In Pictures: New advert for Supertram 111

Posted on Friday 27 April 2018 by Gareth Prior

The IKEA tram is no more in Sheffield with 111 receiving a new vinyl wrap livery for Pretty Little Thing.com – who are apparently a fashion company. The tram ran for the first time in its new pastel pink livery earlier this week with the fairly simple advert featuring unicorns over both the bodyside and windows. Photos from Stuart Cooke.

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Douglas Bay Horse Tramway operating loss given as neared to £200k after all

Posted on Friday 27 April 2018 by Gareth Prior

Earlier in the week we reported on the £500,000 loss made by the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway but after further discussions in the local media – along with comments on the news story – it has now been confirmed that the operating loss was in fact £206,612. The discrepancies in figures is down to the amount of investment which had to go in to purchasing various items from Douglas Borough Council, previous owners and operators of the tramway.

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In Pictures: Heaton Park Tramway in April

Posted on Thursday 26 April 2018 by Gareth Prior

With the Festival of Model Tramways taking place at the nearby Greater Manchester Museum of Transport the Heaton Park Tramway operated an enhanced service over the weekend of 21st and 22nd April to cater for extra visitors. In this pictorial we take a look at a few views of the trams in service. Photographs by Kevin Saltmarsh.

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Picture in Time: Leeds 501

Posted on Thursday 26 April 2018 by Gareth Prior

We have fascinating view of how trams were moved by road in days gone by as we take another look into the archives in Picture in Time.

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More events confirmed in Blackpool

Posted on Thursday 26 April 2018 by Andrew Waddington

As if enhanced ‘Gold’ operating weekends nearly every month from Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours weren’t enough to keep fans of the classic Blackpool tram fleet happy, details have just been announced of two additional events happening in the next few weeks. These are an expanded day of the heritage promenade service on 28th & 29th April, and a special tour with Fleetwood Box 40 and Brush Railcoach 630 on Saturday 19th May.

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In Pictures: Attercliffe track replacement work

Posted on Wednesday 25 April 2018 by Gareth Prior

As well as the Tram-Train overhead work during the period 20th to 22nd April the chance was also taken to replace a short section of track at Attercliffe which saw an extended bus replacement service operate from the city centre along the Yellow route to Meadowhall. In these photos we take a look at the work courtesy of Mike Haddon and Martin Miller.

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In Pictures: Overhead damage in Blackpool

Posted on Wednesday 25 April 2018 by Gareth Prior

As we reported at the weekend Saturday 21st April saw major damage to the overhead between Bispham and Little Bispham following an attempted theft of the wires overnight. With no trams able to run any further north than Bispham for most of the day – it wasn’t until 4pm that normal services were able to resume – this not only had an effect on the normal service but also the Friends of 40 tour using Standard 147 which was curtailed with participants being transported by bus to reach their meal at the North Euston Hotel in Fleetwood.

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Summer Hill Stables purchased by Isle of Man Government

Posted on Tuesday 24 April 2018 by Gareth Prior

One of many ongoing sagas on the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway is now seemingly resolved with the news that the Department of Infrastructure have purchased Summer Hill Stables from Douglas Borough Council and they will now be retained for their original purpose. The stables have cost £600,000 to purchase and will now allow previous plans for a temporary structure on the old Summerland complex to be abandoned which should make it more attractive for future investors.

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In Pictures: Key Tram-Train construction milestone reached

Posted on Tuesday 24 April 2018 by Gareth Prior

A major milestone in the construction work required for Tram-Train services to start later this year was reached over the weekend with overhead wires now in place connecting the current South Yorkshire Supertram system with Network Rail metals at Tinsley Junction. Supertram services were suspended from Friday 20th April until Sunday 22nd April to allow the work – and rail replacement work at Attercliffe – which was actually a day shorter than planned with all the work taking less time than expected – its nice to report on engineering work being finished early!

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Around the World in Trams: Krakow 402+403

Posted on Tuesday 24 April 2018 by Gareth Prior

Poland is the latest stop on our around the world trip as we take a look at a couple of trams running in Krakow.

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Inside…Blackpool Balloon 717

Posted on Monday 23 April 2018 by Gareth Prior

The majority of photos we include on this website feature the exterior of trams but in this article we take a look at the interior of Blackpool Balloon 717, a popular member of the heritage fleet on its home town tramway. Gavin Lindsay provides us with the pictures. Continue reading →

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Horse trams post loss of almost £500k in 2017

Posted on Sunday 22 April 2018 by Gareth Prior

Isle of Man Today have this week reported that the Douglas Bay Horse Tramway posted losses of £483,299 in 2017 according to figures released after a Freedom of Information request. The large increase in operating costs for 2017 in comparison to previous years is said to be the result of the government purchasing various assets from Douglas Borough Council.

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This week on British Trams Online

Posted on Sunday 22 April 2018 by Gareth Prior

We head into the archives for this week’s photos:

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Railcoach 279 restoration to restart this year?

Posted on Saturday 21 April 2018 by Andrew Waddington

The Fylde Transport Trust (the new name for the Lancastrian Transport Trust) have recently been teasing some potentially interesting plans for its tramcar collection on their Facebook page. Although transferred to Rigby Road under the care of Blackpool Transport’s Heritage Tram Tours, many trams remain in the Trust’s ownership – and one vehicle which they have exciting plans for, is English Electric Railcoach 279.

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Overhead problems causes service suspension in Blackpool

Posted on Saturday 21 April 2018 by Gareth Prior

An unseasonly warm and sunny April Saturday should equal lots of visitors to the seaside and for Blackpool that should hopefully mean higher passenger numbers than usual. Unfortunately on Saturday 21st April anyone wishing to travel for much of the day north of Bispham were left disappointed after overnight damage was caused to overhead between Bispham and Little Bispham.

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Picture in Time: Blackpool Jubilee 761

Posted on Saturday 21 April 2018 by Gareth Prior

Picture in Time is back in Blackpool for this instalment as we take a look at one of the many adverts to adorn Jubilee 761.

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Power outage causes Metrolink disruption

Posted on Saturday 21 April 2018 by Gareth Prior

On Wednesday 18th April there were some changes to Manchester Metrolink services after a non-tram power supply outage affecting the area around Victoria station. The Electricity North West power cut saw services during the morning rush hour affected with Metrolink apologising for the inconvenience caused to passengers.

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T69s start to head for scrap

Posted on Saturday 21 April 2018 by Gareth Prior

We’ve known it was happening since the results of the e-auction were announced earlier this year but the movement of the ex-Midland Metro T69s for scrap has started. 13 of the 16 strong class of trams have been sold to Booths of Rotherham – who also won the contract to scrap the Manchester Metrolink T68s and T68As – and will now be moved from their storage location of Long Marston for this work to take place.

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Halle 902 to move to Blackpool!

Posted on Friday 20 April 2018 by Andrew Waddington

In one of the more bizarre news stories of the recent past, it has been announced that Halle 902 is set to move from Crich Tramway Village to Blackpool, for storage and occasional display at Rigby Road. The move is primarily to free up depot space at Crich, in order to assist with future projects and vehicle display.

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In Pictures: Batteries fully charged – 18 enters service!

Posted on Friday 20 April 2018 by Gareth Prior

Friday 20th April was a momentous day on Midland Metro as the very first battery operated tram ran in passenger service following the successful completion of testing and driver training. 18 was used in passenger service throughout the day and for part of each journey on the current line it is planned to operate it by its batteries, even though all the line is powered for overhead.

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