{"id":57234,"date":"2025-02-10T22:00:30","date_gmt":"2025-02-10T22:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=57234"},"modified":"2025-02-11T19:13:57","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T19:13:57","slug":"london-county-council-1-wins-at-the-hra-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=57234","title":{"rendered":"London County Council 1 wins at the HRA Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

The annual Heritage Railway Awards took place at a ceremony in Newcastle on the night of Saturday 8th<\/sup> February and it was a night of celebration for the Crich Tramway Village as London County Council 1<\/strong> won the Diesel and Electric Locomotion category.<\/p>\n

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The high-profile restoration of LCC 1<\/strong> \u2013 commonly known as \u201cBluebird\u201d \u2013 took 10 years and \u00a3500,000 worth of funding with the end result stunning and a tram which turns heads at the home of the National Tramway Museum.<\/p>\n

It was officially launched back into service at a special event on Friday 13th<\/sup> September 2024 where many of those who made it possible were able to see the tram running for the first since it was withdrawn from service in Leeds during 1957. \u201cBluebird\u201d then subsequently ran over both days of the following Electric Tram Weekend and once again provided to be popular with visitors to the event.<\/p>\n

Speaking about the restoration of “Bluebird”, Ian Ross, Chair of the London County Council Tramways Trust who provided a lot of the funding for the work, said: “First launched in 1932, “Bluebird” was designed to provide an unprecedented level of comfort for passengers and tram crews, rivalling the buses of the time. Although it remained a unique prototype, its legacy lives on through this exquisite restoration. The dedication, patience, and ingenuity of the museum\u2019s team have been truly remarkable, and I am personally in awe of the skills they have demonstrated throughout this project.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kate Watts, Crich Tramway Village Curator, added: “After a decade of meticulous restoration, we are absolutely thrilled to welcome \u2018Bluebird\u2019 back into service! This magnificent tramcar, with its Art Deco elegance and timeless charm, will undoubtedly be a highlight for our visitors. We can\u2019t wait for you to step aboard and experience a true piece of history.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the night 1<\/strong> was up against another tram in the category as well as two diesel locomotives. The other tram was Modern Electric Tramways 23<\/strong>, a tram which was one of the first trams to be built by founder of the Seaton Tramway, Claude Lane, and after many years in private ownership was moved to Seaton and put on display at the station from September 2024 until the end of the season.<\/p>\n

The others in the category were class 20 locomotive 20 228, based at the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Railway and rebuilt after service in France, and Fowler 0-6-0DH Ribblesdale Cement which can be found at the Tanfield Railway.<\/p>\n

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Bluebird at dusk showing off its stunning finished restoration.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Crich CEO, Graham Bennett is presented with the award. (Both Photographs courtesy of Crich Tramway Village)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The annual Heritage Railway Awards took place at a ceremony in Newcastle on the night of Saturday 8th February and it was a night of celebration for the Crich Tramway Village as London County Council 1 won the Diesel and … 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":[8,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57234"}],"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=57234"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57246,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57234\/revisions\/57246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}