Sunderland 16 has become the latest member of the Beamish tram fleet to receive external advertisements for Binns, featuring the famous ‘Shop at Binns’ slogan on the upper deck end panels. This famous advertisement was once carried by the entire Sunderland tram fleet, and so its application to preserved car 16 is highly appropriate.
The familiar advertising slogan has been carefully hand-painted on each end of Sunderland 16, with a plain white background used to create a very striking advertisement which will ensure that this tram looks very different when it returns to service. Some further remedial work on the car’s external paintwork is also taking place, including attention to the fleet numbers and lining out, whilst revised between-deck adverts are also being added to the body sides. When it was restored to service, this tram was never properly varnished which has resulted in a rather dull appearance to its attractive maroon and cream livery, although a fresh coat of varnish should brighten it up considerably.
Sunderland 16 duly becomes the fifth different tram to operate at Beamish Museum carrying Binns adverts, following on from Gateshead 10 (prior to repainting in Grimsby & Immingham green livery), Sheffield 264 (when initially outshopped as an open topper in Gateshead colours, before reconstruction of its top deck), Blackpool 703/Sunderland 101, and most recently Oporto 196 following its latest repaint in South Shields blue and yellow livery. The tram’s wheelsets are currently being worked on at Blackpool, but hopefully 16 will soon be back in service following a fairly long absence so that its amended appearance can be fully admired and appreciated.
A sneak preview of Sunderland 16's newly painted adverts, seen in the tram depot at Beamish where the tram is residing whilst its truck is under attention. (Photo courtesy of the Beamish Transport & Industry Blog)
Takes me back 70 years.
Just a small query – should there be an apostrophe after the name Binns? Looking at photos of Sunderland trams in books and on Google Images, it seems that there was no apostrophe originally. Can someone local enlighten me?
Yes, the apostrophe is surplus to requirements. The inappropriate use of the apostrophe is a common mistake nowadays. Go into any butcher’s shop and you may well see advertised – chicken liver’s or pork chop’s !
Our local bakery advertises ham sandwiche’s and bread roll’s!
This sadly (in my opinion) resulted from the move away from the rigours of the education system from the mid 1960’s onwards.
Hello Geoff, I’m not an expert but this link will take you to a couple of apostrophes (unless it’s my PC) – lots of different fonts too; it looks to me as though the apostrophe was dropped later on in the 30s and 40s. http://www.sunderland-antiquarians.org/assets/Uploads/Transport/TSTG01.html
The following rules apply…
1. For singular names, the apostrophe + ‘s’ is used to denote possession – as correctly demonstrated by Sainsbury’s and McDonald’s.
2. For plural names or singular names ending in ‘s’ , the apostrophe only is used to denote possession – as correctly demonstrated by Binns’.
3. Ignore 1 and 2. It is now quite common to say, for example, Dickens’s novels or Prince Charles’s plants. St. Thomas’ Hospital, however, remains true! It is not hard to see why Binns’ dropped their apostrophe at some point!