The National Tramway Museum may now be open for the 2026 season with its first operating day of the year being earlier today (Saturday 14th March), but shortly before the doors were flung open to the public there was a shunt of trams around the Great Exhibition Hall as shown in these pictures courtesy of Peter Whiteley.
The main purpose of the shunt was to provide more space around Leeds 602 to improve access to this tram, and this necessitated some trams to be temporarily moved out the way. Some trams which haven’t seen the light of day for some time. The result was that Glasgow 1282 was moved into the depot, Blackpool 49 was moved into the Great Exhibition Hall alongside Blackpool 249 and Sheffield 264 remained in the Great Exhibition Hall but on a different track.
With thanks to Peter Whiteley for information contained in this article.
Sheffield 264 is pulled out of the Great Exhibition Hall and goes for a ride on the traverser.
On-board 264 looking at the 2+1 seating of the lower deck.
Horse operated vehicles bask in the sun briefly in the depot yard. Closest to us is the Manchester Horse Drawn Tower Wagon with Sheffield 15 in front of that, then its the Eades Reversible truck and finally Chesterfield 8.
Leeds Tower Wagon 2 and Leicester 76 were also taken out of the Exhibition Hall, with the tower wagon temporarily put into a rarely used siding by the depots.
More shunting and we see Johannesburg 60 (due to enter the workshops later this year for an overhaul), London United Tramways 159 and Glasgow 22 enjoying some late winter sunshine.
After all the shunting had taken place Blackpool 49 had a new home alongside fellow Blackpool tram 249. It may be hard to believe but only nine years separate these two trams yet their designs represent two different eras.
A look at Southampton 45 and Blackpool 4 inside the Great Exhibition Hall.
Meanwhile, in the Workshop was Blackpool & Fleetwood 40 which is undergoing commissioning ahead of the 2026 season. (All Photographs by Peter Whiteley, 11th March 2026)
I would have liked to have seen this and thank you for publishing the photographs and to Peter Whiteley for taking them. The views of Sheffield 264 in particular are stunning and I don’t think I’ve seen this car out of doors since the 1970s. I have memories of riding on 264 on at least two occasions (around 1974/76) and it made quite an impression on me. In 1974 I actually recorded it on cassette in the lower saloon, along with similar rides on Gljasgow 812, 1115 and 1297. I may still have the cassettes but I don’t know what condition they’d be in by now.
Those photographs bring the memories back. I still think.that Sheffield 264 may be my personal favourite tramcar in the Crich collection with a splendid combination of functional elegance rounded off by a tasteful imprint of bright and cheerful modernity,at once vintage yet strangely timeless. It looks the kind of tram that would be efficient in service and attractive to.oassengers, and somehow relatable to.those of us who.don’t remember trams in British cities butcan still visuaklise somethi.gI like this running down our main roads and taking us into town. If I was dreaming of a parallel universe in which I had trams of my own,, a lot of them would h e looked like this!
I think I recently read that Sheffield 264 was not originally intended to go to Crich but (sort of) turned up there and stayed to become the only example of its once numerous type to survive. One of th8e very finest of Crich’s many treasures, in my opinion and a splendid survivor of what appears to have been one of the finest tramway systems.