In Pictures: More of Manchester 173

Posted on Thursday 2 January 2014 by Andrew Waddington

Following the welcome move of Manchester 173 to the Heaton Park Tramway on 17th December 2013, we are pleased to feature some more photos showing the tram being moved from its old home at the Greater Manchester Museum of Transport, Boyle Street, to the new Lakeside Depot at the tramway. These images show various stages of the move in progress on this exciting day for the Manchester Transport Museum Society.

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Posted in Heaton Park Tramway | 4 Comments

2013 ends with another T68 withdrawal

Posted on Wednesday 1 January 2014 by Gareth Prior

The last day of 2013 saw the withdrawal of the nineteenth Manchester Metrolink T68 with 1012 becoming the latest example to be taken out of service. The vehicle had last run on Boxing Day when it suffered with a compressor problem and the decision has now been made not to make repairs.

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Posted in Manchester Metrolink | 15 Comments

Crich to scrap London horse tram

Posted on Monday 30 December 2013 by Andrew Waddington

A surprise new arrival at Crich Tramway Village during the final days of 2013 was the unrestored body of a North Metropolitan horse tramcar, which has been housed at the Tramway Museum Society’s Clay Cross store for many years. However, this development is not a good one, and actually marks the end of the road for this tram which is destined to be broken up at the museum, rather than restored. Continue reading →

Posted in National Tramway Museum | 43 Comments

Birkenhead tramway to appear on TV

Posted on Monday 30 December 2013 by Andrew Waddington

The Birkenhead heritage tramway is set to feature prominently in a new TV documentary programme set to be shown on BBC2 on Monday 6th January at 6:30pm, after a filming session a few months ago. The area around Manchester and Birkenhead is the subject of the first episode in a new series of the ‘Great British Railway Journeys’ series, hosted by Michael Portillo, and this will feature the Wirral tramway as well as the region’s railway history.

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Black Country museum tramway closes

Posted on Monday 30 December 2013 by Andrew Waddington

2013 has ended on a very sour note for one of the UK’s heritage tramways, with the shock news just after Christmas that the short operating line at the Black Country Living Museum at Dudley has been closed down indefinitely. This follows a lengthy period of neglect for what is the only narrow gauge tramway in a British museum.

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Posted in Black Country Living Museum | 20 Comments

This week on British Trams Online

Posted on Tuesday 24 December 2013 by Gareth Prior

We bring you another three Photo Galleries on our last update of 2013 plus a summary of all the Christmas services on the UK’s light rail systems:

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Posted in Site News | 5 Comments

Metrolink Second City Crossing work to commence in January

Posted on Monday 23 December 2013 by Gareth Prior

It has been confirmed that initial construction work on the Manchester Metrolink Second City Crossing (2CC) is to start in January 2014. The new line will provide greater capacity for Metrolink through Manchester city centre and will also be very useful at times of disruption.

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Posted in Manchester Metrolink | 23 Comments

Truck overhauls begin and end

Posted on Monday 23 December 2013 by Andrew Waddington

Work to overhaul the bogies of two distinctive semi-enclosed single deck trams in different UK museums is taking place this winter. Whilst work on Manchester 765 gets underway, the similar attention being lavished upon Oporto 273 is now rapidly approaching completion, bringing this car a step closer towards being able to carry passengers again.

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Posted in Heaton Park Tramway, National Tramway Museum | 1 Comment

Crich prepare for Spongebob

Posted on Monday 23 December 2013 by Andrew Waddington

Recent outside work at Crich Tramway Village has been taking place at the tramway’s Glory Mine terminus, which is to be opened up as a proper tram stop where passengers can board and alight next season. Whilst this work is progressing, the opportunity is also being taken to create some extra space for Blackpool 762 to reverse.

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A tale of paint and pantographs at Blackpool

Posted on Sunday 22 December 2013 by Andrew Waddington

Blackpool’s heritage tram fleet are currently confined to the Rigby Road depot due to essential roadworks taking place in the Manchester Square area, meaning that none of these trams are presently able to escape onto the main line. However, two very different cars have been occupying the workshop staff recently, both of which are particularly unique.

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Posted in Blackpool Tramway | 3 Comments

In Pictures: Nottingham Express Transit 209 receives all over advert

Posted on Sunday 22 December 2013 by Gareth Prior

It is becoming incredibly hard to keep up with all the livery changes on Nottingham Express Transit at the moment as 209 has now received advertising vinyls to change its Christmas livery into an all over advert for Interski. The white and blue base colours of its Christmas livery remain but the centre section has received full height vinyls with the two end sections also receiving Interski adverts.

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Posted in Nottingham Express Transit | 2 Comments

NEETT depot gets its walls

Posted on Friday 20 December 2013 by Andrew Waddington

Construction work on the new tram shed at the North East Land, Sea & Air Museum near Sunderland has made incredibly rapid progress during December. As the accompanying photograph clearly shows, the building is now structurally almost complete following a huge effort made to ensure that the trams on site will be able to move inside this winter, and hopefully before the worst of the winter weather kicks in.

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Blow for Blackpool North Station extension?

Posted on Friday 20 December 2013 by Gareth Prior

Earlier this year there was much celebration at the news that Transport for Lancashire were going to release more than £16 million towards extending the Blackpool Tramway to North Station, but it could now turn out that this celebration was premature as the leader of Blackpool Council has thrown doubt over the scheme questioning whether they can afford their £2 million contribution. Continue reading →

Posted in Blackpool Tramway | 28 Comments

In Pictures: Variotrams to New Addington

Posted on Friday 20 December 2013 by Gareth Prior

Since their introduction to the London Tramlink fleet in 2012 the Stadler built Variotrams have been very rare visitors to New Addington, however on Sunday 15th December all that changed with four of the seven Wimbledon-New Addington diagrams being in the hands of the newest trams on the system. This came shortly after the completion of the trackworks which had seen services suspended for over a week on the New Addington branch.

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Posted in London Trams | 3 Comments

In Pictures: NET 208 receives its stripes

Posted on Friday 20 December 2013 by Gareth Prior

No sooner has we speculated that Nottingham Express Transit 208 was about to enter the workshops for its refurbishment than it was seen in service carrying a revised livery. You may remember that this tram has recently been stripped of its advertising vinyls for e-on with 206 taking on this advertising contract but rather than be immediately withdrawn from service 208 has now had a white stripe applied to its body below the windows along with numerous external adverts including several for the Combat Bullying charity.

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Posted in Nottingham Express Transit | 1 Comment

In Pictures: The early liveries of Edinburgh Trams

Posted on Friday 20 December 2013 by Gareth Prior

It seems strange that a system which has yet to open has already had so many different livery styles but that is exactly what has happened in Edinburgh with no fewer than four different liveries carried so far. Starting off with the mock-up which had the then Lothian Buses harlequin inspired livery, then the original batch were in mainly white with a “madder” (there is a fair bit of debate at the moment as to whether it is madder or not but we go along with that for now!) stripe above the windows featuring Edinburgh Trams logos, the white livery with madder stripe without logos and finally the Transport for Edinburgh livery as revealed earlier this week. With thanks to Alasdair McFarlane we take a closer look at the first two liveries.

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Stagecoach Supertram service changes: 13th-26th January 2014

Posted on Friday 20 December 2013 by Gareth Prior

Services between Tinsley/Meadowhall South and Meadowhall Interchange on Stagecoach Supertram will be suspended between Monday 13th and Sunday 26th January due to essential highway works which forms part of the Bus Rapid Transit scheme. A replacement bus service will be provided between the two tram stops at the same frequency as the tram service. Trams will continue to operate as normal on the rest of the Supertram network.

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Dundee tram plan rejected

Posted on Friday 20 December 2013 by Gareth Prior

City leaders in Dundee have rejected plans put forward by consultants to introduce a small tram system in the city. The £20 million scheme would have seen a circular route introduced around the city, similar to the one in San Francisco but the consultants plan has been rejected outright by Councillors saying it was expensive and limited.

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Five for £5 ticket back in Nottingham

Posted on Friday 20 December 2013 by Gareth Prior

The popular Group ticket which allows two adults and up to three children (or just two adults) to unlimited travel on the tram for just £5 is returning for the Christmas holidays. The ticket is available everyday from Monday 23rd December to Friday 3rd January and then every weekend during January.

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Car hits tram in Oldham town centre

Posted on Friday 20 December 2013 by Gareth Prior

It didn’t take long did it? The first collision between a car and a tram on the Oldham town centre extension of Manchester Metrolink has taken place with an incident happened shortly after 1500 on Thursday 19th December. The collision happened on King Street causing traffic delays. The line is due to open to the public on Monday 27th January 2014.

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