The main operating season for 2011 commenced for Crich Tramway Village this week, with daily opening from Monday 2nd April onwards. Unfortunately however, this milestone co-incided with the end of the mini-heatwave experienced across much of Britain recently, and the warm spring sunshine was replaced by bitter cold and deep snow!
The snow falls in Derbyshire were particularly bad, forcing the Museum to close on Wednesday 4th & Thursday 5th April. Thankfully no more of the dreaded white stuff fell, allowing normal business to resume on Good Friday following a concerted effort by staff and volunteers to clear snow from the depot track fan, allowing trams to escape from the confines of the depot again. Hopefully the weather will be kinder at Crich this weekend for the 1940s event, which is traditionally one of the year’s busiest events and could more than make up for the lost revenue due to the enforced two day closure.
Meanwhile in the relative warmth of the workshop, Blackpool & Fleetwood 2 has been receiving some attention including paintwork touching-up before it joins the running fleet this year. Blackpool Brush car 630 has now joined it in the workshop for some minor repairs before it too enters service, although of course this is a much more exciting event as 630 has only previously carried passengers at Blackpool! Finally, the return to use of Berlin 3006 following an overhaul and repaint into original cream livery should be imminent as the car is now back in the main depots, looking very stylish indeed.