{"id":2319,"date":"2012-11-14T20:30:11","date_gmt":"2012-11-14T20:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=2319"},"modified":"2012-11-14T20:35:34","modified_gmt":"2012-11-14T20:35:34","slug":"crich-play-area-to-become-a-tram-depot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=2319","title":{"rendered":"Crich play area to become a tram depot?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been well documented that the Tramway Museum Society, based at Crich Tramway Village, are desperately short of covered accomodation in which to house its growing collection of priceless vintage trams. Both the museum site at Crich, and their off-site store at Clay Cross are full to bursting point following the acquisition of several redundant Blackpool trams, and the failure of an appeal to fund the construction of a new depot in which to house the new arrivals.<\/p>\n

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Now, the TMS are reportedly considering a more low-cost solution to this problem. The Exhibition Hall annexxe, once earmarked to house a power station display, has been used as an indoor soft play area for young visitors for more than a decade – but now serious consideration is being given to using this building as a store for trams instead. Although only small, it is claimed that this would house an additional four tramcars on site (although it is not stated how large these vehicles would be). It is proposed to create a new soft play area for children next to the Red Lion pub on a modest budget, in order to free up extra space in which to store trams. This would ensure that visitor facilities are not compromised, whilst also\u00a0prioritising the Museum’s reason for being – its tram fleet.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, a minor setback means that work cannot start on the new play area for another year at least. Planned excavation works next to the Red Lion have been put on hold for the time being as planning permission will be required, and by the time this can be obtained, the site will be preparing to re-open for visitors. However, if this idea is persued then hopefully the current play area could be cleared during winter 2013\/14.<\/p>\n

The idea of storing trams in the annexxe of the main Exhibition Hall is not new: Leeds 600<\/strong> spent a short period of time inside it in 1996, long before it was transferred to Clay Cross. It is not yet known whether the possible increase in available depot space would lead to further additions to the fleet, although with both of the Blackpool trams turned down by the TMS – Centenary car 648<\/strong> and Twin set 672+682<\/strong> – now being retained in Blackpool Transport’s own heritage collection, it would seem highly unlikely that these trams will ever make the journey to Derbyshire. Nonetheless, it would seem wise to make space in readiness for any future acquisitions, with the disposal of the original Manchester Metrolink LRVs\u00a0reminding us of\u00a0the possibility of a second generation tram joining the national collection one day.<\/p>\n

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Glasgow 1115 is seen sandwiched between two trams which arrived at Crich within the last 12 months - Blackpool 'Boat' 236 and Brush car 630. Behind the trams, the Exhibition Hall anexxe, with its large green doors, can just be seen. (Photo by Andrew Waddington)<\/p><\/div>\n

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It has been well documented that the Tramway Museum Society, based at Crich Tramway Village, are desperately short of covered accomodation in which to house its growing collection of priceless vintage trams. Both the museum site at Crich, and their … 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":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2319"}],"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=2319"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2324,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2319\/revisions\/2324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}