In Pictures: Diamond Jubilee Brush 290 Update

Posted on Saturday 28 July 2012 by Gareth Prior

Work to turn the Fleetwood Heritage Leisure Trust’s Blackpool Brush 290 into a star for the 2012 Blackpool Illuminations is continuing with the special Diamond Jubilee livery approaching completion at Kirkham Prison.

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M5000s pairs enter service

Posted on Saturday 28 July 2012 by Gareth Prior

Since being introduced into service the M5000s on Manchester Metrolink had exclusively operated singly with any double workings being in the hands of the older T68s but this has now changed with double M5000s being used in service to help increase capacity for the Olympic football taking place at Old Trafford. However with Mosley Street stop in the City Centre remaining open the operation of these double M5000s has not been without its problems.

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More delays for Metrolink

Posted on Saturday 28 July 2012 by Gareth Prior

The past week has seen another couple of days where Manchester Metrolink services have been delayed due to both a tram failure and signalling problems. On Tuesday 24th July a tram failed on the ramp heading up to Deansgate-Castlefield which meant that services across the network were severely delayed. The incident happened in the middle of the day and the tram was fixed and moved by 1345 but not before severe delays were experienced. Then during the evening rush hour on Friday 27th July there was a signalling failure at Cornbrook which once again caused major problems. All services on the Altrincham and South Manchester lines were suspended whilst engineers fixed the problems with all other services having to terminate at Piccadilly Station.

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Rocket tram prepares to light up Gynn Square

Posted on Friday 27 July 2012 by Andrew Waddington

Since leaving its long-term home at Blackpool’s Rigby Road tram shed, no time has been wasted in preparing the illuminated Rocket 732 for static display as one of the star attractions of the 2012 illuminations. 732 moved to Blackpool Council’s illuminations depot on July 9th and since then the dusty old tram has been smartened up considerably.

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Manx Transport Festival hit by tram shortage

Posted on Thursday 26 July 2012 by Andrew Waddington

The annual Manx Transport Festival is now well underway with many transport enthusiasts flocking to the Isle of Man in order to sample the very best that the railways and tramways of this island paradise have to offer. Unfortunately, plans to operate an intensive twelve-tram service on the Manx Electric Railway over the weekend of 28th & 29th July have been thwarted as a number of trams are currently out of service, although an interesting output is still expected.

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Trams run on Tuesdays at Heaton Park

Posted on Thursday 26 July 2012 by Andrew Waddington

Earlier this week, Blackpool Transport began operating their popular heritage tram coastal tours seven days a week, but they are not the only tramway to have commenced a midweek vintage tram service for the peak summer period. In an unexpected but very welcome move, the Heaton Park Tramway are now running a tram service every Tuesday during the school summer holidays.

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Heaton Park Tramway points towards the future!

Posted on Thursday 26 July 2012 by Andrew Waddington

A small but significant event occured at the Heaton Park Tramway in Manchester on Tuesday 24th July 2012, when a refurbished set of points were laid at the new Lakeside terminus and connected up to the existing stub track. Eventually, these points will connect the terminus to the trackwork leading into the tramway’s brand new depot, and so their appearance arguably marks the beginning of the depot construction project.

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Flexities steal heritage tram crews

Posted on Thursday 26 July 2012 by Andrew Waddington

So far, 2012 has seen a highly succesful mix of core service vehicles and traditional heritage tram tours operating together on the Blackpool tramway. Despite many critics voicing concerns that mixing new and old rolling stock in this way would prove impractical, Blackpool Transport have made the combination work to fantastic effect. It is therefore disapointing to report that the heritage tours have come in for some criticism this week, thanks to a shortage of staff leading to unexpected cutbacks.

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Tram returns to Immingham after 51 years away!

Posted on Monday 23 July 2012 by Andrew Waddington

The much-hyped loan of Grimsby & Immingham 14 from the National Tramway Museum at Crich, to Immingham took place over the weekend of 21st/22nd July. This historic occasion saw the tram return to Immingham for the first time since the interurban tram system closed way back in 1961, but unfortunately its visit was slightly spoilt by a few issues.

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Child dies at Beamish Museum

Posted on Monday 23 July 2012 by Andrew Waddington

As many readers of this website will be aware, a tragic accident occured at Beamish Museum on Sunday 22nd July when a seven year old child died after reportedly falling from a steam road roller. The young boy suffered severe head injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.

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Crich Tramway Village summer update

Posted on Monday 23 July 2012 by Andrew Waddington

As always there is plenty going on at the Crich Tramway Village with various developments taking place in various departments as the Museum has been preparing for the peak summer season. With revenue from visitors currently short of expectations, the next few weeks could be a crucial time for the attraction and hopefully better weather will help to compensate for the disapointing level of income so far in 2012. However, behind the scenes there is still a lot going on and this report aims to give an overview of some of these developments.

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Daily dose of heritage in Blackpool

Posted on Monday 23 July 2012 by Andrew Waddington

Monday 23rd July saw the eagerly anticipated commencement of a daily heritage tram service in Blackpool. Apart from Bank Holidays, this marked the first time since last autumn that the general public had been able to ride on a traditional tram in the town on a weekday as Blackpool enters its busiest time of year, with schoolchildren across the country now enjoying their long summer holiday.

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Beamish 196 nears completion

Posted on Sunday 22 July 2012 by Andrew Waddington

Pleasing news to report from the Beamish Museum Tramway concerns the former Oporto tramcar, now generally referred to as Beamish 196 which has been undergoing an extensive overhaul for several months now. Following completion of work on its truck and significant body work, 196 is now in the early stages of being repainted and will soon return to service looking very different from how it appeared when it last ran in 2011!

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Birkenhead’s Brush car moves to Taylor Street!

Posted on Saturday 21 July 2012 by Andrew Waddington

Blackpool Brush Railcoach 626 has been confined to the Pacific Road tram shed at Birkenhead for most of the last two years, but this changed recently when the tram was woken from its slumbers and driven to the Taylor Street depot and workshop. There, it is understood that 626 is to receive some maintenance work there, which necessited the move although this was not as straightforward as it sounds!

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TfGM confirm order for 20 extra M5000s which will see end of T68s

Posted on Saturday 21 July 2012 by Gareth Prior

Transport for Greater Manchester have confirmed that they are to order an extra 20 of the Bombardier built M5000 light rail vehicles which will enable them to withdraw all of the original T68 trams by 2014. It is hoped that the replacement of the original trams will see improvements in reliability of the service as it is said that the M5000s are up to four times
less likely to develop a disruptive fault than the T68s.

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Planning permission granted for Copse Road depot to be converted to tram museum

Posted on Saturday 21 July 2012 by Gareth Prior

The Fleetwood Heritage Leisure Trust are celebrating after Wyre Borough Council gave the go-ahead for the former Copse Road tram depot to be converted from its current use as a car sales and storage area to a Tram Museum and Workshop. This now means that the FHLT will be able to proceed with submitting a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund to help make their dreams a reality.

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In Pictures: Driver Training commences in Edinburgh

Posted on Saturday 21 July 2012 by Gareth Prior

As reported on British Trams Online in the past few weeks, progress is continuing to be made on constructing the new Edinburgh tramway with further road closures and traffic diversions being introduced to allow the laying of the tracks. One section which has had tracks laid for a while has been that near to Gogar Depot where driver training has also been in evidence recently. As well as driver training being much in evidence a large number of the CAF built trams have now been delivered and if you carry on reading this article you will see photos around the Depot of a tram on test and those trams stored and waiting the chance to carry passengers.

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Light Rail journeys rise again in England

Posted on Saturday 21 July 2012 by Gareth Prior

The Department for Transport have released the annual Light Rail and Tram statistics with the latest data showing that once again passenger journeys have increased with a total of 204 million recorded across the eight systems which make up the statistics. This is the twentieth straight year that passenger journeys have increased and is also the first time that these figures have gone over the 200 million mark.

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Ipswich 33 restoration nears completion

Posted on Saturday 21 July 2012 by Gareth Prior

Across the UK there are a number of tram restorations which don’t get much publicity but the groups involved have been working hard for many years undertaking lots of work to return the trams to their former glory and one such tram is Ipswich 33 which can be found at the Ipswich Transport Museum.

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Manx Transport Festival approaches

Posted on Saturday 21 July 2012 by Gareth Prior

The annual Manx Transport Festival takes place between Wednesday 25th and Sunday 29th July and will once again provide transport enthusiasts the chance to sample the various unique forms of transport on the Island including the Manx Electric Railway and Snaefell Mountain Railway.

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