The 2015 season got underway at Manchester’s Heaton Park Tramway on Sunday 15th February – the first public operating day for this popular attraction. Although trams had in fact operated for some private guests the week before, this was the first time since before Christmas that a proper passenger service had been operated on the tramway and appropriately it was the park’s flagship tramcar Manchester 765 which inaugurated the year’s service.
Luckily, this day was blessed with glorious sunshine prompting many people to visit the delightful park, and a good number of them were tempted to take a vintage tram ride over the course of the day. 765 was therefore kept busy for the afternoon, until it retired early with Blackpool Vanguard 619 taking over for the latter part of the day. However, earlier on 619 had already been in action and helped to make another small piece of tramway history…
Despite work only being started a few days earlier, the start of Track 1 leading from the main line at Lakeside terminus into the new depot has already progressed to the stage where a very short length of newly laid track is able to be used by trams, albeit not carrying passengers just yet. 619 therefore became the first tram to cross the points and move onto a small part of what will ultimately become Track 1 – this being more noteworthy as the resident works car Blackpool 1 is normally given the honour of testing out any new track. No doubt in the fairly near future this will become a common occurance but right now it stands as another little milestone, although we will almost certainly soon be reporting that a tram has ventured even further towards the depot building as the track length continues to grow, once further sleepers required to complete the project arrive on site.
Replica Vanguard 619 tries out the first part of the new track leading into Lakeside Depot Road 1 on 15th February, shortly before being pressed into passenger service for the first time this year. (Photo courtesy of the Manchester Transport Museum Society)