{"id":49488,"date":"2023-05-16T21:00:28","date_gmt":"2023-05-16T20:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=49488"},"modified":"2023-05-16T18:47:22","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T17:47:22","slug":"in-pictures-the-beamish-tramway-celebrates-50-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=49488","title":{"rendered":"In Pictures: The Beamish Tramway celebrates 50 years!"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Beamish Tramway has reached a major historical milestone with it having clocked up 50 years of operation \u2013 and rapidly approaching becoming the longest running of all tramways in the north east of England! To celebrate the 50th<\/sup> anniversary a special event was planned at the museum over the Coronation Bank Holiday weekend (6th<\/sup> to 8th<\/sup> May) which included all four operational trams in action along with a number of buses.<\/p>\n

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It had originally been hoped that Fares Please! would mark the return to service of Gateshead 10<\/strong> after the conclusion of a major overhaul but unfortunately the start of 2023 has seen some delays in this project so it now looks likely that it won\u2019t be until spring 2024 that it is back in service. 10<\/strong> was the very first tram on site in 1973 and so it would have been a nice circle to the history of the tramway if it had been running but sometimes the maintenance of the trams doesn\u2019t always lend itself to anniversaries!<\/p>\n

In the weeks leading up to the event a further tram was also sidelined with Sheffield 264<\/strong> suffering a motor fault and thus being withdrawn from service awaiting this to be repaired. With the idea of getting a loan tram to help celebrate the occasion also not providing possible this led to just the four operational trams to fly the tramways flag. These are, of course, Sunderland 16<\/strong>, Blackpool 31<\/strong>, Newcastle 114<\/strong> and Oporto 196<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

With the event not only celebrating the tramways anniversary but also showcasing public transport a selection of buses were on display in service. This not only included Beamish\u2019s resident fleet but also several visitors for the event. The buses ran around the museum site on the anti-clockwise circuit whilst the trams ran around the 1.5 mile tramway in a clockwise direction.<\/p>\n

The weekend also saw Beamish\u2019s Coronation celebrations and then on Sunday 7th<\/sup> and Monday 8th<\/sup> May the 1950s Welfare Hall saw a Model Tramway Exhibition. As well as several layouts, Nexus were on site to show a model of their new trains along with free gifts including a card model of the new trains!<\/p>\n