Today Picture in Time is heading back to Crich for a view of a tram which although it remains on site at the home of the National Tramway Museum in 2017 is in a different identity. It is Vienna 4225 now better known as New York 674.
It was as New York Third Avenue Transit Company 674 that the tram was built as an one man operated vehicle in 1939 and operated in the American city until after the conclusion of World War II. At this point as part of the Marshall Aid programme it was withdrawn from service in New York and was transferred to Vienna (in total 42 such trams made the journey). Renumbered as 4225 it remained in service in Austrian until 1969. Accepted by the British Ambassador to Austria the tram then made another journey across the seas, this time rather shorter than before as it went to Crich, arriving at the museum in 1970. It ran until 1975 and then again from 1977 to 1985 initially as 4225 before becoming New York 674 in 1979. Today the tram is a static exhibit at Crich.
In this photo – taken on 16th September 1978 – 4225 is seen at Town End.
The picture of 4225 is quite significant as the tram was on test when the photograph was taken. In September 1978, the tram was subject to a joint project activity between the workshop voluntary staff and the Manpower workshop staff. The project was to transform the tram into New York 674. The picture was taken testing the newly fitted pair of fixed head trolley poles; at this stage without the retrievers. After several hours of testing, the tram was subject to the cosmetic external and interior repaint to create the Third Avenue streetcar. Not long before the photograph was taken, 4225 was in passenger service with its platform raised pantograph.