Its another edition of “Picture in Time” with another trip to Crich although we’re moving forward into the late 1980s.
Its 1989 to be precise when this photo was captured of Sunderland 100 passing a car and a bus which are parked in the layby on the way down to Town End. This was during the relatively short period after restoration that the tram would be seen running as Sunderland 100 in the standard Sunderland livery of red and white. Of course, ahead of it heading to the Gateshead Garden Festival in 1990 it would be sponsored by British Steel which would lead to its red and white becoming blue and white with advertising for the company. When returning to Crich it would become Metropolitan Electric Tramways 331 again – its original identity when first built.
Southampton 45 is following the tram along the line. The bus is Manchester Corporation Leyland PD2 496 which is some 28 years newer than Sunderland 100 and the car is an Austin.
Edit: the bus is numbered 3496. Postwar MCTD buses were numbered 2xxx for Crossleys, 3xxx for Leylands, and 4xxx for Daimlers. The bus is a Titan PD2/40 from 1958, according to the excellent Museum of Transport, Greater Manchester, in whose collection it normally resides.
Great photo as usual, of course!