The Tramway Museum Society have made the exciting announcement that Glasgow 1068 is to be loaned to Beamish Museum during spring 2013. The tram formely known as Paisley 68 will be operating at the North East’s premier open air museum, to help celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Beamish tramway between 4th and 7th April. There, it will join fellow visiting tramcars Stockport 5 (from Heaton Park) and Lisbon 730 (from Birkenhead).
1068 was of course repainted into its 1920s ‘blue route’ Glasgow livery last year as one of the star attractions at the ‘Glasgow 50’ event held at Crich. Despite operating succesfully on both days of this event, the tram has been confined to the depots, and latterly the Exhibition Hall, since then – so the news that the tram will be making the journey to Beamish is a very welcome surprise. It will duly become the first Scottish tram to operate at the museum, and the first passenger tram from the national collection to run there, although of course Cardiff water car 131 did enjoy a brief stay there in 2010. As Paisley 68, the tram has been out on loan before though, having appeared at the Glasgow Garden Festival back in 1988.
Although it is not yet known whether 1068 will remain in service upon its return to Crich when the event is over, its visit to Beamish will at least give another chance to ride on this car in its superbly applied Glasgow colours, and it is sure to be a very popular addition to the event for both enthusiasts and the general public alike. The TMS deserve our thanks for agreeing to let the tram operate at Beamish, whilst the Scottish Tramway & Transport Society also deserve praise, as had it not been for their funding of its repaint, this loan deal might never have happened.
The Great North Festival of Transport at Beamish, which is taking place over three consecutive weekends in April and incorporates the tramway events, is now shaping up nicely with several other transport exhibits also recently confirmed to attend. These include the replica of George Stephenson’s famous ‘Rocket’ locomotive, which is expected to haul passenger trains on the Pockerley Waggonway for the Great North Steam Fair, although it is unlikely that the engine will be present for the tram events. As a whole, the festival should be Beamish Museum’s most impressive event to date, and hopefully at least one more visiting tram may still be added to what is already a mouthwatering lineup!
Shortly after completion of its repaint, Glasgow 1068 is seen being shunted in the depot yard at Crich last September. (Photo by Andy Bailey)
Whilst there is no argument that George Stephenson is one of our greatest engineers we must not continue to credit him with the design of “Rocket”
The design of Rocket was undertaken by Robert in Newcastle in the eorks of Rbt Stephenson and Co. whilst his father George was engineering the Liverpool Manchester railway.
For more information see the Robert Stephenson Trust website.
I saw a picture posted on the Crich Tramway website of Paisley 63. It had a square balcony shape rather than a curved semi-circle like Paisley 68. This could be seen from decency flap’s shape.
Does this mean that Paisley 68 has been running in an incorrect appearance or did only some cars have a square shape balcony?
I don’t know if I can post a link here but it’s on the blog and it was posted on March 7th. This isn’t meant as any criticism of the Tramway Museum, just curious as to why it has a different shaped balcony to the photo shown.