Since the Crich Tramway Village re-opened for the 2019 season all trams have only been running between Town End and Wakebridge because of the over-running track and overhead works at Glory Mine. But now in time for Easter – and the 1940s weekend taking place on Sunday 21st and Sunday 22nd April – trams are set to be able to run to Glory Mine, although still not quite all the way.
Work is still ongoing to complete the revised layout – which includes a short additional section of track at the very end of the line but has seen the siding temporarily removed – but in order to improve the length of ride for visitors to the museum trams are due to run through to Glory Mine from Sunday 21st April. It won’t be possible for any visitors to alight from the trams at the terminus just yet but it will give a longer ride and is certainly a step in the right direction. It was planned that a few trams would be used to test the track on Saturday 20th April and provided that all was as it should be all services would run this far on Sunday 21st and Monday 22nd April.
Those two days – with an excellent weather forecast – are the first of the “big” special events at Crich as the museum heads back to the 1940s with a Home Front event. Re-enactors, vintage vehicles and entertainment are all due to feature over the two days of this always popular event. With fine weather forecast it looks set to be a far cry from 2018 when day two of this event was cancelled because of snow! The wonders of a later Easter!
It isn’t clear just yet whether trams to Glory Mine will just be for these two days or when the full work may be completed allowing visitors to alight once more but this large scale project is now reaching a conclusion and it will be good to see trams there once more!
On the tram front more trams have now run for the first time in 2019 with Saturday 20th April seeing a 2019 debut for Blackpool 166 and Metropolitan Electric Tramways 331 (according to information revealed online each day anyway!). 13 different trams have now carried passengers this year namely Chesterfield 7, Glasgow 22, Blackpool 40, Sheffield 74, London County Council 106, Oporto 273, Leeds 345, Leeds 399, Sheffield 510, Blackpool 630, access tram Berlin 223 006-4 as well as the two debutants mentioned above. And more trams are expected to enter service before too long as well.