FMTM // GTG

Friends of the Munich Tramway Museum
Society for Tramway History

Our Society introduces itself

The society FMTM was founded by employees of the Munich transport services and by Munich citizens in 1989 and today it has over 300 members. Partner societies from several other associations are also members of our society.

In order to achieve our aim to set up a Munich tram museum we began almost from the start to work with organizations with the same or a similar target. In 1990 it led to an union with the Munich Society for Tram History (GTG). In addition we have good contacts with the Bus-Club Munich.

[Parade] (~55 kB) Parade of trams at depot 3

What does the society do?

The main purpose of the society is the comprehensive documentation of Munich transport history, which is intended to lead to the building of the Munich Tram Museum. One of the most important projects, for instance, has been the return of two Munich cars from the Hanover Tram Museum. These are the works car 3922 and the trailer 3113, which were given to Hanover in the 70`s.

[Transport] (~52 kB) Transport of the two trams from Hanover to Munich

Besides the conservation of these cars of our own, our society is in charge of all the other vintage tram vehicles on behalf of the Munich transport services. In this way the society was given the task of restoring the trailer 1351 (built in 1929, taken out of service in 1972) to working condition. Because the restoration included a technical and optical overhaul, it was necessary to dismantle the car down to the frame. Until now thousands of hours were achieved by our workshop staff.

In February 1996 the overhaul of the Mm4 class unit 2412-3407 (built in 1957) began. A model which had been taken out of service in 1995 and which was characteristic of the Munich townscape. All the work was expertly carried out by our workshop team themselves and the inspection could be carried out after only 13 months, so this was the first fully operational historic tram. At the moment, the Mm4 class unit is in regular service for the touristic "München-Tram".

Furthermore our workshop staff fitted up the M5 class motorcar 2668 with a front compact coupling and a Geamatic control system again in 1997. The alteration of the IBIS-equipment (radio set) of M5 class motorcar 2616 followed in September 1999. Afterwards it was also possible to reinstall a Geamatic-controller in this car. Both tasks were finished in March 2000.

Until year 2000 there were regular guided tours which were announced in the local newspapers.

In 2003, the municipal government of Munich decided to erect a museum for municipal public transport called "MVG-Museum". It will be located in the area of the main construction depot Ständlerstraße near railway station Giesing.

Since this decision, our society supports planning and realisation of this museum. Due to that fact, the library of the society - which was formerly opened once a month and contains 3500 books about trams and trains, the archives and the collection of uniforms - can only be visited by appointment.

Our teams meet regularly and all interested people are cordially invited to join us.

Events

The society provides conductors and drivers for events of the Munich department of transport for instance, for route anniversaries, for district festivals or for open days.

[Event] (~52 kB) Members of our society as drivers and conductors

A detailed description of the events which we organized or contributed to can be found in the retrospective view of the events.

Public relations work

The archives team issues booklets about past, present and future of the Munich trams. Our association prepared for instance the commemorative publications for the reopening of route 17 or the extension of route 15/25. The society FMTM and the Munich department transport services organized special excursions and arranged information stands for anniversaries and district festivals as well as openings of tram tracks.

The Society supports the documentation of other institutions interested in the history of the Munich tram, helps in the research and puts its archives at their disposal. With our collaboration Bavarian television produced a continuation of the series Trams of the world in 1992. The association participated in the documentation of the history of the electric tram for the television series Under our sky in 1995.

Contact

If you want to support construction of the new museum and/or restoration work of historic tram fleet, our dispatch department sells books, publications, postcards, beer mugs and coffee cups. The receipts are directly dedicated to the realisation of the museum and the restoration of vintage cars.

If you are interested in the past, present, future or in the technology of Munich trams you can become a member of the Society or just come to see us without obligation. According to our timetable (in German language) our monthly meetings take place at new restaurant "Wirtshaus Münchener Tram" at Lauensteinstraße 9. Our monthly meeting begins at 7:30 p. m. and can be reached by bus 145 (stop Plassenburgstraße).

Or you can visit us during opening days of the MVG-Museum.