One of the many regrets of tramway preservation has been the lack of an Aberdeen electric tram being saved for posterity but all this could be about to change with the apparent discovery of one of the trams, in use as the basis of a house off Wellington Road in the
\nCity. The house is now boarded up and the area has apparently recently been sold for redevelopment so now could be the last chance to save the remains of this tram and to restore it to a presentable state.<\/p>\n
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A number of lower saloons were sold by Aberdeen Corporation Tramways upon closure of the system in 1958 with many of these being used as summer houses and sheds. This included 54<\/strong>, 70<\/strong>, 80<\/strong> and 81 <\/strong>of which the first and last are now in private storage whilst the others are believed to still be in situ. It is not known what the identity of this tram is in Wellington Road but old photos of the property seem to confirm that it is indeed the lower saloon of a tram as the window arrangements matches the four bay style of Aberdeen\u2019s trams.<\/p>\n A group of enthusiasts in Aberdeen have now got to together with the idea of rescuing the tram and possibly restoring it and they have recently had their first working party at the site. The main focus was on clearing the many layers of floor coverings and the dwelling house panelling and to take a general look at the condition of the body. The group discovered that there is very little wood rot but there has been a significant amount of woodworm damage particularly to the original plywood ceiling panels and to the main pillars for the top deck. From first inspection it appears that when the tram was converted into a dwelling the interior was almost completely stripped and the exterior was also stripped down to the frames. This means that any identification of the tram is very difficult The group plan to move the tram from its current location in one piece and a redundant road low loader will need to be acquired for this. It is also likely that the top deck will need to be shored up for transport.<\/p>\n * A photo of how the \u201ctram\u201d looks today can be found at http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/41987105@N06\/7755493064\/<\/a><\/p>\n Thanks to William Brown for information contained within this article<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One of the many regrets of tramway preservation has been the lack of an Aberdeen electric tram being saved for posterity but all this could be about to change with the apparent discovery of one of the trams, in use … Continue reading
\nas the panelling only remains internally on one side of the car.<\/p>\n