The Seaton Tramway is celebrating the conclusion of another successful season with the final timetabled passenger journey operating on Sunday 4th November. Tram 9 had the honour of operating this last service – as indeed it had operated the first journey back in February when weekend operations had commenced – at the end of a fairly busy week as a result of the Halloween Tram of Terror event which had been in operation up to Halloween. The tramway will next see paying passengers for the Santa Specials in the lead up to Christmas but in the meantime the Workshops are busy with activity whilst general maintenance out on the line is also taking place.
2012 has been another popular year for the Tramway with probably the highlight being the joint June gala along with Pecorama and the Yeovil Railway Centre. This saw the launch of 8 into passenger service wearing its new Bristol blue and cream livery and since this date the tram has settled into regular use alongside the rest of the fleet. All of the passenger tram fleet have use during 2012 with the exception of 7 which remains stored at the back of the Depot with its overhaul now seemingly abandoned.
So far this winter the workshops at the Riverside Depot have seen three trams receiving attention. The first tram to be treated has been 14, the former Metropolitan Tramways 94, which has been having some touching up work on its paintwork whilst some of the seats will also be recovered. Two of the new trams are also receiving some TLC with 9 having some lower deck flooring replaced and 10 is having its upper deck seating repainted.
Meanwhile out on the tramway Works Car 02 is seeing regular use as the team at Seaton make sure that the track and overhead is up to the required standard before another busy season is upon them in 2013.
The next action at Seaton will be the Santa Specials which will be operating on 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd & 24th December and that will be followed on New Days 2013 with a special day of services as they welcome the New Year. No details have yet been released on the Special Events for 2013.
* The Seaton Tramway Facebook Page (http://www.facebook.com/SeatonTramway) is regularly updated with all the latest goings on including photos of the latest work on the trams.