Sometimes there are just news stories which pass us by and we’re never aware of them until a long time after it happened, and this is definitely one of those situations! Manchester Metrolink 1024 – which we last had as being stored at Long Marston seems to actually been scrapped in August 2022 so we’re only about 19 months late with this one!
1024 was one of 26 T68 trams built for the original (and what is now really only a tiny part of the system) Metrolink network which ran from Altrincham to Bury with a spur to Piccadilly Station. Delivered to Manchester on 2nd April 1992 it entered service on 22nd May 1992. It remained in service until withdrawn on 10th August 2013 and was then stored in Manchester until departing Trafford Depot on 30th July 2014. At the time it was acquired as part of a planned UKTram test fleet and was moved to Long Marston where it spent some time in store.
But from photos on the internet it appears that come August 2022 its time at the storage site in Warwickshire was over as it was seen at the Wards Quarry Hill Industrial Estate in Ilkeston on the 4th of the month in the process of being scrapped.
Of the T68s which were acquired by UKTram it is believed that 1016 was also scrapped (June 2021) after suffering vandalism. That leaves 1022 and 1026 of which there have been no recent reports of their existence or location.
Of course, there are two T68s which have been preserved. 1023 is on display at the Crewe Heritage Centre whilst 1007 is still stored at Trafford Depot on behalf of the Manchester Transport Museum Society for eventual movement to the Heaton Park Tramway.
- The photo of 1024 being scrapped can be seen here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/37271_37418/52280019072/