There is a distinctive end of season feel in the air at the moment, with winter drawing closer the heritage tramways around Britain are, one by one, closing their doors and preparing for their long hibernation. The Douglas horse tramway and the Snaefell Mountain Railway have already closed for the tear, as has the East Anglia Transport Museum. This weekend sees the final operating day of the year for Crich which thankfully is not remaining open for the winter, unlike last year with their disastrous craft fair offerings. In Blackpool, the heritage trams still have one more week to run, thanks to an extension of the usual illuminations season, so anyone wishing to sample a ride through the lights has until November 10th. Heaton Park will operate for a bit longer before it too puts up the shutters at the end of November to concentrate all efforts on completing the new Lakeside depot project but not before a final event in the shape of the scaled down Autumn Gala. However, the winter period will not be totally devoid of tram action. The Manx Electric Railway is planning on running festive services during weekends in December and Seaton is also offering Santa Specials in the run up to the festive period. Meanwhile, the tramways of Beamish, Birkenhead, Summerlee and the Black Country Museum will be remaining open right through the winter, providing plenty of opportunity to sample a ride on a traditional tram. In addition, behind closed doors, the work to restore trams will be continuing and we can look forward to the re-emergence of Hull 96 at Heaton Park, Sheffield 510 at Crich and Liverpool 245 at Birkenhead over the course of next year as well as some exciting plans for selected members of Blackpool’s heritage fleet. All in all it looks like an eventful winter period, with plenty of news to ensure that Trams Today remains active and continues to chart all the latest developments of the country’s traditional tramways. With the season drawing to a close in Blackpool, this week’s cover pictures feature two illuminations scenes. The banner picture is of two of the three illuminated trams loading passengers at Pleasure Beach for another trip through the lights headed by the Western Train 733+734 with the recently recoloured Frigate 736 bringing up the rear. In contrast the profile picture features an illuminated tram which, for the moment, is grounded on its display stand at Gynn Square. The Rocket 732 is pictured in the setting sun in the position it has occupied for two years. However, ultimately, it is planned to return this tram to Rigby Road and, one day, it will be seen at Pleasure Beach again, operating tours of the illuminations once more. The past week has been a busy one, with plenty of news to report. A theme of looking to the future has been evident, with both Manchester Metrolink and the Douglas horse tramway considering alterations to their trackwork; extensions in the former case and relocation of the existing route in the latter whilst work to secure the future of Heaton Park in the form of the new depot has also made significant progress over the last few days. The news from Brighton has been less welcome, with the historic Volks Railway facing a much less certain future whilst Edinburgh 35 looks set for a more high profile future at Crich when it is incorporated into the Exhibition Hall for permanent display. Coming up in the week ahead and we have the usual mix of news and tramway related features. Our look at the trams of Crich will be continuing over the next seven days, with further trams featured which were once residents of the National Tramway Museum but have since departed, whether to pastures new or for scrap. Our second feature, a detailed look at all the events from 1993, reaches its conclusion on Wednesday and we will therefore jump forward ten years for the final instalment of this feature to examine what was happening in the tramway world ten years ago in 2003. As ever, I hope you all enjoy the content coming up in the week ahead and a warm welcome is extended to all who have joined the page over the last few days.
Posted on: Sat, 02 Nov 2013 10:16:33 +0000