{"id":3404,"date":"2013-04-04T15:55:30","date_gmt":"2013-04-04T14:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=3404"},"modified":"2013-04-04T20:09:21","modified_gmt":"2013-04-04T19:09:21","slug":"lisbon-730-replaces-leeds-6-at-beamish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=3404","title":{"rendered":"Lisbon 730 replaces Leeds 6 at Beamish"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday 3rd April was a hectic day at Beamish Museum, with Lisbon 730<\/strong> arriving on site ready for the tramway’s 40th anniversary celebrations starting the following day. No sooner had 730<\/strong> arrived and been moved into the tram depot, then attention turned towards Leeds 6<\/strong> which was loaded up ready for return to Heaton Park, ending its three year stay in the North East.<\/p>\n

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Lisbon 730<\/strong> had been loaded onto a low loader provided by Scott’s Heavy Haulage at Birkenhead earlier that day; a fairly straightforward process due to its small size. The car had part of its lifeguards removed and its trolley pole securely tied down, but otherwise required no preparation, and it arrived at Beamish safely in time to be unloaded shortly after the museum closed for the day. The car was then able to be driven inside under its own power, and was moved over the depot’s maintenance pit so that its lifeguards could be re-assembled, allowing it to enter service on the museum line as soon as possible. Appropriately, 730<\/strong> was parked up alongside Oporto 196<\/strong> – this is believed to have been the first time in history that trams from these two Portugese systems have been seen together anywhere in the world, as both operators use different gauges.<\/p>\n

Once 730<\/strong> was safely tucked up inside, Leeds 6<\/strong> was prepared to return home to the Heaton Park Tramway at Manchester. Having undergone some initial work earlier in the day, the car was driven up to the waiting low loader and then pulled up the already assembled ramp. Despite the rear end of the tram becoming grounded on its way up, it was soon secured in place on the wagon, which then stabled at the museum overnight before heading to Manchester early the following morning. The team from Scott’s will then head to Crich, to collect Glasgow 1068<\/strong> which will then join Lisbon 730<\/strong> at Beamish, and it is hoped that both visiting trams will be in service over the coming weekend. The museum’s official website has now been updated to advise potential visitors about the delays experienced with the visiting trams, with 730<\/strong> expected to enter service at its temporary home on Friday 5th April, after completing a succesful test run around the tramway circuit on the evening of Thursday 4th April. It should be swiftly\u00a0followed by Glasgow 1068<\/strong> hopefully on Saturday 6th; this car was loaded up at Crich on the 4th and set off on its journey up north soon afterwards. Both cars are expected to remain in situ throughout the Great North Festival of Transport and should see further use on Thursdays and Fridays over the next two weeks, before heading back to their respective homes.<\/p>\n

Although it is obviously very pleasing to see these long-awaited movements taking place, the decision to move Leeds 6<\/strong> back to Heaton Park before transporting Glasgow 1068<\/strong> to Beamish was very strange and could attract criticism. This move has unnecessarily delayed 1068<\/strong>‘s arrival even more, limiting its role at the 40th anniversary event, and had Leeds 6<\/strong> stayed put for a few more days, it would have been a useful extra tram which would have slightly compensated for the absence of Stockport 5<\/strong> which was of course originally intended to visit Beamish as well. Instead, we can at least look forward to seeing 6<\/strong> back in action on its native tramway again for the first time since it first moved to Beamish back in April 2010 for the ‘Power from the Past’ event which took on a works vehicle theme that year.<\/p>\n

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Touchdown! Lisbon 730 seen making its first tentative moves along Beamish tracks following delivery late on April 3rd. (Photo courtesey of the Beamish Transport & Industry Blog)<\/p><\/div>\n

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More history in the making, with Lisbon 730 passing the museum entrance on its first test run around the tramway circuit just 24 hours after arrival. (Photo courtesey of the Beamish Transport & Industry Blog)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday 3rd April was a hectic day at Beamish Museum, with Lisbon 730 arriving on site ready for the tramway’s 40th anniversary celebrations starting the following day. No sooner had 730 arrived and been moved into the tram depot, then … 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":[4,14],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3404"}],"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=3404"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3411,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3404\/revisions\/3411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}