Six in a row at Heaton Park

On 13th August 2013, regular British Trams Online contributor Joe Savage managed to photograph six trams lined up on the main line at the Heaton Park Tramway during a depot shunt. Although only three trams currently make up their operating fleet, there are now a further three trams stored on site, awaiting completion of the new Lakeside Depot.

On this occasion, volunteers needed to move Blackpool Brush Railcoach 623 over the pit at the back of the depot, requiring all of the trams on site to be moved. Unfortunately, 623 has recently developed a problem with its resistances and it required access to the pit so that the resistance box could be removed for attention. This means that this popular tram is likely to be unavailable for service for the next few weeks, although efforts are being made to have it repaired as quickly as possible.

With three trams stored at the front of the present depot building – Leeds 6, Heaton Park 7 and Blackpool 752 – all of these had to be moved out of their way, along with Stockport 5, to allow 623 to be moved outside. Finally, Manchester 765 was driven out and shunted so that 623 could take its place at the back of the shed, before everything else was put back in front of it. Such complex shunting procedures are commonplace at Heaton Park at the moment, but once the new depot is in use this will become a thing of the past as most of the fleet will be housed there – which will no doubt be a relief to the volunteers who operate the tramway! Hopefully though, the arrival of further trams will allow even more impressive line-ups to be created at the park in the future.

Blackpool 623 heads an impressive row of trams on August 13th, with cars 5, 6, 752 and 7 all present.

A view of the full line-up, headed by Manchester 765 and backed by the other five trams as depicted above. How far this tramway has developed in the last few years is clear for all to see in this photo! (Photos by Joe Savage)

This entry was posted in Heaton Park Tramway. Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to Six in a row at Heaton Park

  1. Ken Walker says:

    Going back just a short time, who would have thought this possible? Another marker of the astounding progress being made at Heaton Park. Congratulations to all concerned for the progress being made and for keeping the tramway in the public eye with 100% positive publicity

  2. nigel says:

    Just to echoe Kens comments, what a great job they are doing there.

Comments are closed.