Its not often that we see behind the scenes at working modern tram depots but in this pictorial article we see behind the closed doors of the West Midlands Metro depot at Wednesbury with views of trams being moved into the workshops as well as a glimpse at a tram which currently stored. Photos courtesy of William Snook.
One of the original batch of CAF trams, 22 is a tram which has been stored at the depot for quite some time and hasn’t been used in service for over 12 months now. Last time it was seen in service it carried a full vinyl wrap advertising the Metro Training Academy but this was removed in February 2023 and since then it has remained stored in the sidings at the depot. That’s where we see the tram – with coupler covers raised – on 2nd January 2024.
19 is currently undergoing upgrade works. This will see it retrofitted with generation 3 equipment to the driving cabs to bring the software and driving style in line with the Urbos100 fleet (the original Urbos3 trams are 2nd generation CAF Urbos trams with the newer Urbos100s generation 3). 19 sits in the yard here on 2nd January 2024.
And here we see a third Urbos 3. This time we look at 36 which is just entering the workshops to receive a bogie change. Just the other side of the shutter on the left is Urbos100 44. 4th January 2024. (All Photographs by William Snook)