Its easy to just think about the main “tramway centres” when considering restorations but dotted around the country there are also a number of dedicated enthusiasts who are getting on with restoring trams from their local areas and in this article we take a look at one of those. The tram in question is Chester 4 which is located at Hooton Park, Ellesmere Port.
Chester 4 was built in 1903 by G.F.Milnes as an open top double decker and remained in service until February 1930 when the small network was closed. The tramway was built to the 3’6” gauge and ran for a total of 3.58 miles operated by Chester Corporation Tramways who took over the Chester Tramways Company who had run horse trams from 1879.
4 is now the sole surviving tramcar of 17 which ran on the system (12 in the batch including 4 and a further 5 built in 1907 by United Electric Car Company) and is under restoration at Hooton Park by a small group of enthusiasts.
Good progress is being made with the restoration as evidenced by regular updates on their Facebook page. The most recent update has shown that the platforms have now been all but finished bringing the tram back to almost its full 25’ length whilst work is also taking place on finding the right shade of green for the paintwork.
- Find out more about progress on the restoration at https://www.facebook.com/chestertram4/
Two shots showing Chester 4 under restoration at Hooton Park. (Both Photographs by Ken Jones, 14th August 2022)
Thanks for the post. This is lovely news.
I so enjoy tales and narratives of findings, discoveries and restorations. Their back stories are sometimes even better.
So how was Chester 4 found, and where and when? And what of its future?
Might there be a working museum dedicated to trams of the 3ft 6in gauge? Sited as a development of the existing Black Country Museum, say?
A brilliant job…well done to all concerned