One of the most well travelled trams around the country is the feature of today’s edition of Picture in Time. It is a tram which at the time of our image was to be found at Crich and has recently returned from Beamish to Heaton Park – its is Manchester 765.
Manchester 765 was built back in 1914 a single deck combination car for use on those routes unsuitable for double deckers because of low bridges. After withdrawal the tram – like so many others across the country – was sold on for further use before it was rescued by members of the Manchester Transport Historical Collection in 1960. It was then that its history of moving around the country really gets going with it initially heading to Crich for outside storage before a move back to Manchester saw its restoration begin in earnest. With this work completed it was back to Crich where it arrived on 24th June 1976 and it is that date that we see the tram in the pictures below.
To complete the story 765 ran at Crich in 1977 and 1978 before it was back home to Manchester and the Heaton Park Tramway where it became a mainstay of the Heaton Park Tramway. Four further trips away have happened since with 765 heading to Blackpool twice (1985 and 2010) and Beamish twice (2011 and 2019). It is thus one of the very few trams to have run on four different tramways in preservation.
Both Photographs by Hazel Quarmby