We’ve seen something similar happen before but amongst the mattresses, tables, children’s toys and bricks (free bricks no less!), Facebook Marketplace sometimes throws up a bit of surprise. The surprise this time is the body of Norwich Electric Tramways no. 39 which is being sold for £5,650.
The story of Norwich 39 is a complex one as a tram with that number had two bodies and in fact both survived to be sold for other use but up for the sale is the second, replacement, body which was for a time stored at the East Anglia Transport Museum in Carlton Colville. This body was initially fitted to the tram in 1924 having been constructed by English Electric (39’s history can be traced back to 1900 when it was built by Brush) and the tram then stayed in service until the closure of the tramway in 1935.
The body was sold and it moved to Heacham near Hunstanton, Norfolk. It then came to the attention of members of the East Anglia Transport Museum during the mid 1960s and they acquired it, moving it to Carlton Colville where it was used as a tea hut whilst they worked on restoring other trams at the rear of Hedley House, adjacent to the current museum site. It was subsequently moved to the main museum site and was adopted by the East Suffolk Light Railway where it was used as a waiting shelter.
It was looked at restoring 39 as a passenger carrying vehicle but due to a shortage of volunteers this work didn’t progress further than mounting it on a steel underframe on bogies and it remained in storage for a number of years. A request for the tram body was made and so it left the museum site and was then restored to form a garden room/porch on a cottage in the marshes near Acle in Norfolk. And that was where the trail ended until its posting on Facebook Marketplace.
The listing reads: “tram 1930s ? told from Yarmouth sea front wood and steel frame in good order thin pennyboard roof aly sheet lower skins and centre doors in need of total restoration I have the opening top glass lights door tops and some interior lighting included in the sale structure is sound not rotton and no woodworm wood make a great glamp pod or summer house 22 foot long 8 foot wide very rare thing pick up from Coltishall will need a hiab to load i can arrange delivery at extra cost”
As for the original 39. This was known to have survived and was inspected by members of the East Anglia Transport Museum in the 1970s where it was in use as a garden shed in Norwich. Its not known whether it still survives today.
- To view the listing head to https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/5089570647753197?rid=10159879055794882&ad_id&rt=1&refID=0&refType=0