The chances are that if you think of a Lisbon tram in the UK your mind immediately heads to the Wirral where fully restored Lisbon 730 can be found operating on the Heritage Tramway there (when that is possible, of course). But there are also a number of other Lisbon cars dotted around the UK, one of which has recently been on the move to Lincolnshire – the tram in question is no. 711 which has been stored for a number of years at Walton-on-the-Naze in Essex but will now call the Crowle Peatland Railway in North Lincolnshire its home.
The background of what led 711 to end up in the UK isn’t known (unless someone can enlighten us) but it has been in Walton-on-the-Naze with several other trams from the Portuguese city since at least 2015. Built in 1936 the tram is the traditional type of Lisbon tram and still carries advertising for AGFA Film on top of the more recognisable yellow colours of Companhia Carris de Ferro de Lisboa.
The Crowle Peatland Railway announced in April that they had acquired the tram with the intention of using it as hauled stock on their railway and it was moved from Essex to North Lincolnshire earlier this month. The railway got funding through the SSE Keadby Wind Farm Fund to purchase the tram and intend to try and keep the interior of the tram as authentic as possible when they go about restoring it to passenger condition in the future. The plan is that it will be hauled on their short-running line by one of their Schoma locomotives.
* Details of the Crowle Peatland Railway can be found on their Facebook page.