Beamish Museum have announced more details of their upcoming event to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their museum tramway, with Stockport 5 now confirmed to visit Beamish to participate in the celebrations. As if that alone wasn’t exciting enough, it has also been confirmed that Blackpool 31 will be sent to the Heaton Park Tramway in exchange for car 5 next spring!
As reported recently on British Trams Online, Stockport 5 is receiving some fairly extensive workshop attention this winter, and we can finally confirm that the work is being done ahead of a planned visit to Beamish. Manchester Transport Museum Society members have been working hard to ensure that 5 will look its best for its starring role in what is likely to be the biggest tram event of 2013. This tram is sure to be one of the star attractions at this event, which is being held between Thursday 4th and Sunday 7th April. Dating from 1901, the car should fit in perfectly at Beamish, particularly in the Edwardian town area, and its powerful motors from Portugal should ensure that the tram makes easy work of climbing the infamous Pockerley bank!
The downside of 5‘s absence from Manchester, is that the open-top tram has led to a noticeable increase in passenger numbers with its open top deck being hugely appealing to many passers-by, and when its attendance at the Beamish event was first requested, it was feared that it would be sorely missed at Heaton Park. With this in mind, Beamish have very kindly agreed to send Blackpool Marton Box car 31 to the park in exchange for 5, ensuring that the tramway will not be deprived of an open-top double decker during the spring. Of course, 31 has already operated at Heaton Park: it last visited between November 2010 and May 2011 following hot on the heels of its highly succesful return to Blackpool for that system’s 125th anniversary celebrations. It would perhaps have been even better if a different tram could have made the journey from Beamish to Manchester, but the reasons for choosing an open topper are completely understandable and if 31‘s previous visit to Manchester is anything to go by, it should prove extremely popular for the duration of its second visit.
Stockport 5 duly becomes the second confirmed visiting tram for the Beamish tramway 40th anniversary event, which promises to offer a spectacle of trams rather than sticking to a particular theme. The Merseyside Tramway Preservation Society had revealed last month that Lisbon 730 would head to Beamish in spring 2013, a loan which has now been confirmed by Beamish. As exciting as the visits by these two trams are, even more loans are expected to be arranged and hopefully these will be announced in the near future. However, with 5 and 730 now confirmed to attend there is already good reason for tram enthusiasts to make plans to attend this event, and based on the quality of past transport events at Beamish, a memorable occasion is practically guaranteed!
The last major tram event Stockport 5 starred in away from Heaton Park, was the Blackpool tramway's 125th anniversary events week. Here it is pictured at Bispham on its final day out by the seaside; 28th September 2010. (Photo by Andrew Waddington)