{"id":48130,"date":"2023-01-20T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-20T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=48130"},"modified":"2023-01-20T19:09:05","modified_gmt":"2023-01-20T19:09:05","slug":"in-pictures-17-back-at-wednesbury-and-on-driver-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=48130","title":{"rendered":"In Pictures: 17 back at Wednesbury and on driver training!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The first of the Urbos3 trams which departed the West Midlands Metro depot at Wednesbury for repairs in Dudley has returned \u2013 and its already been commissioned for use again with it being noted out on driver training! The tram in question is the first of the class, <strong>17<\/strong>, which had had been absent from Metro metals since October 2022.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>As we\u2019ve covered on countless occasions, the entire Urbos3 fleet was stopped in March 2022 after the discovery of bodyside cracks (the second time this had happened). Repairs \u2013 which involve the replacement of the affected panels \u2013 had started at Wednesbury Depot but with limited capacity it was decided that some of the work would be outsourced. <strong>28<\/strong> went to Wolverton Works in May 2022 but it wasn\u2019t until October 2022 that further trams would leave.<\/p>\n<p>The location for the next departures was Dudley and the Very Light Rail Innovation Centre. <strong>17<\/strong> was the first to leave on 25<sup>th<\/sup> October 2022 and was swiftly followed by <strong>26<\/strong> which made the trip on 28<sup>th<\/sup> October 2022.<\/p>\n<p>Although its not known exactly when <strong>17<\/strong> returned to Wednesbury (access to the depot for large vehicles is currently limited due to Brierley Hill extension works) it seems to have returned earlier this month. Its believed that Friday 20<sup>th<\/sup> January was its first time out of the depot when it was being used for driver training with engineers also on board to monitor performance.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_48131\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?attachment_id=48131\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-48131\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-48131\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-48131\" src=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/1.17-aw-550x303.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"303\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-48131\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">17 at Corporation Street with a driver training run towards Grand Central. Note that unlike the tram originally repaired its first appearance out already has the full vinyls reapplied.<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_48132\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?attachment_id=48132\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-48132\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-48132\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-48132\" src=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/2.17-aw-550x307.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"307\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-48132\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A view of 17 on the grassed track between Bull Street and St Chads.<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_48133\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?attachment_id=48133\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-48133\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-48133\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-48133\" src=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/3.17-aw-550x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-48133\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">17 rounds the curve as it travels from Town Hall into Pinfold Street and then onto Grand Central. It was still in use on driver training. (All Photographs by Andy Walters, 20th January 2023)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The first of the Urbos3 trams which departed the West Midlands Metro depot at Wednesbury for repairs in Dudley has returned \u2013 and its already been commissioned for use again with it being noted out on driver training! The tram &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=48130\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48130"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48130"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48134,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48130\/revisions\/48134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}