Professional paper
https://doi.org/10.17018/portal.2021.10
The collection of public-transport vehicles at the Technical Museum in Brno: Conservation of the Karos bus, ŠL 11.1305
Tomáš Kocman
; Technical museum in Brno
Abstract
Public-transport vehicles in the collection of the Technical Museum in Brno are characterized by specific conservation and restoration. This is the largest collection in the Czech Republic and contains more than one hundred trams, trolleybuses, buses and their trailers. There are also a small number of steam and electric locomotives, railway cars and special impellers. The conservation of the public-transport vehicles is carried out in professional workshops where present-day trams, trolleybuses and buses are repaired and inspected. Restoring them to their function is important so that operational vehicles can be presented to the general public. So far, the only way of presenting public transport vehicles from the collection of the Technical Museum in Brno has been occasional rides through the streets of the city. In order to be able to use refurbished public transport vehicles in this way, it is necessary to comply with strict legislative requirements. Conservation and restoration of museum public-transport vehicles includes repairing their basic elements: coachwork, traction unit or electrical equipment, and chassis.
The Technical Museum acquired its public-transport vehicles after they had been scrapped. All the parts of these vehicles were worn out. The load-bearing elements of the coachwork were especially corroded, and it is not advisable to keep only partially-preserved vehicles in the condition in which they were acquired. With more than 50 years of experience, achieved during the formation of the collection of public-transport vehicles, it can be concluded that the Technical Museum in Brno considers the best method to preserve and restore a vehicle is an overhaul, and a return to its proper historical appearance in accordance with the principles of the International Federation of Historic Vehicles, FIVA, formulated in several articles of the Turin Charter. A characteristic example of this type of procedure is the conservation of the famous Czech bus, Karos ŠL 11.1305. The vehicle is one of the first buses of the Czechoslovak state bus carrier, ČSAD, intended for regional transport. The Technical Museum in Brno received the Karos ŠL 11.1305 bus in 2004. The entire bus was preserved, although it was quite damaged, because it was left in the open by the previous owner, and exposed to floods in 1997. Restoration of the Karos ŠL 11.1305 bus took 5 years. The collection curator is fully responsible for making decisions on the necessary conservation and restoration of museum public-transport vehicles, and the condition and phase of renovation of each individual object. The Technical Museum in Brno strives to return every public-transport vehicle to its original and running condition, to the extent that that can be achieved.
Keywords
technical museum; public transport; tram; trolleybus; bus; vintage vehicle; conservation; restoration
Hrčak ID:
270798
URI
Publication date:
27.12.2021.
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