Manchester 765 to revisit the city centre!

Following on from a high profile event to celebrate its 100th anniversary year, Manchester 765 is set to enjoy another day in the limelight before the year is out. On November 4th, the tram is due to be displayed outside Manchester Town Hall in Albert Square, which will make it the first traditional Manchester tram to appear in the city centre since the closure of the first generation tramway.

765 is currently having its paintwork touched-up in readiness for its next adventure which will see it leave its normal home at the Heaton Park Tramway for a brief period of static display in the heart of the city where it ploughed its trade a century ago. The tram will be on display on 4th November when the Mayor of Manchester will also be in attendance, and members of the public will be invited to board the tram with older visitors encouraged to share their own memories of the city’s original tram system. Unlike the recent appearance of Manchester 173 at Leeds, 765 will not be left on a low loader and instead it will be placed on a short length of temporary track for the duration of the event. It will then be transported back to Heaton Park at the end of the same day, ready to continue its active retirement.

Not only will this special event be a fitting way to conclude the centenary year of this iconic tramcar, but it will also be used as a great way to promote the extension of the Metrolink system which will see trams pass through this location on a more regular basis again in the not too distant future, although naturally they will be nothing like 765! Although it would be impossible for 765 to operate on the Metrolink line, this special appearance next to the Town Hall will surely be the next best thing and to return this tram to the city centre for its 100th birthday celebrations should be another great achievement for the Manchester Transport Museum Society when this takes place next month.

This entry was posted in Heaton Park Tramway. Bookmark the permalink.

7 Responses to Manchester 765 to revisit the city centre!

  1. John Hibbert says:

    At risk of sounding naive, why can’t 765 operate on Metrolink at all? Sheffield horse car 15 managed a short trip on Supertram tracks once.

    • Andrew Waddington says:

      The answer is almost in the question! A horse car is fine, but the voltage used by Metrolink is far too high to run heritage stock on (Blackpool have a much lower voltage incidentally, although it is higher than it used to be and even that caused some problems initially for the heritage cars). There may well be other issues but the main one is that.

    • Freel07 says:

      There are compatibility issues with the overhead. Metrolink’s City Centre overhead has twin contact wires over each line. A trolley will not cope with this. Also with no overhead frogs trolley operation just isn’t possible. Yes a pantograph could possibly be fitted but even that would be no easy task on a clerestory roof.
      Final point would be with most of the City Centre network running at capacity where would they fit a heritage run in?

  2. Gordon Casely says:

    765 has indeed visited the centre of Manchester since the end of first-generation operations. Around 1975, 765 on a low-loader took part in a procession of vintage transport through the city-centre as a precursor to a SELNEC open day at the bus works. The procession was led by an open-top bus on which Glasgow Transport Pipe Band played during the 16-mile journey. I remember the occasion well, for I was a piper in the band, and we had to play “Scotland the Brave” and “Rowan Tree” continuously for almost an hour!

  3. Nigel Pennick says:

    Let’s hope this priceless tram is taken away after its outing and not left unprotected overnight as a target for wannabe Banksys and other vandals.

Comments are closed.