This is the story of one man’s task to try and get photos of all the reindeer names carried on Nottingham Express Transit in December 2022/January 2023 – a task which wasn’t as easy as it sounds! As we reported earlier this week nine of the Citadis trams had received names to add to the Christmas spirit in the city and here thanks to John Whittingham we feature each one of them in photographic form.
As alluded to in the introduction it wasn’t as easy a task to capture each of them on camera as John Whittingham originally thought – with two in particular causing issues! Originally all the trams had four names applied to the cab sides (one on each corner) but for 225 three had disappeared which meant you had to be at the right end and side to be able to get the photo and that took three attempts to manage that task. But it was achieved so that’s a big tick!
The other one was more problematic as 229 proved to be pretty elusive. In the end a period spent at Wilkinson Street mid-morning (when all 32 trams in service will pass, including those returning to depot after the morning peak extras are withdrawn) finally tracked down the tram – but it ended up being the last tram seen proving that its worth persevering if you want to see something bad enough!
All nine trams retained their usual names with the reindeer name being applied below this. We start off with 216 which became Donner.
Cupid was added to 221.
223 was Prancer.
225 with its one remaining Dancer name.
The most elusive reindeer proved to be 229 – and it’s the most recognisable of all the reindeer: Rudolph!
Comet on 230.
232’s Blitzen name.
233 was Vixen.
And last by no means least was Dasher on 234. (All Photographs by John Whittingham)
That’s dedication, Mr Whittingham!
Apologies for being initially unclear.
Let me clarify.
225 does have all four ‘Dancer’ names.
But it only has one ‘Doug Scott CBE’ name.
Presumably three new window glasses have been fitted since it was first named and the replacement glasses have not had the names applied to them.
So I only had one corner to work with if I were to obtain a picture with both names showing in the same frame.