The continued movement of Urbos3 trams from West Midlands Metro’s Wednesbury Depot to storage at Worksop has seen 29 become the latest tram to make the move. This is at least the third (and possibly the fourth) of the repaired Urbos3 trams which have made the move to Nottinghamshire for temporary storage.
Its just short of nine years since 29 originally arrived at Wednesbury with its delivery recorded as being on 2nd September 2014. By this time the first of the class had entered service but 29 had to wait for a little while with it not being accepted until 23rd April 2015. Batteries followed in 2019 with a return to action being on 19th June. As with the rest of the fleet it was withdrawn when the bodyside cracks were discovered and was moved to Dudley in December 2022 to allow repairs to take place. Back to the West Midlands Metro in March 2023 it then returned to service on 2nd May 2023.
The move of 29 was again conducted by Allely’s with the tram making its departure on Monday 21st August 2023.
29 comes out of the depot having been loaded onto the lorry.
With the Police escort keeping an eye on things 29 sets off for Worksop. (Photographs x2 by Michael Morton, 21st August 2023)
The length of the trailer needed to transport the tram is evident in this view as 29 heads away.
Signs were put up to let locals know that there was an abnormal load due – although the timings are quite wide! (Photographs x2 by Andy Walters, 21st August 2023)
Is there a problem with the repairs carried out at Dudley, is that why they are being put into storage ?♂️
Depot been expanded due to the line extension to accommodate extra trams.
To many trams ,not enough space is the simple answer
With the 2 Urbos 3s out at Dudley , there were 19 Urbos 3s and 23 Urbos 100s 42 Trams in space designed for 21
It became so bad at one point Trams we’re being parked on the main line and in the tram stop at Wednesbury park way so trams could move freely in /out / around the depot for maintenance