Oporto 273 has become the first of the Crich trams to arrive in Blackpool for the 125th anniversary, departing the Derbyshire countryside on Monday (16th August) and arriving at the seaside later that day before being unloaded the following morning. But this is by no means the whole story as the day had begun with Johannesburg 60 being loaded for Blackpool but after suffering damage from low trees on the route in rural Derbyshire this was returned to the Museum with 273 being loaded instead.
The damage sustained to 60 included two broken windows and occurred within the first couple of miles of the route to the seaside. After departure from Crich 60 suffered the damage and the team from Scott’s Heavy Haulage – once again in charge of a tram movement – decided to return the tram to Crich to assess the damage. Once back on home turf the decision was made to return 60 to the Workshops and to load Oporto 273 (which had also been prepared for delivery to Blackpool) instead.
With the damage sustained by 60 - which, incidentally, is the highest tram in the Crich fleet – the Tramway Museum Society reluctantly decided to cancel the loans of all double deck trams due to head to Blackpool for the September events (Blackpool Standard 40, Johannesburg 60 and Leeds 399) to avoid any further damage to tramcars.
An official statement from the Tramway Museum Society posted on the Official Crich Blog says: “It was intended to send several double deck trams but when this was trialled recently, it became apparent that the greenery in the vicinity of the Museum makes it extremely difficult to send these cars without damage. Therefore we are planning to send several single deck trams, some of which will be a pleasant surprise for visitors to Blackpool.”
Back to 273, the tram was unloaded onto Blackpool rails on the morning of Tuesday (17th August) from where it was transferred to the depot where it will eventually be commissioned for service. 273 becomes the first foreign built tram to touch the rails in Blackpool and is sure to be a popular tram during the September events.
Source: Crich Tramway Village News