Article updated 20/8/23 with photos
There was a time when seeing a tram on back of a lorry was a rare sight which made it incredibly newsworthy. But the past few years have seen tram moves becoming ten a penny, if its not another Blackpool tram being moved (often back to where it came from a couple of years ago!) it’s a modern tram arriving at its new home. Probably the biggest customer for haulage companies over the past few years has been the West Midlands Metro and it looks like they have found another reason to get on the back of a lorry.
We all know that there have been major issues with the original Urbos3 trams with repairs required to their bodyside panels after cracks were discovered. This has seen this some of this 21 strong class move to Dudley for repairs (plus one went to Wolverton) and although a short distance the sight of one of these trams on a lorry has been fairly common as they go in both directions for their repairs to happen. Coupled to that has been the continued delivery of the newer Urbos100 trams to the region after construction in Spain.
And now there are set to be more moves as because of limited storage space at Wednesbury Depot whilst expansion works take place a small number of Urbos3s are to be moved away for further storage. Despite the fact that the majority of the trams have received some form of repair fairly recently, up to five are expected to be moved to the off-site storage at Worksop.
The first of the trams to move was 17 which had been in service very recently but has now headed to Nottinghamshire to the Harry Needle site, which has been used for the storage of mainline trains ahead of their delayed introduction into service over the past few years. This is the first time that a tram has been stored there though.
17 departed from Wednesbury on Tuesday 8th August.
17 is seen on the A42 when being transported to Worksop. (Both Photographs by Richard Shaw, 8th August 2023. Taken from parking areas on the A42)
Does anyone at midland metro have a brain cell, surely they could have held back delivery of newer trams till depot was expanded as it would save money on transport fees to move trams to Nottingham and storage fees.
Question: How much of the track bed of the old Snow Hill stop is still there surely they could have reconnect and put trams there.
Presumably the manufacturer doesn’t have the capacity to store completed trams, and why would they?
Whilst it is true that Snow Hill metro station remains in situ the line was cut many years ago and will not be reinstated by BR who are seeking funding to open platform 4 of the main line station – pictures at
http://www.britishtramsonline.co.uk/news/?p=43816
Worksop is a secure, established area, although plenty of less secure areas can be found in the West Midlands
if British tramway systems were compatabile they could have been loaned to a system in need of extra trams, eg Croydon
The only system they won’t be compatible with should be Manchester.
They could easily work on Blackpool or Edinburgh.
The antics on this system never cease to amaze me.
It’s not a simple case of arranging a loan and shipping a few trams down to Croydon. The Urbos 3 trams would need equipping with the Croydon signalling equipment in place of the equipment currently fitted. The Croydon drivers would have to be trained to drive the Urbos 3 trams and the Therapia Lane depot would need equipping with maintenance tools specific to the Urbos 3 and it is quite possible that stabling accommodation would need to be expanded at the depot to cope with a larger fleet. Croydon’s maintenance teams would need training on the loaned trams as well. The cost of all this to facilitate what is likely to be a fairly short term loan probably outweigh the advantages.