We head back into the archives for another edition of “Picture in Time” with a photo coming from 1994 in Manchester.
In their later years we came used to the T68s featuring aqua/turquoise doors but when the system originally opened the regulations which stated that doors should be a discernibly different colour to the body alongside yet having been introduced. That is the most noticeable thing of this side on shot of 1007 as it approaches the ramp up to what was then the G-MEX tramstop.
1007 carries the name ‘The Guinness Record Breaker’ with the tram being officially the first car to use the new tramway in 1992. Its now owned by the Manchester Transport Museum Society who have plans to enlarge their Lakeside Depot in Heaton Park to accommodate it. But for now it remains stored – undercover – at Metrolink’s Trafford Depot. 1007 was one of three T68s to be withdrawn on 10th February 2014, the last of this class to run in normal service (although a couple of T68As would survive longer).
Photograph by Donald Brooks, Summer 1994