MIDLAND METRO NEWS UPDATE IN PHOTOS A brief photo news update from the Midland Metro system. Included is news on the latest progress with 10 and more from the Wishbone Bridge works in Wolverhampton.
Midland Metro car 10 is nearing its re-entry into traffic. It was spotted outside Wednesbury depot on Friday 26 September bearing its completed Network West Midlands livery. The tram appears, externally at least, to be complete with pantograph fitted, numbers applied in the usual place and nameplates reattached. Car 10 is made up mostly from the damaged sections of cars 09 (rear) and 10 (front) after their collision near All Saints last year. Meanwhile car 05, hit by a fire engine near the Wishbone Bridge in Wolverhampton, is away (possibly in Derby) being straightened out.
The Wishbone Bridge works were completed on schedule for completion by Sunday 28 September. Its peeling paint, the original coating from 1997/8, has been stripped back to bare metal and a new grey coating applied.
A single shuttle bus was in use on Friday, and aspects of the operation are in the series of photos.
* Please note that the September 2008 edition of Tramlines magazine has already been released on the official Midland Metro website, but this edition does not really contain any news of note so it is not featured on these pages. To read it click here.
Source: Graham Sidwell (Editor, Tramfare) & Michael Averill
Midland Metro – Sunday 5th October 2008
10 seen through the fence at the Wednesbury Depot.
Photo: Graham Sidwell (Editor, Tramfare)
The repainted bridge.
Photo: Graham Sidwell (Editor, Tramfare)
Pickup opposite the Wolverhampton St George’s stop outside Bilston Street Police Station. The stop has been cleaned up, the tram tracks cleared out and the point motors serviced, in the hope that two-platform operation can be resumed.
This notice supplemented the printed notices posted all over the Wolverhampton tram stop.
06 is on the crossover and is passed by the outbound shuttle bus service.
The shuttle bus turns across the tracks into Steelhouse Lane to serve The Royal tramstop, to the right of the picture. From there it ran via Sutherland Place, Vicarage Road, Cleveland Road (past the site of the former tram/trolleybus depot), Hospital Street, Bilston Road, Piper’s Row, Tower Street and Market Street to Bilston Street. The trip to The Royal was direct along Bilston Street.
All Photos: Graham Sidwell (Editor, Tramfare)