The London County Council Tramways Trust have announced that the unrestored body of a North Metropolitan Tramways horse car is set to join the national collection. The remains of the tram were actually discovered in 2014 when they were inspected by members of the LCCTT and the Tramway Museum Society, although at that point in time preservation was not an option. This has now changed and the tram looks set to move to Derbyshire in the fairly near future.
Although the tram is derelict, the roof has survived in surprisingly good condition in relation to the rest of the body structure, with several blue patterned quarter glasses still intact! Even more unusually, the tram retains its own wheelsets, in contrast to many of the tramcar bodies recovered for restoration which very rarely have retained a truck. All of this makes this car a valuable find and it is pleasing to see that it will soon become a part of the TMS collection, having languished on the outskirts of Wales for many years.
Whether this particular tram will actually be restored to running order remains to be seen, as the TMS already own a number of former London horse trams which offer a number of options for reconstruction. These include another North Metropolitan car which was deconstructed in the Crich workshop a few years ago, with various key parts now stored in kit form at Clay Cross. The Society also have in its care the ‘Curry Rivel’ horse car, which also retains its wheels, and parts of North Metroplitan 39 – one side of which has been used as a display cabinet in the main Exhibition Hall at Crich! One possibility would be to combine the best parts from the three North Metropolitan cars, in order to recreate one of these trams, which would fulfill a long-held desire of the LCCTT. Indeed, a fund already exists to finance such a project, although any decisions on this would of course have to be approved by the TMS Board and accommodated in the museum workshop’s busy schedule. However, at least this survivor looks set to be of greater use and hopefully one day it will run again in some form, or at least assist with the restoration of another similar car.
Some pictures of the horse-drawn tram in ‘as discovered’ condition can be found on the LCCTT’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LCCTT/?fref=ts