The people of the city of Nuremberg are very attached to their 144-year-old tramway – as was demonstrated once again last weekend: VAG and the association Freunde der Nürnberg-Fürther Straßenbahn e.V. celebrated the 40th anniversary of the historic St. Peter’s tram depot together with many interested people. The gradually growing fleet of historic tramcars has been housed here since 1985. And a significant number of these trams are also shown to the public in operation at regular intervals on special trips and specially organised routes – a living museum on streets of the city!
The history of the depot
The first trams, which moved into the then newly opened depot ‘Werk Peter’ in 1888, were still powered by real horsepower. The Nuremberg-Fürth tram company had built a shed for twelve carriages and stabling for 26 horses there. Just under ten years later, in 1897, the extension of the depot for electric operation began, which was completed in 1906 with a new carriage shed in contemporary Art Nouveau style. During the Second World War, the Peter factory was largely destroyed, so that a new hall had to be built. Service and residential buildings for the factory management and employees were also added to the site. Over the decades, the tramcars became ever larger and the depots ever more modern. In the end, the Peter depot could no longer keep up with the new technical requirements, shunting across Regensburger Straße was cumbersome and so it was shut down in October 1974. At that time, it was VAG’s smallest auxiliary depot and from then on was only used as a depot for decommissioned tramcars.
It was not until 1979 that the Freunde der Nürnberg-Fürther Straßenbahn e.V. (Friends of the Nuremberg-Fürth Tramway) slowly brought the former depot back to life. The association was looking for a new home and premises for its tramway modelling activities and an archive. The depot was the perfect place for the association’s purposes and it quickly reached an agreement with VAG about renting premises. But just a few years later, the depot with its historical charm also presented itself as the perfect backdrop for exhibitions on the subject of industrial development.
However, it was not until the 150th anniversary of the German railway in 1985 that the decision was made to put the depot back at the service of the public. To mark the anniversary, the VAG wanted to document the history of local public transport – at the Peter plant. In this respect, the history of the depot is closely interwoven with the history of the Adler and local transport in the Nuremberg.
On 16 May 1985, the Peter depot was officially opened as an active hands-on museum and christened the ‘Historisches Straßenbahndepot St. Peter’. After the depot weekends proved to be a real success story, the cooperation between VAG and the association was officially recorded in a cooperation agreement in 1989: VAG provides the premises, vehicles and materials, while the members of the association keep them in good shape and organise a variety of events.
The anniversary weekend
On 3 and 4 May 2025, there were four special lines specially set up to run at close intervals with the nostalgic trains, including line 40, a feeder aervice from St. Peter to the VAG’s modern tram depot on Heinrich-Alfes-Straße. There were also vintage buses on three themed tours through the neighbouring districts. The highlight was a large rally on Sunday morning, in which the classic cars from various parts of the city travelled in a star shape to the St. Peter depot, arriving there between 10.45 and 11.00 a.m. for a great reception event.
The depot was of course open to all interested parties. A special exhibition in the original test car from 1975 – the trailer 1521 converted into a tramcar – showed how a three-phase AC drive was tested for the first time 50 years ago as a pioneering technology in local transport. At that time, VAG took over the project management for a nationwide research project on the application of power electronics in local transport and, together with Siemens, realised the world’s first local transport vehicle with three-phase AC drive in Nuremberg.
All in all, it was a very successful event, which once again demonstrated the importance of the historic fleet, especially for the image of local public transport in the city.
(Info: VAG)
