{"id":14327,"date":"2016-04-10T00:29:20","date_gmt":"2016-04-09T23:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=14327"},"modified":"2016-04-11T19:29:19","modified_gmt":"2016-04-11T18:29:19","slug":"sheffield-264-returns-to-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=14327","title":{"rendered":"Sheffield 264 returns to service"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday 9th April 2016 was a historic day at Beamish Museum, not just because of the Great War Steam Fair event – but mainly because it was on this day that Sheffield 264 <\/strong>finally made its long-awaited return to passenger service. The tram had last operated in regular service in 2003, and since then has been extensively rebuilt following on from a lengthy period of storage.<\/p>\n

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Work on the major overhaul of tramcar 264 <\/strong>started about three years ago and was tackled in stages, with the tram split into three main components: lower deck, upper deck and truck, all of which have received expert attention at the museum. There have been a number of delays to the project which was at one time provisionally due to be completed last summer, and the tram also missed a proposed launch date last month at the enhanced tramway operation weekend. However, none of that seemed to matter when the immaculate tram entered service on the third day of this year’s steam fair, a hugely popular annual event which has adopted a First World War theme for 2016. There was no great fanfare, no launch ceremony and little in the way of prior announcement – but for those who visited on this day, the chance to enjoy the immaculate Sheffield tram running again was no doubt one of the highlights of this spectacular event. To say that 264 <\/strong>looks stunning would be a bit of an understatement, and it will no doubt once again be a great asset to its owners.<\/p>\n

Incidentally, 9th April saw four trams in action at Beamish, with Sheffield 264 <\/strong>joined by visiting Blackpool Standard car 147 <\/strong>and the more familiar fare of Sunderland 16 <\/strong>and Oporto 196<\/strong>. This meant that three of the four service trams were enclosed double deckers, a first for this particular museum but something which will hopefully become more common during 2016. The only available tram not to run on this date was Newcastle 114 <\/strong>although this car had been used on the first two days of the event.<\/p>\n

The annual Great North Festival of Transport continues with ‘Horses at War’ on Saturday 16th & Sunday 17th April, and presumably this will also feature an intensive tram service providing another chance to enjoy most of the current operational fleet doing what they do best – shifting the crowds at Britain’s busiest museum tramway.<\/p>\n

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Sheffield 264 enters the Town area at Beamish on its first day in service following overhaul. The stunning livery, complete with hand-painted crests and lining, glistens in the sunshine having only just been varnished in the preceding week. (Photo by Gareth Prior)<\/p><\/div>\n

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Saturday 9th April 2016 was a historic day at Beamish Museum, not just because of the Great War Steam Fair event – but mainly because it was on this day that Sheffield 264 finally made its long-awaited return to passenger … 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\/14327"}],"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=14327"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14348,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14327\/revisions\/14348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}