The current trend of exciting tram events at Beamish, the Living Museum of the North is showing no sign of slowing down this year as the first major transport event of 2012 – April’s Great North Steam Fair – approaches. Investment in the resident tram fleet is also continuing at an impressive rate, and this report aims to update our readers on current developments on the Museum’s own trams, as well as visiting Blackpool ‘Boat’ 233 and an unusual new delivery from York.
As has been well documented, British Trams Online sponsored Blackpool ‘Boat’ car 233 (latterly 605) arrived on loan from the Lancastrian Transport Trust last week and work commenced immediately on preparing this tram for service. The trolley tower is being shot-blasted by an outside firm, and will hopefully be returned to Beamish next week. A new trolley base will also be fitted, and the car is also expected to receive attention to its wiring. This will be followed by the much-anticipated repaint of the car in 1930′s
livery style, and discussions are taking place between all of the parties involved with the project regarding some of the finer details, such as Blackpool Corporation crests for the side panels. The end result should be an absolutely stunning vehicle, which is still expected to be ready for service in April. The LTT have already announced that they plan to officially launch 233 on Sunday 22nd April although it will hopefully make its public debut at the Museum before then.
However, all of the excitement surrounding the new arrival in the tram depot at Beamish
has not completely overshadowed the rest of the fleet, two of which are currently under attention. Beamish 196 remains under overhaul and its motor and wheelsets are currently away being overhauled by a contractor, whilst some preparation of the body for further work has been carried out. On completion of this work, the tram will be painted in a South Shields-inspired royal blue and primrose yellow livery, which is sure to be a head-turner and will make a nice change from the Gateshead-style maroon and cream colours worn by this tram for the last 20 years. There is as yet no set timescale for the work on 196 and inevitably more urgent work on other vehicles may delay progress.
Blackpool 31 is currently residing in the lean-to shed along with 196 due to another
motor defect, which is being rectified. Later in the year, two more trams are due to pass through the works: Sunderland 16 needs new tyres, and Gateshead 10 is expected to receive a temporary repaint in green Grimsby & Immingham livery as part of a fairly extensive overhaul.
Once the above jobs have been completed, all of the operating trams at Beamish will have
received significant attention in the last few years. This will hopefully allow major work on Sheffield 264, which has been stored out of use for several years, to be fitted in the workshop programme – indeed this work may start later this year. The Museum still hopes to attract some outside funding to assist with the cost of this work, as 264 will require major structural attention, and this should be seen as more of a long-term project compared to the likes of 196 and 233. However, it is pleasing to see that this beautiful tram will feature in the future plans and hopefully it won’t be too many years before it is able to carry visitors to the Museum once again.
Finally, Friday 2nd March saw the delivery of various vehicle parts from the National
Railway Museum at York, who had generously offered to let Beamish have some surplus items. Of particular interest to us are a set of former Grimsby & Immingham tramcar bogies. When these were originally offered to the Museum it was thought that they might be of the maximum traction variety, in which case they could have been used as spares for Gateshead 10. This was not the case as it turned out, but they could still come in useful in the future, with one suggestion being that they could used as accommodation bogies on which trams under overhaul could be moved around more easily than is possible at present.