Its another unrepeatable scene for today’s Picture in Time images as we head to the West Midlands for a view of two T69s at Wolverhampton St George’s.
Our photographs were both taken at Wolverhampton St George’s on 23rd February 1999 during the testing and commissioning period of the Midland Metro system and feature two of the T69 fleet. The first image shows 04 and 08 waiting at the two platform faces – of course today trams can only use the platform face closer to the nightclub building as during works in 2014 the track was removed from the roadside platform – in between testing duties. These two trams had both been delivered to Wednesbury during 1998 (04 in June and 08 in August) and by this time were itching to get going with a public service although that was to still be several months away at the time of this photo.
The second photo shows 08 alone at the platform with 04 now having set off back towards Birmingham. 04 was withdrawn from service almost exactly 16 years after this photo was taken with 08 surviving in service until June 2015.