The first update of 2026 from the Beamish Transport and Industry blog is packed full of little snippets on the trams – and that includes the tantalisingly prospect that Lisbon 730 is set to receive a partial repaint which will see its existing bright yellow livery transformed into Newcastle Corporation colours!
Libson 730 has been at Beamish for almost two years now (arriving 22nd January 2024) when it became the first tram to leave the Wirral Heritage Tramway after the Big Heritage takeover. During that time it hasn’t been able to turn a wheel in anger yet with it waiting space in the workshops for an overhaul and to bring it to the same standards of the other trams in the fleet to ease its ongoing maintenance.
The tram has now been moved from its long-term home on road 1 in the depot into the main depot building where it is waiting to be moved over to the pit. This will allow at least one of its motors to be removed to look into the gear misalignment that was identified during previous checks.
It had previously been hoped that before entering service the tram would receive a repaint from its standard Lisbon livery into that of the Darlington Corporation Light Railway. However, time and capacity constraints mean this won’t be possible and so Beamish have come with a solution (with it needing some paintwork attention) – and that will see it receive a version of Newcastle Corporation Tramways livery (similar to that carried by Newcastle 114). This should see part of the Lisbon yellow retained (although touched up) but the dash panels and rocker panels will receive the Newcastle deep maroon.
730 is not the priority project at the moment (that remains Gateshead 10) but work will continue as time allows. And indeed work on its repaint has already commenced with the first maroon undercoat being added to the dash panels.
And speaking of Gateshead 10 recent progress on its long-standing overhaul has seen assembly work on the brake components under the body and the electrical components inside. Its also receiving some remedial attention to its paintwork which received a little bit of cracking when the body on its bogies.