Going for a ride…

Posted on Thursday 2 April 2015 by Gareth Prior

It is time once again for our weekly round-up of just when and where you can go for a ride on a heritage tram. This week sees Blackpool, Crich, the East Anglia Transport Museum and the Manx Electric Railway enjoy their first special events of the year whilst you can also enjoy rides at Beamish, Birkenhead, the Great Orme Tramway, Heaton Park, Seaton, Snaefell Mountain Railway and Summerlee.

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Balloon 715 goes back to the ’90s!

Posted on Thursday 2 April 2015 by Andrew Waddington

The Blackpool Heritage Trust have provided a welcome update on progress with the work to return Balloon car 715 to active service for use on heritage tours this year. Although work has slipped slightly behind schedule, work is progressing well, but to ensure the best possible finished job it has been decided not to launch the tram at Easter as was previously hoped. Instead, 715‘s return to service is now expected over the May Day Bank Holiday weekend.

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Posted in Blackpool Tramway | 14 Comments

Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours announce Easter output

Posted on Thursday 2 April 2015 by Andrew Waddington

The provisional output of heritage trams in Blackpool for the four day Easter Bank Holiday weekend has now been revealed, and we are pleased to reproduce this below. A total of twelve different historic trams are scheduled to see use over the long weekend, of which six will be operating in passenger service for the first time this year, offering plenty of variety and interest to all.

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Posted in Blackpool Tramway | 2 Comments

Gateshead 52 moves in

Posted on Wednesday 1 April 2015 by Andrew Waddington

Monday 22nd March was an important day in the life of one of the most unfortunate preserved trams in the country – Gateshead 52. Since being moved from the National Tramway Museum store at Clay Cross to a new home at Beamish Museum in January 2014, the tram had been stored outside near the period Town area but on this day it was finally moved undercover for the first time since returning to the North East.

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Volunteers keep heritage tram tours running

Posted on Wednesday 1 April 2015 by Andrew Waddington

“Staff shortage” – probably the two most dreaded words to impact upon the Blackpool tramway in the last couple of years. Understandably, whenever these two words rear their collective ugly head, the heritage tours have often suffered as Blackpool Transport quite rightly focus their resources on providing a good quality of service to its core customers who use their trams and buses as a means of transportation. Sadly, just a few days into the 2015 operating season, the heritage service has already been affected although on the plus side tours have still run on every day it was advertised to do so.

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Posted in Blackpool Tramway | 15 Comments

Passengers remain satisfied with the UK’s tramways

Posted on Wednesday 1 April 2015 by Gareth Prior

Transport Focus – formerly Passenger Focus – carried out the second annual Tram Passenger Survey in Autumn 2015 and the results have recently been released showing that 90% of those questioned remain satisfied with the overall tram service with passengers travelling on Nottingham Express Transit the most satisfied (96%) and passengers on Manchester Metrolink the least satisfied (85%). The survey excludes London Tramlink.

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Posted in Blackpool Tramway, Edinburgh Trams, Manchester Metrolink, Nottingham Express Transit, South Yorkshire Supertram, West Midlands Metro | 4 Comments

Picture in Time: Gateshead 5

Posted on Tuesday 31 March 2015 by Gareth Prior

Today “Picture in Time” heads back to Crich and we feature a tram which is currently withdrawn from service. That tram is Gateshead 5.

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Posted in National Tramway Museum, Picture in Time | 1 Comment

In Pictures: Glasgow 488 restoration continues

Posted on Tuesday 31 March 2015 by Gareth Prior

Another restoration which we don’t feature too often on these pages is that of Glasgow 488 which is currently undergoing extensive work at the Boston Lodge workshops of the Ffestiniog Railway. Recent progress has seen work coming to an end on the lower deck with attention soon to be turned towards the upper deck.

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Midland Metro services return to Wolverhampton

Posted on Tuesday 31 March 2015 by Gareth Prior

Friday 5th September. That was the last time that Midland Metro ran services through to Wolverhampton St George’s. But now almost seven months later trams are finally once again running the complete length of the tramway following the completion of the severely delayed rail replacement works. Earlier this year Centro promised that services would resume to St George’s in March and they were right, but only just as it was Tuesday 31st March!

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Posted in West Midlands Metro | 3 Comments

In Pictures: Manchester Metrolink 3097 arrives

Posted on Tuesday 31 March 2015 by Gareth Prior

As we reported at the weekend the 97th M5000 for Manchester Metrolink was delivered to Queen’s Road Depot on Saturday 28th March. 3097 arrived on the back of a low loader around midday having made the trip from mainland Europe via ferry to Hull. Photo courtesy of Benjamin Worsley.

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Posted in Manchester Metrolink | 1 Comment

In Pictures: Croydon Town Centre Easter blockade starts

Posted on Tuesday 31 March 2015 by Gareth Prior

On Saturday 28th March a 16 day blockade of the Croydon loop started with no trams running between Reeves Corner and East Croydon (with the closure extended through to Sandilands over the Easter weekend). Although the main purpose of the closure is for Croydon Council environmental improvement works to take place Tramlink are also taking the opportunity for some track relaying (with works on Tamworth Road having started) and infrastructure works at West Croydon and East Croydon stops. Photos courtesy of Ian Buck.

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In Pictures: Stagecoach Supertram 2015 rail replacement works commence

Posted on Tuesday 31 March 2015 by Gareth Prior

The 2015 programme of rail replacement works on Stagecoach Supertram commenced on Saturday 28th March. The first phase of works this year – known as Area 5 – is on the stretch between Infirmary Road and Hillsborough with the first section of track to be dealt with being that on the inbound line alongside Hillsborough tramstop and up to the entrance to Hillsborough Interchange. Photos from Stuart Cooke.

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In Pictures: A new season at Crich

Posted on Monday 30 March 2015 by Gareth Prior

As we reported at the weekend the 2015 season at the Crich Tramway Village kicked off on a damp Saturday 28th March with Blackpool Brush 630 operating the first service. This first day also saw fellow Blackpool car Standard 40 and Leeds 345 in action along with the access tram Berlin 223 006-4. And now, with thanks to Hazel Quarmby, we are delighted to be able to bring you some images from that first day.

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Posted in National Tramway Museum | 5 Comments

In Pictures: A soggy spring gala at Heaton Park

Posted on Monday 30 March 2015 by Andrew Waddington

The Heaton Park Tramway’s almost annual Spring Gala has not had the best of luck with weather in the last few years – and so it was that the 2015 event on Sunday 29th March was marred by miserable conditions, with heavy rain for much of the day. Unsurprisingly this had a negative impact on attendance numbers, but even so the volunteers at the tramway did their best to put on a good show for those who did brave the elements.

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More early season debuts in Blackpool

Posted on Monday 30 March 2015 by Andrew Waddington

The second day of Blackpool’s heritage tram service for 2015, Sunday 29th March, saw two more trams making their public debuts for the year. For the second day running the weather was extremely poor for much of the day, with the sun only coming out late in the afternoon, but that did not prevent two different trams running – the chosen pair being Twin set 272+T2 and Centenary car 648.

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Posted in Blackpool Tramway | 5 Comments

This week on British Trams Online

Posted on Sunday 29 March 2015 by Gareth Prior

This week we bring you a further two Photo Galleries again from some of the more modern systems operating in the UK:

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Posted in Site News | 3 Comments

Brush cars start off the season at Blackpool and Crich

Posted on Saturday 28 March 2015 by Andrew Waddington

Saturday 28th March saw the 2015 season get underway for arguably the two main operators of traditional British trams – Blackpool and Crich. Appropriately, two consecutively numbered Brush Railcoaches were selected for service at the two locations on this day, with Blackpool 630 performing the first public run of 2015 at Crich, whilst its sister car 631 was one of two heritage trams operating in Blackpool.

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Posted in Blackpool Tramway, National Tramway Museum | 2 Comments

Metrolink welcome M5000 3097 as 3096 enters service

Posted on Saturday 28 March 2015 by Gareth Prior

The last couple of days has seen further movement on the Manchester Metrolink M5000 front with the latest arrival touching Metrolink metals for the first time with the previous arrival carrying passengers for the first time. The vehicles involved this time are 3097 (arriving) and 3096 (entering service).

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Picture in Time: Blackpool Balloon 707

Posted on Saturday 28 March 2015 by Gareth Prior

On the day that heritage tram operations return to Blackpool for another season we head to the north west coast for our latest edition of “Picture in Time”. This time the date is 31st August 1993 and we feature Blackpool Balloon 707 at a time when it was carrying an all over advert for Pontin’s.

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Lytham 43 takes shape

Posted on Friday 27 March 2015 by Andrew Waddington

It has been a while since we provided an update on the restoration of the last surviving Lytham St Annes tramcar, so to rectify that here is some news on how the project has been progressing – although really it is the accompanying pictures that best illustrate the incredible progress that has been made so far this year.

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Posted in Lytham 43 | 1 Comment