Crich Event Preview: The Best of Sheffield

Posted on Thursday 8 May 2014 by Andrew Waddington

For one week during May, Crich Tramway Village is hosting a celebration of all things Sheffield to co-incide with the return to service of Sheffield 510 after a major overhaul and repaint in its special ‘Last Tram’ livery. As well as the trams themselves, this special event will feature other historic vehicles, food and drink and much more from the famous ‘steel city’. Read on for a full preview of what to expect from this event.

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Posted in Event Previews, National Tramway Museum | 8 Comments

Blackpool Balloon 701 enters the works

Posted on Thursday 8 May 2014 by Andrew Waddington

Pleasing news to report is that Blackpool Balloon car 701 has finally entered the Rigby Road workshops in preparation for a full repaint in the popular red and white livery it carried between 1991 and 1993, immediately following its last major overhaul. This work is being generously funded by the Fylde Tramway Society following an appeal for donations towards the cost of repainting this popular tram in its most famous livery from the past.

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Another Crich tram to rise from the dead

Posted on Thursday 8 May 2014 by Andrew Waddington

Fresh from the news that Blackpool & Fleetwood 2, Southampton 45 and Oporto 273 have all rejoined the operating fleet at Crich Tramway Village for the 2014 season, comes another surprise comeback for a once regular workhorse at this museum. Sheffield 330 was a member of the works car fleet for many years but following the restoration of Cardiff 131, it was replaced in its role as the main railgrinder/water car and the car has been largely inactive since, apart from the 2012 season due its replacement being at Blackpool for part of the year.

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Posted in National Tramway Museum | 5 Comments

A mini Tramathon for Crich

Posted on Monday 5 May 2014 by Andrew Waddington

Despite not hosting a special event for the May Day Bank Holiday weekend, Sunday 4th and Monday 5th May saw a bumper tram service at Crich Tramway Village, with a very impressive total of eleven different trams used over these two days. Sunday was a particularly good day with seven cars operating, including Oporto 273 for the first time since 2010!

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In Pictures: NET Incentro 209 loses its all over advert

Posted on Monday 5 May 2014 by Gareth Prior

The adverts for Interski carried on Nottingham Express Transit’s Incentro 209 have now been removed and the tram is once again operating in the white and pale blue base colours. The tram only received the adverts in mid-December having previously carried a Christmas based livery from November (complete with snowflakes!). 209 is now running with adverts of the centre car for the Milk Race which takes place on Sunday 25 May.

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This week on British Trams Online…

Posted on Monday 5 May 2014 by Gareth Prior

This week we bring you four more Photo Galleries alongside all of our usual updates:

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In Pictures: Edinburgh Trams 275

Posted on Sunday 4 May 2014 by Gareth Prior

As mentioned in our report last on the opening date for Edinburgh Trams, CAF built 275 has had vinyls applied advertising the start date of 31st May. The tram will carry these – which include details of a hashtag they want people to use on Twitter: #readytoroll – at least up until the opening of the line. With thanks to Alasdair McFarlane we are able to bring you an image of the tram on test at Gyle tramstop.

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Two more M5000s enter service

Posted on Sunday 4 May 2014 by Gareth Prior

The latest two M5000s to be delivered to Manchester Metrolink have now entered service with 3081 and 3082 both joining the non-ATS/VRS fitted fleet over the past few days. 3081 operated its first passenger services on 29th April being quickly followed into use by 3082 on 2nd May, both running on the Eccles to Ashton-under-Lyne service. With these two LRVs having now carried passengers it means there have been 113 different vehicles to have carried passengers on Manchester Metrolink (the 26 T68s, 6 T68As and 81 M5000s). The only M5000 in Manchester not yet to have entered service now is 3062 which has been undergoing rebuilding in the Trafford Depot workshops over the past few weeks and has now been spotted in the depot yard powered up although it is not thought it has undergone any test runs as yet.

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Midland Metro suffers with delays

Posted on Sunday 4 May 2014 by Gareth Prior

Most days during the past week have seen delays on Midland Metro mainly caused by tram availability with several vehicles receiving workshop attention at the moment. 14 is currently in the workshops undergoing wheel repair work whilst 08 has also not been seen for a while so is presumed to also be under attention. Coupled to this is the fact that 04 is on limited operations (it normally operates one journey a day and seems unable to work to Wolverhampton) and 05 has just returned to service after it was fitted with a set of new wheels at the Birmingham end only.

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Posted in West Midlands Metro | 4 Comments

In Pictures: 674+684 move in to NEETT’s new depot

Posted on Sunday 4 May 2014 by Andrew Waddington

A very productive weekend for the North Eastern Electrical Traction Trust has seen Blackpool trams Centenary 647 and Twin set 674+684 moved into the new storage shed at the North East Land, Sea & Air Museum near Sunderland, ending their period of outside storage. Following on from our report on 647‘s move into the building, we can now report that the Twin car has joined it and here are some pictures showing it being moved inside.

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In Pictures: Manchester Metrolink T68As – the last day

Posted on Sunday 4 May 2014 by Gareth Prior

As reported previously on British Trams Online the last day of operation for the two remaining Manchester Metrolink T68As was on Wednesday 30th April when 2001 and 2003 were allocated to running on the Bury-Abraham Moss shuttle. 2001 departed Bury at 1951 with the penultimate departure before 2003 followed with the final service to Abraham Moss leaving rather appropriately at 2003 with the tannoy playing “I Did it My Way” by Frank Sinatra ahead of departure! We can now bring you a few images from the last day ahead of a full “Farewell” gallery to follow in the next few weeks.

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Win a chance to drive a Citadis tram!

Posted on Sunday 4 May 2014 by Gareth Prior

With the first daytime test runs of the new Alstom Citadis trams taking place over the past week in Nottingham city centre, Nottingham Express Transit are offering one lucky person and a guest the chance to drive one within the confines of Wilkinson Street Depot. All you have to do to win the chance is to take a photo of one and forward it to Nottingham Express Transit.

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Elmers End and Beckenham Junction Tramlink services to be disrupted by bridge works

Posted on Sunday 4 May 2014 by Gareth Prior

London Tramlink services to Elmers End and Beckenham Junction will be suspended between Saturday 24th May and Sunday 1st June to allow for the replacement of the road bridge at Spring Lane, Woodside. During this period trams from Therapia Lane and West Croydon will terminate at Addiscombe with a replacement bus service being provided between Beckenham Junction and East Croydon calling as close as possible to most trams stops. Trams on Line 1 between Wimbledon and New Addington will be unaffected and will be able to operate a normal service.

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Manchester Metrolink Performance Update

Posted on Sunday 4 May 2014 by Gareth Prior

The latest statistics from Manchester Metrolink have been released giving details on the performance of the service, any major incidents, trams out of service and the number of complaints received. The latest document concentrates on periods 11 (Monday 3rd February-Sunday 2nd March) and 12 (Monday 3rd March-Sunday 30th March) and a summary of this is provided below.

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In Pictures: Blackpool Bank Holiday preparations

Posted on Saturday 3 May 2014 by Andrew Waddington

The sight of heritage tramcars on Blackpool’s New South promenade has become an increasingly common one of late, with many of the town’s remaining historic trams being temporarily based at Starr Gate depot due to ongoing issues with the traffic junction at Manchester Square which is being controlled by temporary traffic lights. A major shunting exercise took place on Friday 2nd May in preparation for the May Day Bank Holiday weekend’s heritage tram service, and we have some photos from this activity thanks to Chris Callan.

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Preserved Centenary car goes undercover

Posted on Saturday 3 May 2014 by Andrew Waddington

On Saturday 3rd May, the North Eastern Electrical Traction Trust made a huge leap forwards, with the first of its collection of historic Blackpool trams being moved undercover. The honour of being the first tram to be stabled inside the new depot at the North East Land, Sea & Air Museum at Washington, near Sunderland, went to Centenary car 647 which was swiftly followed by Trailer car 684.

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Heritage Trams this week…

Posted on Friday 2 May 2014 by Gareth Prior

This is your one stop guide to when and where you can ride on heritage trams in the UK and Isle of Man. This weekend sees the next bout of heritage tram operation in Blackpool with a two days of fun on Sunday 4th and Monday 5th May whilst most of the rest of our heritage tramways are in operation with the Douglas Horse Tramway now only 10 days away from their first operations of the year.

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Another makeover planned for Blackpool 290

Posted on Friday 2 May 2014 by Andrew Waddington

The Fleetwood Heritage Leisure Trust have recently given their official website a welcome refresh, with updated profiles on all of the trams in their collection, including their most recent acquisition – Blackpool Centenary car 643. This includes the news that Brush Railcoach 290 (ex-627) is set to be repainted yet again in the near future, with its graffiti art set to disappear under a fresh coat of green and cream paint.

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Posted in Fleetwood Heritage Leisure Trust | 7 Comments

A message of thanks from Andrew

Posted on Friday 2 May 2014 by Andrew Waddington

Many readers of British Trams Online will no doubt be aware by now of the new book, ‘Blackpool Trams – Where Are They Now?’ which is written and produced by your writer, Andrew Waddington. I wanted to use the platform of this website, to provide an update on how things are going with the book, and also to thank everyone who has supported me with the publication so far.

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Edinburgh Trams to launch Saturday 31st May 2014

Posted on Friday 2 May 2014 by Gareth Prior

In a week of significant news stories the lot may well just have been trumped by the confirmation from Edinburgh that the first passenger journeys on their new tram system will be on Saturday 31st May 2014. The first departures will be at 0500 and will be the culmination of all the hard work, disruption and controversy since construction begun in 2007.

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Posted in Edinburgh Trams | 14 Comments