It has been announced that two trams have been nominated in the Diesel and Electric Locomotion category at the 2025 Heritage Railway Association Awards. They are amongst 50 projects, people and achievements that have made the final shortlists, with the winners set to be named at a ceremony held in Newcastle on Saturday 8th February 2025.
The Diesel and Electric Locomotion category is where interest for this website is comes from and the four vehicle shortlist contains two tramcars. The first of these is the stunningly restored London County Council 1 which, as readers of these pages will be well aware of, returned to service in 2024 at the Crich Tramway Village after a 10 year and £500,000 restoration for the first time in 1957.
It is joined on the shortlist by Modern Electric Tramways no. 23. This tram was built in 1948-9 by Claude Lane, founder of the Seaton Tramway, and although it was never big enough to join the operations at either Eastbourne or Seaton it has a major part to play in the history of the lines and had been privately owned for many years. It moved to Seaton in 2024 and was put on display at Seaton Station from mid-September until the end of the season.
The two trams will be up against diesel locomotive 20 228 which is based at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway and was restored to service after being repatriated from France. The final vehicle on the list is Tanfield Railway based Fowler 0-6-0DH Ribblesdale Cement.
Other categories to have winners unveiled on the night include Railway of the Year, Steam Locomotive Award, Morgan Award for Rolling Stock, Infrastructure, Achievement of the Year, and Innovation of the Year.