Fresh from the overwhelming success of the recent Glasgow 50/Enthusiast’s weekend at Crich Tramway Village, as extensively covered by British Trams Online, some early details have been released regarding planned events at Crich for next year. Most of 2013’s special event dates are featured in the new calendar now on sale at the museum shop, offering an unusually glimpse of what to expect at the museum next year.
Of most interest to us are two key events aimed at tram enthusiasts – one being a general enthusiast’s event in September, whilst the other is a London-themed weekend. This is quite surprising as a London event was held at Crich in July 2012, but the 80th anniversary of the formation of the London Passenger Transport Board has provided the incentive for this theme to be revisted next summer. Although listed as ‘to be confirmed’ in the calendar, the London 80 celebration is pencilled in for Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th July 2013. Presumably this will feature the familiar London trams, Metropolitan 331 and London Transport 1622 in service, as well as London United Tramways 159 which will hopefully be a regular performer next season after a mishap kept it out of service since its launch day. Although the 2012 London event seemed to be popular with visitors, there was definitely room for improvement and hopefully some of the weak spots can be addressed to ensure that next year’s celebration will be much more impressive.
The popular annual Enthusiast’s Day also returns and is scheduled to take place on Saturday 14th September. However, following the success of this year’s two-day event, perhaps consideration will be given towards expanding next year’s event to last for a whole weekend as well?
As well as the two events mentioned above, old favourites such as 1950s and Edwardian themed weekends are set to return, along with a host of classic vehicle events and the extremely popular Starlight Halloween on Saturday 26th October. It is hoped that 2013 will be another good year for Crich, building on the deserved acclaim the museum has received for its imaginative events staged in 2012. With Sheffield 510 and Blackpool 762 currently receiving workshop attention, these trams may well join the operating fleet next year, in order to add further interest to this fantastic museum, and as the recent brief return to service of Glasgow 1282 has proven, there could always be a nice surprise around the corner to amaze us all!
Just want to clarify that the ‘London 80’ event is confirmed as taking place (I can’t find where you’re referencing from to follow this up, though) over the weekend of 6th/7th July next year, although it is not planned to be a purely enthusiast event but rather to have a mixture of things to appeal to both the casual visitor and enthusiast. Early days though so nothing is confirmed, and I certainly can’t reveal any plans…
I agree that improvements can be made on this year’s event, and hopefully we will have 159 back in action too. Ideas are formulating and if any readers have any suggestions – or feedback on this year’s event – please email me; tram@bgseven.com.
Jack – as the article states, the information we have was obtained from the new Crich Tramway Village calendar which I bought from the gift shop on Saturday. Presumably when this went to the publishers the date for the London event was not finalised?