The Heaton Park Tramway have announced with regret that their planned event to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Blackpool’s iconic Brush Railcoach class has been cancelled. The event, which was due to be held at the park on Sunday 18th November, will now be replaced by an autumn gala for tram enthusiasts, although details of what this will involve have not yet been announced.
Whilst this cancellation will be a disapointment to the many fans of the Brush cars, it is quite understandable. The Manchester Transport Museum Society has almost raised sufficient funding to complete its new depot near to the boating lake in Heaton Park, and it is hoped that construction work will commence reasonably soon. However, this will be the tramway’s top priority and will take considerable time and effort from volunteers, one of the reasons why the Brush car event has had to be called off. It had been intended to try and borrow a second Brush Railcoach for a short period to join resident car 623 for a birthday celebration, which would undoubtedly have been fantastic, but it has been realised that the high cost of bringing a visiting tram to the park for just one event cannot be justified at present, again mainly due to the depot project which is of course vital to the development of the tramway. Even when the new depot is built, there will be added expense as several trams currently stored in various loactions will need to be transported to the park, and some of these may also require some attention before they can enter servive – particularly those such as Blackpool Balloon 702 and Railgrinder 752 which have been stored outside for a lengthy period. Any available cash will surely be better spent on these trams which are owned by the MTMS, and will potentially provide years of reliable service at the park once they arrive on site, rather than a short-term tram loan.
Depending on when the depot can be built, there is a possibility that a ‘new’ tram may join the running fleet in Heaton Park before the end of the year which could certainly make the revised event a memorable occasion and make up for the change of plan. Needless to say, further donations towards the depot appeal will be gratefully accepted and could well help to make the Autumn Gala another triumph for Manchester’s heritage tramway.