Further details have recently emerged regarding the plans for some of the special events to be held at the Crich Tramway Village during the year ahead. As has already been reported here, a reduced number of events are to be held compared with previous years, the idea being to focus the limited resources available on a lower number of special events, hopefully meaning that they will be really memorable. However, it has now been revealed that elements of some of the recently axed events will be incorporated into those events that have been retained for 2014.
The annual seaside-themed weekend has been expanded and will take place over a total of nine days this year. Starting over the late May Bank Holiday weekend, this expanded event will run up to and including Sunday 1st June. As well as the usual seaside attractions, the second weekend of this event will also feature a gathering of historic vehicles from the 1950s and 1960s. The museum is particularly keen to attract classic bikes and emergency vehicles from this time period to appear on 31st May & 1st June, which should ensure that those who have mourned the demise of the events solely featuring these types of vehicles will still be catered for this year. The overall aim is to try to create a 1950s seaside atmosphere at the village, which will hopefully make for a more impressive event. Anyone with a suitable vehicle who may be interested in exhibiting it at Crich is encouraged to contact the museum via its Facebook page or the website, www.tramway.co.uk.
‘Beside the Seaside’ should also see the museum’s operational Blackpool trams dominate the service output and this could well include at least one new addition to the running fleet. Hopefully any details of planned tram output and any line-ups of non-operational cars will be promoted well in advance to encourage extra visitors. Although the first weekend will unfortunately clash with one of the Blackpool heritage tram running weekends, the remainder of the event could be a great opportunity to encourage Blackpool tram enthusiasts to visit Crich.
In addition to the seaside event, May will also see a week-long celebration of Yorkshire’s steel city, with a new event called ‘The Best of Sheffield’ taking place from 17th to 23rd May inclusive. Apart from the re-launch of Sheffield 510 following a heavy overhaul and some family-orientated Sheffield activities (whatever they might be!), little is known about the nature of this particular event, but again it is hoped that some of the Sheffield trams that are not able to run in passenger service may be extracted from the depots for display.
Further information on all of the events being staged at Crich during 2014 will no doubt be provided in due course, and we hope to provide more details on this website once they are announced.
It might be a good idea in connection with the “Sheffield Steel” event to pick out in whitewash, or otherwise temporarily highlight, the “made in Sheffield” lettering cast onto numerous pointwork components at Crich, sadly no longer including Town End crossover at the focal point of the Museum. A photograph showing 510’s stainless steel bumper strips. together with the track lettering would nicely sum up the event.