By Lucy Cormack
As work begins on Sydney's new trams, a fire has destroyed a shed containing historic trams and buses at the Sydney Tramway Museum in south Sydney.
The fire was noticed by police patrolling the Princes Highway at Loftus just after 11pm on Friday.
NSW Fire and Rescue officers sort through the remains of the destroyed storage shed at the Sydney Tramway Museum.Credit: Sydney Tramway Museum
While the shed and its contents were completely destroyed, museum volunteers were pleased to report none of the tram and bus bodies were one-of-a-kind.
"The trams that were in there, we already have examples in our main museums, and they were in pretty sad condition, they have been out in the open in the shed," said Vic Solomons, museum research officer and volunteer.
Trams in Railway Square, looking down George Street in 1920.Credit: Sydney Tramway Museum
"The shed which caught fire wasn't very weather proof, and a lot were just bodies only, with no equipment. They needed a lot of money spent on them to be refurbished. So it's sad, but not too serious."
Mr Solomons said "there was no doubt" the fire was started by vandals.
"We've had trouble over there before with vandals unfortunately. They have broken in over the years and stolen stuff. It was definitely vandals, it wasn't accidental."
Police have established a crime scene at the site and will investigate the scene once it has been declared safe. They are treating the fire as suspicious and are appealing for anyone with information to come forward.
Seven tram bodies were lost in the fire, dating from 1898 to 1937, as well as four historic buses.
All the was left of a storage shed at the Sydney Tramway Museum following a fire.Credit: Sydney Tramway Museum
The storage shed holding the bodies is around half a kilometre away from the main museum and was the original depot where the museum started in 1956.
The museum is run solely by volunteers and sees around 20,000 visitors through its door every year.
Mr Solomons has been a member of the museum for 50 years and said the site is important because it has captured Sydney "as it was in the old days".
"It's part of Sydney's history really. The people who started this museum didn't want to see the trams fade away and be forgotten."
Another chapter of Sydney's history closed on Friday night, when a taxi became the final car to drive down George Street ahead of the construction of the light rail.
The project is expected to be completed by 2018, with services to begin in early 2019.