{"id":5132,"date":"2013-09-15T19:05:21","date_gmt":"2013-09-15T18:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=5132"},"modified":"2013-09-15T19:05:21","modified_gmt":"2013-09-15T18:05:21","slug":"leicester-76-steals-the-show-at-crich-enthusiasts%e2%80%99-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=5132","title":{"rendered":"Leicester 76 steals the show at Crich Enthusiasts\u2019 Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

As always the annual Enthusiasts\u2019 Day at the Crich Tramway Village on Saturday 14th September featured the usual mix of an intensive tram service coupled with various tram displays on the depot fan. The pre-publicity for the event seemed to suggest that a horse car line-up with the first official appearance in public at Crich for Leeds 107<\/strong> would be the \u201cmane\u201d attraction but in the end a double deck tram from a nearby East Midlands city stole the show.<\/p>\n

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Leicester 76<\/strong> last ran in passenger service in 1975 and its appearances in the open have been very limited since then with it being a major exhibit in the Exhibition Hall for the past 20 years but Enthusiasts\u2019 Day 2013 was to see the tram hauled out into the open much to the delight of the many visitors at the event. \u00a0Stabled just off the Traverser in the front of the main entrance to the Exhibition Hall the sun came out from behind the clouds shortly after it was positioned and the cameras clicked away. On a personal level this was the one tram at Crich I had wanted to see in the open for a long time as having spent three years in Leicester at University this is as close to a home town tram as it gets!<\/p>\n

Although this was the main highlight (well in my opinion anyway!) of the day there were countless over highlights. The morning saw two displays on the depot fan with the day starting off with \u201cLittle and Large\u201d as Sheffield 15<\/strong> and Blackpool 762<\/strong> were briefly stabled alongside each other and once the morning service trams had left the depot a London line-up was put together featuring two current operational trams, one recently withdrawn and one shortly to enter the Workshops for a restoration. This last tram is of course London 1 <\/strong>another tram which has not seen the outside for a while and was also situated at the back of the Exhibition Hall, showing that nothing at the Museum is now off limits for display at one of these type of events. The other three London trams were of course London United Tramways 159<\/strong>, MET 331<\/strong> and London Transport 1622<\/strong>. The main display of the afternoon was the much anticipated horse car line-up, which for the first time featured five trams: Chesterfield 8<\/strong>, Oporto 9<\/strong>, Sheffield 15<\/strong>, Cardiff 21<\/strong> and newcomer Leeds 107<\/strong>. The sight of these five trams on the depot fan shows how the horse car collection is now very much unrivalled on the UK mainland.<\/p>\n

Away from the displays on the depot fan 16 passenger trams carried passenger during the day (eight in the morning replaced with a different eight in the afternoon) and they were joined by Cardiff 131 which ran some demonstration journeys \u2013 with passengers \u2013 during the morning and early morning.<\/p>\n

As a result of Leicester 76<\/strong> and London 1<\/strong> being extracted for display (and in the case of 1 <\/strong>
\neventual restoration) some shunting had gone on the previous day to replace them in the Exhibition Hall. In the case of 1<\/strong> its place has been taken by Liverpool 869<\/strong> whilst Johannesburg 60<\/strong> has currently been included instead of Leicester 76<\/strong>. Although some people have expressed disappointment that 869<\/strong> has been placed at the back of the\u00a0 Exhibition Hall hopefully the fact that an effort has been made to use trams located here during this event will allay some fears it is there for the very long term (and if you don\u2019t
\nlike where 869<\/strong> is now just wait until you see where MET 331<\/strong> is now and what is in front of it!)<\/p>\n

Two other trams were also shunted during the day with Oporto 273<\/strong> moved from the back of the depot into the Workshop and Edinburgh 35<\/strong> was also shunted to allow other trams to be placed back in the depot.<\/p>\n

A couple of years ago Enthusiasts\u2019 events at Crich seemed to be stagnating a bit with the same trams seemingly always being displayed but the last couple of years have seen just how good a show Crich can put on with a 16 tram service plus rare photographic opportunities. It is events like these that only Crich can put on with their extensive collection and here\u2019s to many more in the years to come!<\/p>\n

* Full coverage of the event will follow on British Trams Online<\/em> soon including a comprehensive Photo Gallery and a more detailed report on the day. In the meantime, and thanks to Geoff and Hazel Quarmby, we provide you with a small selection of images from the day which will hopefully give you a taster of what to expect.<\/p>\n

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A line-up of some of the morning service cars seen in Stephenson Place led by Berlin 223 006-4.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The first of two major line-ups during the day was this London line-up featuring MET 331, London 1, London Transport 1622 and London United Tramways 159. Although not as colourful as last years Glasgow line-up it is still quite a sight.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The "suprise" display around lunchtime was of Leicester 76 (although anyone taking a look in Depot V upon arriving at Crich on the day would soon see what the surprise was going to be!). It is seen here in sunshine outside the Exhibition Hall.<\/p><\/div>\n

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The afternoon horse car line-up is seen here on the depot fan with Leeds 107, Sheffield 15, Oporto 9, Chesterfield 8 and Cardiff 21 all waiting for the cameras. (All photos: Geoff and Hazel Quarmby)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As always the annual Enthusiasts\u2019 Day at the Crich Tramway Village on Saturday 14th September featured the usual mix of an intensive tram service coupled with various tram displays on the depot fan. The pre-publicity for the event seemed to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"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\/5132"}],"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=5132"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5138,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5132\/revisions\/5138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}