More amazing progress for Heaton Park depot

The astonishing rise of the new Lakeside Depot at Manchester’s Heaton Park Tramway has continued with the building now looking like, well, a tram depot! Less than two weeks after the main construction work began, the building now has a roof and the first walls are taking shape.

As the accompanying photo shows, by the middle of the second week of construction works, cladding of the first side of the building was in place along with that for the rear wall. The roof panels have also been fixed in place. The project remains on target for completion during the autumn, when various trams start making the journey to the promised land of Heaton Park, and the days of outside storage for some of the tramway’s fleet finally come to an end.

In a week that has seen some very unpleasant online discussions in various places, it is great to see the Heaton Park Tramway is once again showing the tramway preservation movement in a more positive light, and reminding us all what like-minded people with a passion for historic trams can achieve when they work together with a common goal.

A glimpse of latest progress on Lakeside Depot, seen on July 31st. (Photo courtesy of the Heaton Park Tramway Facebook page)

 

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7 Responses to More amazing progress for Heaton Park depot

  1. Mark Thewlis says:

    Will the entire collection be housed here, even the stuff from Clay Cross? I’m sure it’s bigger in real life…

    • Tommy Carr says:

      The plan (I believe) is to have trams stored outside there, the blackpool cars, and Oldham 43. As for stuff from clay cross???,?

    • Paul says:

      This is at Heaton Park, Manchester operated by the Manchester Transport Museum Society (MTMS). It has no connection to Clay Cross which is an off site store for the Tramway Museum Socitey (TMS) operators of the National Tramway Museum at Crich. While there are some trams in Clay Cross I’d love to see in Heaton Park, I doubt they would be allowed out any time soon…

      This new depot will however accomodate all of the Trams the MTMS currently has in storage ouside in the park and offsite.

    • Andrew Waddington says:

      I think you’ve got slightly confused here Mark – Clay Cross is the storage depot of the TMS (Crich), whereas this new depot is for the MTMS (Heaton Park). It will house the vast majority of the collection although I don’t think there are any plans to move Manchester 173 & L53 yet, and likewise 708 is now at Sunderland. However this building should finally allow the entire collection to be housed undercover which I’m sure we all agree is fantastic news!

  2. Ken Walker says:

    Commendable progress indeed. Another visit (over)due methinks!

  3. Mark Thewlis says:

    Sorry guys, you are quite correct, I got confused!! I really must learn not to type whilst having a grown up drink! Great work indeed by all involved. Sorry again for the confusion.

  4. Nigel Pennick says:

    It is great to see such tremendous progress in such a short time – commendable commitment from everyone involved.

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