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Sydney Bus Museum Impressed with Tennant's Versatile T300



150 years ago, Tennant Company founder, George Tennant, started his business on the banks of the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. A century and a half of innovation. Of involvement in communities. Of partnership with customers.

Customers just like the Sydney Bus Museum located within the 100-year old Leichhardt Tramshed. A not-for-profit organisation and working museum made up of over 250 members who, together, help to preserve a rare and invaluable collection of historic buses dating from the 1920s to 1980s.

The Sydney Bus Museum is a not-for-profit organisation first established in 1986 and now permanently based in Inner West Sydney within the 100-year old+ Leichhardt Tramshed. 

The museum houses an extensive collection of vintage buses and a World War II exhibition. Visitors can also experience a ride aboard a vintage double-decker bus across the ANZAC Bridge to the CBD and back. With over 9000 social media followers, it’s one of Sydney’s most popular tourist destinations.

Challenge

This public precinct required a floor cleaning solution and reached out to Tennant for help. The team were delighted to look into the facility and understand their needs – plus, check out some very cool buses.

‘I was very curious about what the Sydney Bus Museum did and how the restoration process worked’, said John Mirana, Sales Territory Manager for Sydney. The team at Tennant learned that the structure of the museum and workshop area isn’t segregated. This meant that the 100-year-old unsealed cement is the same floor throughout and would need a solution to suit. 

Like any space with vehicles, they also needed a way to remove oil and grease to ensure the floor would be safe for staff – and presentable to visitors. Sometimes the buses are restored

inside the museum and sometimes they are rearranged on the floor, so they needed a quick and easy way to remove oil, dirt and spills from underneath the buses. And with most of the cleaning managed by volunteer mechanics, they needed a solution that would be easy to operate and maintain – no matter the age or technical ability.

Sydney Bus Museum and Tennant T300 Walk-Behind Scrubber

‘We sincerely appreciate the support and assistance provided by John and the team at Tennant. They understood our needs and gave us that extra level of care being a not-for-profit organisation. The Museum floor has never looked so good!’

Bob Gioia
General Manager
Sydney Bus Museum

Solution

The Sydney Bus Solution went with Tennant’s T300 Walk Behind Scrubber-dryer. 

The T300 is one of Tennant’s most versatile scrubbers, with a range of configuration options including disk, orbital and cylindrical. With a compact body design, it’s ideal for cleaning both open and congested spaces. It’s user-friendly, too, with:

  • simple-to-operate controls
  • an ergonomically designed handle
  • a squeegee
  • an Insta-Click™ magnetic head

Squeegees and brush heads can be quickly and safely changed, without the need for tools, thanks to yellow touch points and clear instructions. Sydney Bus Museum’s volunteers have found that the single 500mm disk head is nimble enough to move around the front of the shop and easily navigates around buses and the mechanics’ area. At the same time, the T300 Walk Behind Scrubber is robust enough to handle the removal of oil and grease following bus restoration work.

Tennant’s lifetime operator training and ease of operation and maintenance now allow Sydney Bus Museum’s volunteer mechanics to feel confident using the machines – both now and in the future.

Result

As a result of choosing the T300 Walk Behind Scrubber, Sydney Bus Museum staff and volunteers can keep their environment clean and safe so that it’s always ready for visitors, tours, restorations, events and pretty much anything!

‘Previously, the staff and volunteers were using a mop and bucket system, so we have transformed their daily and weekly maintenance schedule and freed up time so that they can do more restoration work’, said John Mirana, Sales Territory Manager.

‘The T300 Walk Behind Floor Scrubber will leave museum visitors impressed with not just the great condition of the buses, but the amazingly clean condition of the floor’!

Bob Gioia, General Manager said, ‘We sincerely appreciate the support and assistance provided by John and the team at Tennant. They understood our needs and gave us that extra level of care being a not-for-profit organisation. The Museum floor has never looked so good!’

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