It has been confirmed that London County Council 106 is to be one of the star exhibits at the forthcoming London Event taking place at the East Anglia Transport Museum in Carlton Colville over the weekend of 9th and 10th July. The tram is, of course, normally based at the Crich Tramway Village and will be going for a strictly limited period which will see it arrive shortly before the event and leaving almost immediately following.
106 returned to the operational fleet at Crich last summer following an extensive overhaul in the workshops and has now re-established itself as a valuable member of the fleet. It was originally restored by the London County Council Tramways Trust from 1970 initially entering service at Crich in 1983. Since then it has covered more than 10,000 miles in passenger.
Ahead of its short holiday in East Anglia 106 will be taken out of service at Crich and will then undergo assessments, de-commissioning, servicing, lamps and trolley mast removal. Once these steps are completed it will be transported by low loader to Carlton Colville. No date for the move have been announced but as it is just a short-term visit it is likely to be in early July. 106 will then operate for the duration of the London Event before going back to Crich and returning to the operational fleet there.
At Carlton Colville 106 will meet up with fellow London tram, London Transport 1858, which is a resident at the Museum. The London Event will also see other visiting vehicles from the capital attending with some from the London Transport Museum due to be starring across the weekend.
John Crisp, Chairman of the East Anglia Transport Museum, said: “We are extremely proud that The National Tramway Museum has agreed to loan us their beautifully restored London County Council ‘B’ Class Tramcar No. 106, built in 1903. The vehicle will arrive only a day or two before the event and will be leaving immediately afterwards, so please don’t miss this opportunity to see and ride on it in East Anglia. We are also pleased and excited that the London Transport Museum together with their Friends organisation has arranged for a number of unusual and historic vehicles from the Capital to be used at this event.”
Ian Ross, LCCTT Chairman and Board Member at Crich, added: “This is an excellent opportunity to see 106 running at another transport museum in company with other historic London vehicles. When 106 was first restored I didn’t think that any of the Workshop team expected that, after more than thirty years, they would see this tram taking a short ‘holiday’ in East Anglia. I hope that 106 will give visitors to the East Anglia Transport Museum a new tram riding experience.”
The London Event takes place on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th July. Doors open at 1100 on both days with the Saturday seeing the museum remain open until 1800 on the Saturday and 1700 on the Sunday. In addition to action in the museum grounds – including their extensive collection of London trolleybuses with no. 260 celebrating its 80th birthday – there will be vintage bus trips around the local area, park and ride and a BBQ in the park. Normal admission prices apply.
106 meets up with a London bus at Crich during its relaunch event in June 2015.
106 at Glory Mine.
Another view of 106 in the main Museum street at Crich with a visiting car for company. (All Photographs courtesy of Crich Tramway Village)
Wonderful! Great to see more Tram loans – here’s hoping for many more in the coming years. I wonder if 1622 or 331 could make that journey one day – that would be even more spectacular!
Events and loans such as these provide reat scope and interest for the museums involved and also for the ordinary visitor as it is something a bit different.
Now we just need to get Birkenhead and Summerlee kick started on it (and Heaton Park again as we all thought that 680 going to Blackpool would pave the way for a visitor to Manchester)
Those enthusiasts who welcome tram exchanges need to go to Carlton Colville for the event on July 9th/10th, pay their admission fees and spend some money in the shop and cafe. The cost of moving a tram is huge; apart from the transport itself there are significant additional costs and EATM need to recoup their expenditure. It promises to be a great weekend and you should be there.
For those who want to see more such moves, and we can all think of exchanges that we would like to see, you have to help finance them by attending the events and supporting the organisations involved. You can make it possible!
There is also the issue with height and over-bridges. Single deck and open-top cars are so much easier to move because of this.
You are correct that we need to attend and put our money in the pot but people will only go if it interests them. For example, 106 doesn’t have enough wow factor for me personally to make the 6 hour journey but I’fd have done it for 1622 or 331. So in that respect they wouldn’t get my money until something happens which interests me!
I wonder if a pre-advertised laon somewhere requiring funding would get people to pay in advance. Hmmmmmm
Another interesting comment here. Just because people support one loan doesn’t mean they won’t support another, and vice versa. Some trams will be a draw wherever they go and I suspect anything going to Blackpool or Beamish will attract a lot of interest as they get a good long run there.
The pre-advertised loan is certainly something that would be a very interesting experiment. Personally I’d snap your hand off for something like Liverpool 869 at Birkenhead or a toastrack at Blackpool, and would be happy to make a financial contribution. I suppose the problem is, what happens if the money raised is only a tiny percentage of the actual transport cost? What would happen to the money then? There wouldn’t be much incentive for people to donate if the loan was going to happen anyway!
Surely it’s the 80th birthday of 260 (1936) as the first trolley bus service in London was in 1931?
First and foremost any loan regardless of any car and time frame should be welcomed. It shows interworking & collaboration which will be an important component as the various operations move forward.
Having said all that exceptionally short loans do bring with them degree of risk in terms of viability. A wash out weekend and short window to make money and get bums on seats does put the onus firmly on “no matter what” dedicated visitors to fund the visit. Less opportunity for innovative fund raising initiatives utilising the visiting asset with tight time frame. These loans really do require groups to end cross membership free ticketing for weekend (personally id abolish membership free visits completely) resulting in everyone who attends actually contributing to the actual attraction in question.
Hope for great weather and an event packed full of happy visitors with the money flowing in but going forward would like to see longer loans resulting in bigger window for bigger financial returns. In this particular case would Crich really miss 106 if it went for say a month. With plethora of other open tramcars i suspect not that much. Would give the loaner greater exposure and bigger window for every day visitors (who might not want to attend an event) to see the car in doing so in many cases learn Crich exists and think ooh when we up that way visiting x might pop in and see this place.
In my experience of organising loans and events there is a place for both a quickie and a longer loan. I got 706 to Heaton Park for a weekend and it made people come out to see it. 196 was there for a summer and people came to see it when they were in the area. The same with 31 in Blackpool now ‘oh is this the old one from Beamish? We were hoping to see this one.’ the problem with short term is picking a weekend the most number are likely to come!
I agree with this. Its certainly easier to calculate the financial gain of a visiting tram for just one event (as with 706 at Heaton Park and VAMBAC 11 at Beamish previously), but the risk factor is pretty high – bad weather could put off many potential visitors, and if anything goes wrong (see the delays that affected 147’s move to Beamish, although that is obviously much taller than 106!) then you’re basically stuffed. So there is definitely an argument both ways.
The idea of pre-paying is an interesting one. I’m sure a website like Kickstarter could be used for this. You pledge your money by entering your card details and the amount you want to give. If the total is reached by a pre-determined date then your card is debited automatically. However if the total is not reached by that date then no money is taken from your account and the whole thing is just forgotten.
Sadly I think the people who would mainly contribute are distrusting of such things (age) but I’m sure another way could be found.