Snaefell Mountain Railway starts season

Posted on Sunday 5 May 2013 by Gareth Prior

The Snaefell Mountain Railway has finally started running in 2013 after its original opening was delayed because of damage caused by spring snowfall. The first passenger journeys were run on Saturday 4 May with a half hourly service operating over the Bank Holiday weekend before reverting to an hourly service for most of the rest of May.

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Croydon tram leaves two stops with doors open

Posted on Sunday 5 May 2013 by Gareth Prior

The Rail Accident Investigation Branch have launched an investigation after a tram in Croydon managed to depart two consecutive stops with all four doors on one side open. The incident happened on 13 April when the tram – believed to be a CR4000 – was operating a service to Beckenham Junction.

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Bridge set to be moved to final position over Nottingham Railway Station

Posted on Sunday 5 May 2013 by Gareth Prior

Work has now started on moving part of the Karlsruhe Friendship Bridge into its final resting place over Nottingham Railway Station following the completion of the second 52 metre section of the main structure. The entire iconic bridge will be pushed across the live railway until it reaches its final resting position over the platform buildings and canopies.

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Oldham & Rochdale town centre Metrolink extensions continue to progress

Posted on Sunday 5 May 2013 by Gareth Prior

Major works have been finished on the Manchester Street roundabout in Oldham as progress on the town centre extension of Manchester Metrolink continues ahead of its planned opening in 2014. The area has now been completely remodelled and will allow trams and general traffic to flow through the roundabout.

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Broken down tram causes Metrolink delays

Posted on Sunday 5 May 2013 by Gareth Prior

Services in Manchester city centre were suspended for half an hour on Thursday 1 May after a tram failed at Deansgate-Castlefield. Engineers were called to the scene to repair the errant tram and it was on the move again after 30 minutes but not before a backlog of trams had started to appear in the city centre. Tram services to Altincham, Eccles, MediaCityUK and St Werburgh’s Road were affected and as a knock-on their return journeys to Bury, Piccadilly and Rochdale.

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Railgrinding in Edinburgh

Posted on Sunday 5 May 2013 by Gareth Prior

A start has been made on railgrinding the tracks from Haymarket to Picardy Place in Edinburgh city centre as further signs of progress on returning trams to the city are seen. The grinding work commenced at Haymarket on 5 May and is then scheduled to start on Princes Street on 7 May after the morning peak period.

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Manchester Metrolink Engineering Works: Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 May

Posted on Sunday 5 May 2013 by Gareth Prior

The Bury line will see no trams at all over the weekend of Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 May as further engineering works take place. In addition on Sunday 12 May there will be alterations to services on the Rochdale line with trams not running between Central Park and Victoria all day and from Rochdale Railway Station to Newbold until 1500.

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In pictures: Leeds 6 goes undercover

Posted on Sunday 5 May 2013 by Andrew Waddington

As reported earlier this week, work on the refurbishment of Leeds 6 at the Heaton Park Tramway in Manchester continues to progress, with a small team of dedicated volunteers working extremely hard to restore the car to a smart appearance. We are pleased to show some pictures of the tram being worked on, which were taken during a recent working party on Tuesday 30th April.

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Retro look for Blackpool Brush car 631

Posted on Saturday 4 May 2013 by Andrew Waddington

The highly-anticipated debut of Blackpool Brush Railcoach 631 following its heritage makeover and a repaint back into a traditional green and cream livery. The car had spent most of the winter under attention at Starr Gate before transferring to Rigby Road a few weeks ago, where it has been treated to a full repaint allowing it to return to use on the heritage tram service at Blackpool on Saturday 4th May.

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Heritage Trams for the Next Week…

Posted on Friday 3 May 2013 by Gareth Prior

As part of our feature “Support our Heritage Tramways” we will continue to bring you a weekly look at when and where you can travel on heritage trams across the UK. Once again if you know of any errors or omissions please let us know and we will make the change. All the information here is given in good faith but you are advised to check before travelling any significant distance with the organisations involved.

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Michael Portillo visits Birkenhead tramway

Posted on Friday 3 May 2013 by Andrew Waddington

Former Transport Minister turned TV presenter Michael Portillo paid a visit to the Birkenhead heritage tramway on Wednesday 1st May. The star was filming for a future episode of his BBC television series ‘Great Railway Journeys’, and the filming session featured appearances on camera by Rob Jones of the Merseyside Tramway Preservation Society, and beautifully restored tramcar Birkenhead 20.

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Fleetwood trams on the move again

Posted on Thursday 2 May 2013 by Andrew Waddington

The Fleetwood Heritage Leisure Trust have been exceptionally busy of late, making plans for the future of its collection of Blackpool trams. Whilst many of these plans involve the Trust’s ultimate aim of creating a new transport museum in Fleetwood, short-term plans are also being drawn up which will see many of the vehicles in their care moving to a temporary new home in the near future.

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Fylde Coast preservation groups to join forces?

Posted on Thursday 2 May 2013 by Andrew Waddington

In a development that is likely to be welcomed by many fans of Blackpool’s historic tramcars, it has now been confirmed that discussions are taking place between representatives of the Lancastrian Transport Trust and the Fleetwood Heritage Leisure Trust, to devise a strategy for the future of their trams. Both groups have been attempting to collect a representative selection of Blackpool trams to form the basis of a future museum on the Fylde coast, although the majority of their vehicles are currently in outside storage in the local area.

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Diamond Jubilee Brush car staying put!

Posted on Wednesday 1 May 2013 by Andrew Waddington

The Fleetwood Heritage Leisure Trust have announced that its preserved Blackpool Brush Railcoach 290, which was repainted as a static feature for the 2012 illuminations season, will be remaining on display in its current location throughout 2013. However, the tram will lose its special commemorative livery for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in favour of a brand new design this summer.

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Picture in Time 5: Lisbon 730 at Seaton

Posted on Wednesday 1 May 2013 by Andrew Waddington

Lisbon 730 has recently been basking in glory thanks to a short but highly succesful period of operation at Beamish Museum. Having now returned to its home tramway at Birkenhead, we take a look back to an earlier time in the tram’s history when, having just arrived in the UK, it was looking rather less pristine than it does today!

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Heritage tram operates from Starr Gate depot

Posted on Tuesday 30 April 2013 by Andrew Waddington

Since the upgraded Blackpool tramway opened at Easter 2012, the retained heritage trams have been seen out and about on the system plenty of times, but passenger runs have not been allowed south of Pleasure Beach. Although Balloon 717 is believed to have escaped to Starr Gate at Easter 2013 due to an issue with the Pleasure Beach loop, private hires have never been permitted to operate along New South Promenade – until 27th April 2013, that is!

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Leeds 6 refurbishment update

Posted on Monday 29 April 2013 by Andrew Waddington

Since Leeds 6 returned to the Heaton Park Tramway after operating at Beamish Museum for the last three years, a significant amount of work has been undertaken on the tram in order to return it to a more dignified appearance before it returns to service at Manchester. Having spent much of its time at Beamish stored outside, 6‘s external condition left a lot to be desired when it returned home and volunteers are now working extremely hard to reverse the effects of the great outdoors.

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LCC 106 overhaul to start this year

Posted on Monday 29 April 2013 by Andrew Waddington

London County Council 106 looks set to have a positive future ahead of it at Crich Tramway Village, following the news that it is set to enter the museum’s workshop later this year for a major overhaul. The work will be financed by the London County Council Tramways Trust, who previously restored the tram themselves in London before it entered service at Crich thirty years ago.

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Blackpool Transport complaints increase in 2012

Posted on Monday 29 April 2013 by Andrew Waddington

The Blackpool Gazette has revealed official statistics confirming that the number of complaints received by Blackpool Transport during last year had increased by nearly a fifth from 2011. In 2012, the company received 1,519 complaints, compared to the 1,282 complaints recorded in 2011. However, representatives of the company have responded that the figures remain respectable as this represents just 13 complaints made for every 100,000 passengers carried.

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Manx Electric Railway Easter 2013

Posted on Sunday 28 April 2013 by admin

Although the Manx Electric Railway had started official operations for 2013 at the beginning of March at weekends only the Easter period marks the first intensive service of the year with nine return journeys due to be run each day under timetable C with four sets in service each day. David Mee was on the Isle of Man for a period over Easter and what follows is a diary of what happened between Thursday 28th March and Tuesday 2nd April..

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