As part of the Beamish tramway’s enhanced activities on the weekend of 7th & 8th March, a plaque was unveiled which has been installed inside Sunderland 16 in memory of Tony Wickens, who was a founder member of the Beamish Tram Group, and therefore one of the key people involved in making the dream of creating the UK’s longest museum tramway into a reality.
Tony Wickens, born in 1926, was a local mechanical engineer who was also heavily involved with the establishment of the working tramway at Beamish Museum. Probably his biggest contribution to the tram preservation movement occured in the early 2000s, when he led the project to restore the derelict lower deck of tramcar Sunderland 16 into a fully restored and operational double-decker, which is now one of the most useful and popular vehicles in the museum’s fleet since being launched into service at Beamish in 2003.
After Tony sadly passed away in 2014, it was decided to honour his contribution to the museum, by placing a small plaque inside his crowning glory – Sunderland 16 – which has only recently returned to use following further workshop attention, including the application of new period style advertisements. This was revealed on Saturday 7th March, when 16 operated alongside all of the other operational trams currently on site as part of the special ‘Power from the Past’ weekend. It is hoped to provide further coverage of this event, which included the final appearance of Blackpool 280 in passenger service before it transfers to its new home at Heaton Park, at a later date on this website.
A close-up view of the plaque inside Sunderland 16 in memory of the late engineer and tram enthusiast Tony Wickens. (Photo courtesy of Beamish Museum)