

The entry fee is 5 euros and that is a very honest price. We walked around for an hour. You could take more time, but it will not fill half a day of activities. But if you’re into public transport museum, why not go and visit?

Art and museums in Antwerp

• MUSEUM AAN DE STROOM | ‘Rare & Indispensable’, Flanders’ masterpieces, until 25 February 2024.
• FOMU | ‘Her Voice – Echoes of Chantal Akerman’ and ‘James Barnor, Studio of Life’ exhibitions.
• ‘Turning Heads: Bruegel, Rubens and Rembrandt’ exhibition at KMSKA Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp until 24 January 2024.
• MUSEUM AAN DE STROOM | ‘City at war, Antwerp 1940-1945’.
• ANTWERP | Discovering queer(ed) art with the Queer Tour at the KMSKA fine arts museum.
• ANTWERP | Baroque Influencers city festival of tradition and renewal.
• REVIEW | Illusion Antwerpen, an active and photogenic museum.
• Antwerp museums and sports facilities team up with European Disability Card for accessible leisure activities.
• ANTWERP 2023 | MoMu fashion museum presents IO Van Oostveldt and Man Ray exhibitions.
• ANTWERP | Rubens House closed for renovation.
• Inside the KMSKA or Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp.
• Museum Mayer van den Bergh.
• ANTWERP | ‘Stories of Refuge’ exhibition at Red Star Line Museum.
• 2023 at the museums of Antwerp.
• 2022 in the museums of Antwerp.
• ANTWERP | Inside Rubens House.
• ANTWERP | Garden of renovated Rubens House to be open air exhibition space.
• ModeMuseum MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp 2021.
• ModeMuseum MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp 2022.
• ‘Freight’ and ‘Listen’ exhibitions at MAS in Antwerp.
• ANTWERP | Goshka Macuga’s ‘Figures of Absence’ honours underrepresented women in public domain art.
• Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp.
• ‘Eurasia – A Landscape of Mutability’ exhibition at Antwerp’s M HKA modern arts museum.
• ANTWERP | Museum Vleeshuis up for restoration.
• BOOK | ‘Antwerp. An Archaeological View on the Origin of the City’ by Tim Bellens.
• Red Star Line Museum.
• Paleis op de Meir. 
• DIVA, Antwerp Home of Diamonds.
• ANTWERP | Red Star Line Museum of (e)migration.
• ANTWERP | Museum Mayer van den Bergh is expanding into former District Hall.

Railway and transport museums 

• MONTREAL | Exporail – Canadian Railway Museum in Saint-Constant.
• REVIEW | Motion and emotion at the London Transport Museum.
• BAVARIA | Lokwelt – Locomotive World in Freilassing .
• TRAIN WORLD | ‘Royals & Trains’ exhibition from 10 May 2022 until 22 January 2023.
• REVIEW | Orient-Express exhibition at Train World, Brussels’ railway museum.
• REVIEW | Train World exhibition ‘From Peking to Hankow: a Belgian adventure in China’.
• PHOTOS | Train World railway museum in Brussels.
• Railway and transport museums (not) to visit.
• Nuremberg Transport Museum / DB Museum. 
• Slovenian Railway Museum in Ljubljana. 
• VIDEO | Mail Rail and The Postal Museum in London. 
• Plans for a steam train heritage service between Brussels and Mechelen shelved.
• PHOTOS | Museo del Ferrocarril de Madrid Delicias railway museum.
• VIDEO | Museu del Ferrocarril de Catalunya – Catalonia Railway Museum in Vilanova.
• REVIEW | Romanian Railway Museum ‘Muzeul CFR’ and Bucharest.
• PHOTOS | UK’s National Railway Museum (NRM) in York.
• PHOTOS | Swiss Museum of Transport Verkehrshaus in Lucerne.
• PHOTOS | Het Spoorwegmuseum – Dutch Railway Museum in Utrecht.
• VIDEO | Return to Spoorwegmuseum Utrecht for the dining car exhibition ‘Tosti’s, truffels, treinen’.
• VIDEO | Stoomtram Hoorn – Medemblik steamtram light rail in Holland.
• Visiting Odense and the Danish Railway Museum.
• Deutsches Museum’s Verkehrszentrum or Transport Centre in Munich.