Its been a long time coming – but then what hasn’t over the past 18 months or so! – but Newcastle 114 has now been reunited with its motors and has started to be testing on the tramway at Beamish as a precursor to it returning to service at some point in the future. You may recall that 114 was taken out of service over the winter 2019/20 period to allow a full overhaul of its motors to take place but before this work could be completed there was the small matter of a global pandemic which has delayed the end of the work.
As we saw in Gallery 971, Newcastle 114 was shunted at the depot on Monday 13th September to allow it to be positioned over the pit on road 3 for it to be reunited with its motors and with this work being rapidly completed the tram is now being tested on the tramway with a view to it being cleared for service shortly.
Whilst the temperatures have taken a bit of a nose-dive in recent days, the return of 114 to the operational fleet will give a bit more variety to the tram service at Beamish and will mean that there will be five trams available for use if required. Most days are still seeing a solitary tram in service on the special horseshoe service between Foulbridge and the Town via the Entrance and Pockerley, a two tram service did run over the Transport Event on Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th September and it is also planned that during the October Half Term school holidays there will be an enhanced tram service.