The Heaton Park Tramway will be celebrating the 125th anniversary of the opening of Stockport’s electric tram network with a special event on Sunday 30th August 2026.
Heaton Park is the home of the only surviving electric Stockport tram, open-topper 5, and so it seems appropriate that they will be the centre of these celebrations. It was 26th August 1901 that the first electric trams ran in Stockport, and one of those first trams was 5 which was built for the opening of the network.
By the time they stopped running in August 1951 it was the last remaining traditional tram operation in Greater Manchester and it would be almost 30 years before a traditional tram ran in the region again with the opening of the Heaton Park Tramway!
On Sunday 30th August 2026 5 will be on display at Middleton Road tram museum and it will be joined by a display of Stockport buses (from the Greater Manchester Transport Society). The buses will include one of those introduced to replace the trams in 1951.
There will be vintage buses linking the tramway and the Greater Manchester Museum of Transport, and its also hoped that there may be a number of vintage bus tours running from Heaton Park during the day.
If you like your trams in miniature then you will also be in luck as here will be a full lineup of model Stockport trams courtesy of Ashley Best and Greg Marsden.
There will be a number of exhibits from Heaton Park’s own archives as well as historic images of the trams in service over half a century.
The event takes place on Sunday 30th August between 1100 and 1630.
The operating tramway at Heaton Park remains closed with work still required to complete repairs on the substation. It probably doesn’t need saying but as soon as there is news on that it will be reported on the tramway’s official online sources as well as these pages!
In preparation for the event Stockport 5 was moved from Lakeside Depot to the Middleton Road museum (it swapped places with Hull 96). Its seen here pausing on its way at Whitegate.
Getting a wash outside Middleton Road before being moved inside once again.
In order to move Stockport 5, the top deck of Bury 7 had to be moved. In this photo we see it sitting on its accommodation trolley. Plans are afoot for 7 to be displayed from next year. (All Photographs courtesy of Heaton Park Tramway, 12th August 2026)