James Hall Museum of Transport Tours and Tickets

This giant brick warehouse divided in to seven sections is dedicated to all things transportation. From ox carts to early bicycles and modern day cars and trains, the James Hall Museum of Transport is a showcase of the implements that have propelled the people of South Africa for more than a century.

Most self-guided tours begin in the North Hall, home to motorcars from before and after the South African War. This area includes the museum’s oldest car, a green Edwardian Clement-Panhard (1900), as well as unusual artifacts like the minuscule 1957 MBW Microcar Isetta. Locomotives and retired city vehicles, like a double-decker bus, are on the open-air porch, and examples of buses and trolleys, including Johannesburg’s last electric powered Tram and a traveling library bus still filled with books, can be seen in the West Hall.

The two floors of the South Hall showcase a plethora of animal drawn vehicles from ox-carts to private carriages… there’s even an old horse-drawn Zeederberg Company mail coach and a Voortrekker wagon used by Afrikanners during the Great Trek to Johannesburg from the Cape Colony. From there, it’s about motorcycles and bikes in front of the East Hall where the silly- looking penny farthing bicycle, tricycles, scooters and rickshaws are on display. The back of the East Hall is a devoted garage for a suite of red fire engines. The courtyard is home to steam-powered vehicles, some of which regain their steam (so to speak) once a year, offering rides for a museum fundraiser. A wander through for most takes between one and two hours.