Two years of painstaking work undertaken largely by a small team of volunteers came to a satisfactory finale on Sunday 11th October, when Hull 96 was officially launched back into service at the Heaton Park Tramway. The tram had operated for several years in its later guise as Leeds 6 in a plain grey livery, including a three year stint of operation at Beamish Museum, and more recently it has received extensive renovation work resulting in it now looking better than it had at any previous time since being preserved.
The work carried out on Hull 96 has been extensive despite being carried out on a very modest budget, with many hours devoted to stripping away numerous layers of paint to not only produce a smooth finish but also to uncover the original livery, ensuring that the completed paintwork is much more authentic than when the tram previously ran in its Hull guise at Heaton Park. After a mammoth effort to get the final few jobs finished ahead of its advertised public debut with work parties running all week, 96 was at last unveiled to visitors on 11th October with a special inaugural journey for premium price ticketholders taking place in the early afternoon. The launch itself saw a ribbon across the car’s end platform cut by representatives of Heritage Painting, who have done an outstanding job of repainting the tram in its original colours following body preparation work by volunteers. After this, the tram joined park stalwart Manchester 765 in traffic to provide a two car service for the rest of the day, no doubt bringing back memories of the time when these two trams maintained the service, long before various subsequent additions to the fleet arrived and the new depot at Lakeside was built. As an aside, the day was also notable as it was the first time that 96 (in any livery) had run in passenger service to the new terminus adjacent to the boating lake, which had been opened whilst it enjoyed its extended holiday at Beamish.
The launch event itself was a little underwhelming, not helped by the lack of any vintage road vehicles from Hull which it had been hoped would attend; hopefully these can visit at some point in the future for another, bigger event, as they would doubtless create some much more interesting and unique photo opportunities. Oddly, the Deputy Mayor of Hull had visited the tramway the day before the actual launch took place as he was unavailable on the Sunday and as mentioned above, it was left to the team from Heritage Painting to launch the tram. However, everyone who has seen the restored 96 seems to agree that it looks absolutely stunning and it has definitely raised the bar for future projects at Heaton Park. We hope that Hull 96 will now enjoy a long and active career following its latest overhaul and the tram is expected to be a regular performer for the rest of the year as the weather turns cooler.
Looking absolutely stunning, Hull 96 is seen on the Middleton Road depot approach track ahead of its public launch on 11th October.
Heritage Painting representatives cut the ribbon to declare Hull 96 available for service again, as MTMS Board Members who were heavily involved in the restoration of the tram look on with pride. (Photos x 2 by Bradley Jones)
A rather subdued report by your usual standards and not really fitting my experience on the day. Can I ask if this was written by someone who was actually there?
The launch itself was far from “underwhelming” as you put it. The whole day just had that indefinable “buzz” to it. The speeches were short and to the point thanking everyone involved, contrasting with a long-winded Crich launch taking half an hour to tell you how wonderful they think they are, or Blackpool’s relaunch of 675/85 with no ceremony at all.
It should also be noted that unlike the launch of the Baby Grand at Birkenhead there was only one “First Journey” the Special Ticket for the first journey allowed travel all day on any tram and anyone could ride on 96 at normal fares after the first trip. It seemed to me the Heaton Park Team had listened to criticism of other events.
I’ll agree the Hull buses would have added photo opportunities, but you’ve not mentioned the extensive Photo displays around the depot nor the imaginative themed model displays nor the cake!
As for 96 itself, you could not fault the finish or the performance of the tram. An absolute credit to all involved for a small team to achieve such a high standard, I can’t wait to see what their next project is. The bar has been set very high.
You’re right, neither of the BTO team were there hence the coverage was less than ideal – we can’t be everywhere! Thanks though for your insight into the event and I’m glad to hear that you enjoyed it. That said a lot of what you’ve said is made up of digs at other tram events rather than commenting on the launch of Hull 96. In the defence of Crich & Blackpool, their recent tram launches were just one element of a much larger event whereas with 96, it was the event!
Must admit I agree with Brian’s comments. It was my families 1st visit to the park and the comments were wow awesome event. Awesome friendly people too. Being smaller than some other places what shone through (yet again) was the “family” of working members and how much everyone loved what they were doing and how proud they were of the museum. Highlight of the Day for my cousin and her husband ( apart from the Laughter on the Tram) was driving 619. In fact the photo on FB 619 shows my cousin Driving. In closing well done for yet another excellent event. There was definitely nothing underwhelming about it.
Its all just a matter of opinion though isn’t it? What underwhelms one person will excite another. This is one of the great things about the comments facility on this website.
My two main interests with tram events, are tram riding and the opportunity to take some unusual photographs. The event day had 765 in service joined by 96 after its launch, giving a two car service. Yesterday, a normal day, had 96 and 623 running – a two car service. Not much different there.
Photography-wise, any pictures taken of 96 on its launch day would essentially be the same as any taken next week, next month etc. Compare that to 680’s launch earlier this year which saw 4 trams carry passengers, a 4 tram procession, non-operational cars out for display and Balloon 702 taken down to Middleton Road for the first time since its arrival and maybe you can see my point. On a personal level a few of the friends I’ve made at the tramway were not present, so the overall package did not wow me.
I’ve supported Heaton Park a fair bit over the years and as stated in the article, the work done on 96 is very impressive, and I hope that they produce more superb restorations in the future. I look forward to admiring Hull 96 on my next visit, because regardless of what anyone thinks of the event, the tram itself has been unanimously praised, and deservedly so!
It is also interesting how time moves on and only 1 Tram currently resident and operational actually operated alongside 96 as 96!
765 and 96 ran together from 1988 to 2008, when it became 6 again. The pair operated together as 765 and 6 from 2008 to 2010 (joined by 752) when they both left (!) and met again at Beamish in 2011. 96 also ran alongside 600 (running as 225!) from 1988 to 1996. This useless bit of trivia just goes to show how the Tramway has grown and changed.
John, when did 40 leave the Park? Was it before 96 arrived?
On the event, It was my first visit since the day Stockport 5 entered service and I’m very glad I made the effort.
96 is a fantastic restoration and the event had a party atmosphere. Nothing was too much trouble for all the staff and everyone was thoroughly enjoying themselves especially the young conductor on 756 apparently on his first day.
It certainly wont be so long before my next visit.
I must agree with Andrew Waddington on this. I do feel that after previous events something was missing from this one. Whilst Hull 96 is indeed magnificent I can’t help but feel that maybe having somehting like the Oldham body out to compare and contrast would have been nice. I too would love to have seen 96 lead a procession of Trams but it was a different kind of event where that was not done.
The event did seem a success, though and I know that the first run tickets at least would have brought in much needed finance. I have only heard good reports and everyone seems to have enjoyed themselves which is the main thing. But yes, sorry, it did lack the wow factor for me so I didn’t go. Likewise I found the ‘teasers’ rather frustrating as I’m very old fashioned and like to see something first and go wow or ugh to decide whether to go!
To be fair to BTO if they aren’t given all the info they can only report on what has been reported to them! I for one haven’t seen any photos of displays or models and I would like to as I wasn’t able to attend in person. And to pick up your point about 675/685, why would there be speeches? Its a repainted Tram not a full restoration!
As Andrew and some other readers will know, I am slightly biassed towards 96 so I wasn’t going to reply, but I can see a distinct pattern in the comments so far…
It is interesting to note the contrast between the universal praise from people who attended the event and the negative or neutral comments which are all from people who didn’t attend and more about why they didn’t attend. That suggests that there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the event itself, but that perhaps we failed to grab the imagination with the advance publicity… That is actually really useful information for future events so thank you to all who have commented.
If there is one part of the report I do have to query, it is criticism of the Mayoral Party visiting on the Saturday. It is not at all unusual in other sectors for Civic/Ceremonial openings to be on a different date to Public openings – far better than not at all. It was also about building relationships which, if some of the ideas discussed come to fruition, might offer far more spectacular and unique photo opportunities than could ever have been staged on the day!