James Hall Transport Museum, Transport museum in La Rochelle, Johannesburg, South Africa.
The James Hall Museum of Transport houses around 2500 vehicles spanning different eras, including steam locomotives, trams, buses, cars, motorcycles, and horse-drawn carts. The museum spreads across Pioneers' Park and displays this large collection to document the region's transportation history.
The museum started in 1964 from a partnership between Jimmie Hall and the City of Johannesburg, when a private vehicle collection became a public institution. It grew into South Africa's largest transport collection and records how movement and travel changed across the region over many decades.
The collection displays vehicles that shaped how people moved through the city, from hand-pulled rickshaws to horse-drawn carts, showing the different ways communities got around. These machines reveal how transportation choices reflected social patterns and daily life in a growing urban center.
The museum is located in Pioneers' Park on Rosettenville Road and opens Tuesday through Sunday from 9 AM to 5 PM with free entry. The collection is large, so it helps to allow plenty of time and wear comfortable shoes to walk through and view the many vehicles.
The collection includes the Texas Jack, a special steam tractor, and the last electric double-decker tram from 1961, which was a rare transport solution for the city. Also on display are rare Sentinel steam buses from Pilgrim's Rest, which represent an interesting chapter in the region's transport history.
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