{"id":5139,"date":"2013-09-15T20:42:58","date_gmt":"2013-09-15T19:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=5139"},"modified":"2013-09-15T20:47:49","modified_gmt":"2013-09-15T19:47:49","slug":"oporto-273-set-to-return-to-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=5139","title":{"rendered":"Oporto 273 set to return to service"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the annual Enthusiasts Day held at Crich Tramway Village on Saturday 14th September, Oporto 273<\/strong> was transferred from the main depot complex to the workshop. Although this move was somewhat upstaged by the appearance of several far more elusive tramcars in the open air, it was in fact one of the most significant movements of the day as it marked the start of efforts being made to return this car to service.<\/p>\n

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Despite a costly restoration financed by the Heritage Lottery Fund being undertaken just over a decade ago, Oporto 273<\/strong> has not operated since its ill-fated visit to Blackpool in 2010; the discovery of a defect whilst the tram was being prepared for service in 2011 led to the car being sidelined, and it has been tucked away within the depots ever since. However, we are delighted to report that the car has now entered the workshop and is to receive the overhaul and repairs required for it to rejoin the operating fleet at the museum, hopefully from next year. With both Sheffield 510<\/strong> and\u00a0Blackpool 762<\/strong> also expected to enter service following the completion of major attention next year, this should go a long way towards restoring the number of operational cars to a more impressive total, and will also add some welcome variety to the selection of trams available for service which is rather dominated by traditional double-deckers at present. The work due to be carried out on 273<\/strong> over the coming months will also be further justification of its original restoration, and will no doubt be a very welcome development for those who have missed this tram for the\u00a0past few years.<\/p>\n

Two other recently withdrawn cars, Johannesburg 60<\/strong> and Liverpool 869<\/strong>, have recently been moved to the Exhibition Hall which led to fears that both would be destined for a lengthy lay-off. Happily, this will not be the case, with Leicester 76<\/strong> expected to return to its usual position in due course, allowing car 60<\/strong> to return to the depots. Although planned\u00a0work on restoring London Transport 1 to an operational condition will presumably prevent its return to the display, we have received confirmation that 869<\/strong>‘s presence is only a temporary one, making the sight of this tram next to the similar liveried Blackpool Balloon 249<\/strong> a novel one which may not last for long. Hopefully as the sole representative of the city of Liverpool in the national collection, 869<\/strong> will be overhauled and returned to use before too long, but at least it is now confirmed that the car is not considered a static exhibit in the long term.<\/p>\n

Thanks go to Dan Heeley and Andy Bailey for their assistance with this article.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Oporto 273 has spent the last couple of years tucked away on road 12 in the Crich depot, and it is seen there before being rescued for overhaul work to commence. (Photo by Andrew Waddington)<\/p><\/div>\n

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

During the annual Enthusiasts Day held at Crich Tramway Village on Saturday 14th September, Oporto 273 was transferred from the main depot complex to the workshop. Although this move was somewhat upstaged by the appearance of several far more elusive … 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":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5139"}],"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=5139"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5141,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5139\/revisions\/5141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}