Dundee Museum of Transport wins Heritage Lottery Fund support

Today, Dundee Museum of Transport (DMofT) has received £10,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to aid the development and to establish a permanent home for the recently-opened museum in Market Street, Dundee. Led solely by volunteers from the local community, the organisation focuses on the restoring, preserving and displaying regional transport-related memorabilia and vehicles, including Dundee’s last remaining Horse Drawn Tram which was reclaimed from a garden in Perth earlier this year. However, even prior to opening its temporary premises to the public in April this year, the museum reported that it was already over-capacity.

The project will be for an external business consultant to undertake a an in-depth business assessment to review and further aid the development of the organisation and how the museum can benefit the local economy, not just as a base for heritage restoration but as a permanent visitor attraction in the city, also. Although based in Dundee, the organisation has the end aim to represent the transport heritage of the east coast and beyond.

Commenting on the award, the museum’s chairman Jimmy McDonell said: “We are thrilled to have received the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and it comes on the back of us being awarded three stars as a visitor attraction by VisitScotland.  We are confident the project will guide us further in our aim to become not only a home for transport heritage, but a sustainable and well-used visitor attraction.”

Using money raised through the National Lottery, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) aims to make a lasting difference for heritage, people and communities across the UK and help build a resilient heritage economy. From museums, parks and historic places to archaeology, natural environment and cultural traditions, we invest in every part of our diverse heritage. HLF has supported almost 35,000 projects with more than £5.3bn across the UK.

DMofT relaunches the Dundee Motor Show - 10 August 2014

Since August 2010 Dundee Museum of Transport has been attending the annual Baxter Park celebrations, showcasing some of our vehicles, photographs and memorabilia.

This year we are planning on bringing the once-popular Dundee Motor Show back to the local events calendar and linking it with our appearance at Baxter Park. However to do so we need the support of as many individuals, clubs, societies and companies as possible to allow us to put on a diverse display.

The event takes place on Sunday 10 August 2014 from 12-5pm at Baxter Park, Arbroath Road, Dundee, DD4 6NL.

More information and a link to download an entry form can be found by clicking here.

   

Progress Update 3

Another busy week for us!  The roof has finally be repaired in its entirety and is now watertight again (hurrah!), the majority of the week has been spent on remedial work getting everything back up to standards.

The stairwell leading up to the office block in hall two was extensively water damaged as the heavy rain from a few weeks back somehow managed to make its way through the ceiling and down the walls.  It wasn't a pretty sight, hence no photo, but it has all been patched up and was repainted this morning.  Phew!

There has been a significant amount of work done behind the scenes and a lot of meetings were had too this week.  Many clubs have been in touch recently regarding the opening weekend and our list has been ever-growing!  We spent quite a bit of time getting everything we had so far together to create an initial floor plan for the weekend, as well as getting all the necessary man power in place to accommodate you all! (Don't worry, we will definitely have plenty tea's and coffee's for everyone).  As soon as we are ready to announce the programme and attending clubs we will announce it on our website and across our social networks.  If you are an interested party looking to exhibit during our open weekend or take part in the "National Drive it Day" outing on the Sunday then please get in touch soon as we are running out of space very quickly!

We have also had a few important meetings with some businesses regarding sponsorship and partnership arrangements... We are staying "hush hush" for now!

Progress has also been made with the membership structure and just today we have finished all of the arrangements with how it will work.  We are happy to announce that memberships will be available to apply for by the opening weekend and we will shortly (hopefully next week) be providing details about how you can become a member and what the benefits are so stay tuned!

That's all for this week and as ever, stay in touch!

Dundee Museum of Transport now officially listed on Wikipedia

This morning, our official Wikipedia article was published and put into the public domain. You can view the article here.

Jim Elder, the son of our on-site foreman at Market Mews has been working in cooperation with us since late last year to make this happen so we thank him for all the support that he has provided us.

As the article is now in the public domain, we will do our best to update it as we continue on our journey but if you have experience with Wikipedia then please do edit it at your own disposal and we will provide the necessary images where appropriate, just give us a quick email when you do!
   

PRESS RELEASE: Dundee Museum of Transport Announces Official Opening Date

DUNDEE - Monday 16th December 2013

From left: Jack Reilly and Jimmy McDonell

Dundee Museum of Transport (DMofT) announced on Saturday that their current premises at Market Mews will be opening to the public on Saturday 26th April 2014 after nearly four years of planning.  The announcement came during a book launch aboard the Frigate Unicorn for Jack Reilly’s book, “The Caledon Shipyard” which was in partnership with the museum.  The book has generated significant interest which tells the story of the Caledon Shipyard from his mass collection of images and information that he collected whilst working there from the 1950s onwards.  Its launch, which was host to ex-Lord Provost John Letford who was also a worker in the shipyard, was an overwhelming success with all available copies at the event sold out.

From left: Stewart Hosie MP, Marjorie Knowles, Murray Thomson, Norman Robertson, Jimmy McDonell, John Letford and Joe Fitzpatrick MSP

Chairman of the museum, Jimmy McDonell explained his delight surrounding the book launch,

“Today has been a fantastic event, which superseded our expectations. We are thrilled to be able to announce the opening of the museum so that we can re-live the rich transport heritage that the Dundee area has to offer”

Their current premises will act as a temporary museum whilst work behind the scenes will continue to acquire and develop the Maryfield Tram Depot as a permanent location for DMofT.  Jimmy also announced at Saturday’s book launch that the initial stage for Heritage Lottery Funding has been reached today, with the submission of an enquiry and it is hoped that the outcome will be received by the new year.

DMofT is now on Facebook and Twitter and if you have any queries regarding the book or the museum itself you can contact Matthew Jackson (publicity@dmoft.co.uk).

   

The games afoot !!!

There has been quite a bit going on since the committee had a very enlightening and informative meeting with Jack Searle and two other members of the Dundee Civic Trust on 13th April 2010. Mr Searle was concerned that as yet we did not have a business plan in place and we to be fair did agree, but as usual these things come down to money.

So it was with great surprise we noticed an article in the Dundee Courier saying "Tourism cash on offer to crowd pulling schemes." We phoned the number and spoke to a lovely lady called Alison Smith from Angus Council who told us we could apply for money to have a business plan professionally made up and she would send me the forms to fill in.

This has now been done along with the revamped constitution and application form for OSCR to receive our charity status are all winging there way to the people concerned and I am putting in a claim for new pens.