Tuesday 18th April saw the 13th different passenger tram to run in service at the Crich Tramway Village in 2023 – but it wasn’t an unlucky number for Metropolitan Electric Tramways 331 which became the latest tram to be used this year.
As a fully enclosed tram you may have expected MET 331 to have been included in the operating fleet a bit earlier in the year, or at least at the 1940s weekend which it is often used at, but it was only commissioned in the workshop recently and cleared for service. This allowed it to be used for the first time on Tuesday 18th April.
This is the second London tram to have run at Crich this year with London United Tramways 159 having been the first. Seven towns/cities have now been represented in service – Blackpool, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Oporto and Sheffield.
The trams to have run so far are now Glasgow 22, Sheffield 74, London United Tramways 159, Blackpool 166, Blackpool 167, Leeds 180, Blackpool 236, Metropolitan Electric Tramways 331, Oporto 273, Leeds 399, Sheffield 510, Blackpool 630 and Liverpool 869.
Elsewhere across the British Isles another couple of notable returnees to service for the year recently have been Stockport 5 at the Heaton Park Tramway and Manx Electric Railway 1.