This week has been dominated by news from one particularly tramway, Manchester’s Heaton Park which, at the beginning of the week, unveiled some fantastic news. Not only will the pride of their collection, Stockport 5, be visiting Beamish next year but two of the more obscure items in their collection, Blackpool Railcoach 680 and Manchester 173, will shortly be enjoying a much higher profile. After so many years spent as a static exhibit in Boyle Street, it will be fantastic to see this diminutive short canopied open topper regain tramway rails once again when it is housed inside the new Lakeside depot. Even though it will still be several years until it is operational, this latest development is a positive sign for this important survivor of Manchester tramway history and will be a valued addition to the fleet at Heaton Park. Equally exciting is the news that one of the MTMS collection is shortly to emerge from the shadows ad enjoy a new lease of life as a member of Beamish’s pool of winter trams. Ex Towing Car 680 has languished at the rear of Rigby Road since withdrawal in 2008 but will now return to passenger carrying duties once more, allowing visitors to sample the delights of this tram, which has remained in excellent condition and which will be a worthy addition to Beamish’s fleet. The transfer and commissioning of this particular tram will add a welcome boost to the winter tramway scene and will prove a fitting climax to 2013 will, hopefully, lots of people making the journey to the North East to sample the delights of 680. As Heaton Park will, this weekend, be closing its doors on the 2013 operating season and beginning an intensive winter works programme which should see attention lavished upon both Manchester 765 and Hull 96 as well as the completion of the depot project, now seems an appropriate time for the heritage line to star in our cover pictures. Thus the banner picture this week features Blackpool 623, the first preserved example of this class to run in a museum. The tram is seen reposing at Lakeside terminus during the recent Autumn Gala. The profile picture stars two other members of the Heaton Park fleet, with Stockport 5 and Leeds 6pictured outside the current depot, the latter tram mid way through an overhaul which should be completed this winter and will see it transformed into its original guise as Hull 96. Away from Heaton Park, other significant development over the last few days have occurred in Manchester, with yet another T68 biting the dust leaving only nine members serviceable whilst operational problems on Britain’s first modern tramway system have also emerged, with services severely disrupted due to icy weather conditions. Hopefully thus latter problem will be speedily resolved otherwise passengers using the tramway in the next few months are in for a very uncertain time. With winter now here, it is expected to be a quiet week ahead in the tramway world, although the anticipated move to Beamish of 680 will no doubt dominate the week and be the most significant development to occur in the next seven days. However, as ever, should anything unexpected occur it will be reported in full on Trams Today. As well as all the latest news, our two regular features will also be continuing throughout the week, although one reaches its conclusion on Thursday when we complete the Trams of Midland Metro, having covered all seventeen trams which are currently in residence on the system. As a replacement, we remain in the area but shift the focus to the nearby Black Country Museum, with a detailed look at all of the trams which exist on Britain’s only narrow gauge heritage tramway. In addition, our detailed look at 2003 will also be continuing, although the focus will shift from Blackpool to examine developments in the Isle of Man during this featured year, including one unfortunate incident which resulted in the demise of a veteran member of the Manx Electric fleet. This past week has been something of a milestone for Trams Today itself when we welcomed our 2200th member. Such has been the growth in the past few days that we are already well on our way to achieving the next milestone figure so a warm welcome is extended to all those who have joined the site lately and helped to make this achievement possible. As ever, I hope you, and all our regular followers, enjoy the content planned for the week ahead.
Posted on: Sat, 23 Nov 2013 08:37:16 +0000
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