{"id":10548,"date":"2015-03-12T20:20:58","date_gmt":"2015-03-12T20:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=10548"},"modified":"2015-03-12T20:20:58","modified_gmt":"2015-03-12T20:20:58","slug":"an-eventful-early-season-weekend-at-beamish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=10548","title":{"rendered":"An eventful early season weekend at Beamish"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beamish Museum staged two days of enhanced tramway activity on the weekend of Saturday 7th & Sunday 8th March, with all of the currently operational tramcars in service and others displayed prominently for photographic opportunities, plus some bonus evening events for a modest extra charge. Highlights included the very last appearance of Blackpool 280 <\/strong>in service at the museum before it moves to a new home, and the first public appearance by Blackpool Brush Railcoach 621 <\/strong>since joining the resident tram fleet.<\/p>\n

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Both days featured a four-car service, with two trams travelling in each direction around the extensive museum site: however, to add further excitement, two of the trams were changed over part way through the days. The trams which ran were Sunderland 16<\/strong>, Grimsby & Immingham 26<\/strong>, Blackpool 31<\/strong>, Newcastle 114<\/strong>, Oporto 196<\/strong> and Blackpool 280<\/strong>. The change-over process also created some very nice scenes for photographers, with as many as four trams lined up on the main line as some came into service and others were shunted before returning to the depot area.<\/p>\n

One of the highlights of this weekend, however, came in the form of some static photo opportunities outside the depot. On the Saturday morning, the recently overhauled Sunderland 16 <\/strong>was posed alongside Sunderland 101 <\/strong>with both cars proudly displaying the famous ‘Shop at Binns’ legend on the front panelling. Best of all, during both afternoons all four of the Blackpool trams currently on site were posed together in front of the depots. Joining the Sunderland liveried Balloon car 101\/703 <\/strong>were Marton Box 31 <\/strong>and Ex-Towing car 280<\/strong>, as well as Brush car 621<\/strong>. The latter is looking very sorry for itself having been subjected to a period of outside storage at Kirkham Prison before being transferred to Beamish at the end of last year, but at least it is now safely housed although those who saw it were under no illusion that the work required to restore this tram to a serviceable condition will be rather extensive!<\/p>\n

After the normal opening hours on Saturday 7th March, a small number of guests were treated to a guided tour of the workshops to see progress on a number of projects such as the major overhaul of Sheffield 264<\/strong>\u00a0and this was followed by a short talk on some of the exciting future plans for the Beamish tramway. There then followed a rare chance to enjoy a tram ride in darkness, with both Grimsby & Immingham 26 <\/strong>and Blackpool 280 <\/strong>performing several trips around the circular route, and also being posed side by side in the Town after dark. The following day was to be 280<\/strong>‘s last in operation before being prepared for transport to Manchester’s Heaton Park, which will become its new permanent home.<\/p>\n

In all, Beamish Museum managed to put on a very enjoyable weekend-long event which was much appreciated by the tram enthusiasts who attended. It is expected that a tramway themed weekend will now take place annually on the first weekend of March, with further transport themes to be explored in subsequent months across the summer season.<\/p>\n

Thanks go to Bradley Jones for kindly allowing his pictures of this event to be published on this website.<\/p>\n

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Sunderland 16 leaves the depot on Saturday 7th March, showing off its recently applied period style adverts as Blackpool 31 waits to run in following a few hours of operation.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Newcastle 114 is prepared to enter service. Note the tram has now regained its usual Ringtons Tea advert boards since its short visit to Crich last year.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The striking South Shields inspired livery of Oporto 196 is shown off to great effect in the Town.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Contrasting with the immaculate trams in service is new arrival Blackpool Brush car 621, which retains the Hot Ice advert livery it carried during its last five years of service in Blackpool.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Sunderland 101\/Blackpool 703 was on static display on both days having been withdrawn recently due to a fractured wheel.<\/p><\/div>\n

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As night falls, Blackpool 280 and Grimsby & Immingham 26 pose for the cameras in the Town area. (All photos by Bradley Jones)<\/p><\/div>\n

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Beamish Museum staged two days of enhanced tramway activity on the weekend of Saturday 7th & Sunday 8th March, with all of the currently operational tramcars in service and others displayed prominently for photographic opportunities, plus some bonus evening events … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10548"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10548"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10569,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10548\/revisions\/10569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}