Over the May Day Bank Holiday weekend the Ffestiniog Railway opened the doors to the Boston Lodge workshops as part of their gala and this gave members of the public a chance to see how far the restoration of Glasgow 488 has progressed. Of course as you will probably remember 488 has been repatriated from Paris and is to undergone a full restoration at Boston Lodge before the tram is moved to the East Anglia Transport Museum.
488 was transported back from France in two halves and it remains in this state with work underway on the lower deck in the workshops and the upper deck being stored out the back of the workshop under tarpaulins. Once both decks of the tram have been restored it is planned that they may be joined together within the carriage shop as there should “just about” be enough headroom to make sure everything is as it should be. Unfortunately the doors are not high enough and so they will have to be separated again to be taken out! It is not clear whether they would be reassembled as one before transport to Carlton Colville or whether transportation will be in two parts again.
A small display has been put together at one end of the lower deck and one of the restorers was available to answer questions on the project. There was evidence of how badly decayed parts of the car had become but it was also apparent in viewing the tram how much progress had been made in restoring the lower deck. Judging by other projects which have been completed at Boston Lodge (including the Pickering coaches for the Welshpool and Llanfair Railway and the Met coach) 488 will certainly be a sight to behold when it is completed, which is planned to be sometime in 2015.
* You can find out everything you want to know (and probably lots you didn’t know you wanted to know!) about the Glasgow 488 project at their dedicated website – http://www.488.cyberpictures.net/.
With thanks to David Mee for the photos and information contained in this article
The lower deck of 488 in the Boston Lodge workshops.
Progress on the bodywork is clearly seen here.
A display was available at one end of the tram to give visitors information about the planned restoration.
The upper deck remains outside the workshop under tarpaulins. (All Photos: David Mee)