You’d think that in the last week or so before Christmas that Father Christmas would be quite busy getting ready for the big day – but he still had time to put in a shift driving on the West Midlands Metro on Saturday 17th December!
Don’t worry, things haven’t got so tough for Santa that he needs to take on a second job to make ends meet – it was Ian, one of West Midlands Metro’s long-serving drivers, who added some festive cheer to the network!
Santa puts his head through the cab window of 34 at Corporation Street.
We suspect the cab of an Urbos3 is slightly more advanced than the sleigh he is used to!
Santa poses for photos alongside 34 at Wednesbury Great Western Street.
He then had a go at driving an Urbos100. Here is seen with 38.
A friendly wave from Santa! (All Photographs by Andy Walters, 17th December 2022)
It was lovely to see Father Christmas at the controls last weekend. I took video footage of him at work – Ian is such a pleasant chap too, always gives a friendly wave.
But as to the controls of an Urbos 3 being more complicated than the sleigh, I have it on good authority from Santa that an Urbos 3 is childsplay in comparison: engaging all the hyper drives to ensure that he gets to every child in the world in just one night is very complicated indeed but, at least, the reindeer draw plenty of power through their antlers that are never lowered anywhere on his network.
He has, however, noticed some worrying bodyside cracks in the sleigh and these will be repaired “somewhere near Dudley” in the new year when a couple of trams have returned to their depot!
Seriously though, a very happy Christmas to all who have read my reply and to Gareth for keeping us enthralled with “Tales of Trams” throughout the year.