The North East Land, Sea and Air Museums in Sunderland, Tyne and Wear is home to a collection of trams – many of which come from Blackpool having been sold following the tramway upgrade in 2011. In addition to a Centenary Car, Twin Set and Balloon Car the museum also houses a tram from Graz and one from Krefeld with all vehicles in undercover storage. In this pictorial article we take a look at some of the trams in November 2022.
NELSAM is open Tuesdays to Sundays between 1000 and 1600 with adult tickets costing £6.50 (children and concessions are £3.50). As well as the trams there are also buses, a trolleybus, military vehicles and an extensive collection of aircraft. More details available at https://www.nelsam.org.uk/. At the time of writing the building housing the trams is not open to the public, if travelling to see the trams you are advised to check if it will be open.
Blackpool Twin Car 674+684 (seen here with trailer leading) last ran on its home tramway in 2008 and retains the Cadbury Blue and Yellow Metro Coastlines it received following a mini-overhaul as the Twin Cars came to the rescue of the Fleetwood service after double deckers were banned due to the condition of the track.
A view of the motor car of the Twin set. Behind the Twin is Centenary Car 647.
Perhaps the most significant tram historically at NELSAM is Centenary Car 647. The last traditional standard gauge tram built for a UK tramway by East Lancashire Coachbuilders, the tram entered service in Blackpool in 1988 and was withdrawn at the end of traditional tramway operation in 2011. Acquired by the North Eastern Electrical Traction Trust (NEETT) there were plans which would have seen it receive an old school Blackpool tramway livery or red, white and teak but these have not been carried forward.
Another tram which was expected to be repainted at the museum is Balloon 721 but it currently retains a plain black livery which was the base coat for its last advertising livery. Despite that it does still look fairly presentable and is on display alongside the Centenary Car.
Before the Blackpool trams joined the NEETT collection there was Graz 210 – the very first tram to be owned by the group. This tram was once at the West Yorkshire Transport Museum before moving to its replacement, the short lived Transperience. After that closed it eventually ended up in the ownership of the NEETT.
The last tram at NELSAM is Krefeld 412, a tram which shows the effects of many years of outside storage. The German tram first found itself in the UK when it was donated (along with a trailer) to Leicester, which was Krefeld’s twin city, with the hope for an operating tramway in the East Midlands city. This didn’t happen and after a spell at the Great Central Railway it ended up in Walthamstow before being acquired by NEETT. (All Photographs by Scott Spencer, 9th November 2022)
There’s a contrast with the Blackpool cars in good nick and the overseas ones rusting away. Not NELSAM’s fault the latter, having acquired them from failed schemes elsewhere, but reminiscent of the London and Liverpool trams in sheds (albeit in worse apparent condition) in the USA.
I remember seeing the Krefeld tram and trailer in Abbey Park Road depot in Leicester in immaculate condition. It seemed at the time that there was no real enthusiasm for building anything on which to run them, not helped by them being metre gauge. When I visited the collection in Sunderland in 2015 the tram was outside.