{"id":59721,"date":"2025-08-16T22:00:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T21:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=59721"},"modified":"2025-08-16T10:14:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T09:14:21","slug":"in-pictures-tso-projects-progress-at-crich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=59721","title":{"rendered":"In Pictures: TSO projects progress at Crich"},"content":{"rendered":"

As is well known restoration projects at the Crich Tramway Village, home of the National Tramway Museum, would not be possible if it was not for external funding. The recent restoration of London County Council 1<\/strong> was funded by the London County Council Tramways Trust, whilst many others (including Newcastle 102<\/strong> and now Blackpool pair 298<\/strong> and 645<\/strong>) have only happened thanks to funding from the Tramcar Sponsorship Organisation (TSO). In this update from the TSO they explain the recent progress which has been made in the Workshop at Crich, and also provide details of how you can help these and projects in the future come to fruition by becoming a member.<\/p>\n

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The big restoration projects in the Workshop at the moment is that of Blackpool Brush Railcoach 298<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Work has continued on fitting the internal wood panelling and the external drivers cab end doors.\u00a0 All the parts for the bogies, including axles, wheelsets, motors, springs and ancillary parts have arrived at Crich from a specialist contractor. Reassembly of these into the bogie frames is to begin in the near future. As work progressed on the bogie parts a number of missing and defective components were identified, along with some new requirements. This caused delays and additional costs. All of these issues have now been overcome, by the resourceful efforts of the Crich workshop team and the contractors.<\/p>\n

Work continues on finalising the correct colour match for the moquette seating. This is a challenge without any historic records or colour photos. Resolution with the supplier is close in determining the correct shade of brown required.<\/p>\n

Work is also in hand to source suppliers and installers of the external steel panelling for the sides of the car and the correct profiled ends for the domed cab roofs. The task of installing these is expected to be carried out by contractors.<\/p>\n

The TMS has begun work at Crich to convert Blackpool tram 645<\/strong>, a centenary car from the 1980\u2019s, into a new accessible tram for people with reduced mobility.\u00a0 To assist in meeting the target of \u00a3150,000 to undertake this work, the TSO members have donated a generous sum of money to this project. It is hoped this tram will be complete in early 2026.<\/p>\n

Regarding future projects for the TSO to fund, discussions have taken place within the membership of the TSO together with the Tramway Museum at Crich, to determine which tramcar restorations are funded after Blackpool 298<\/strong>. These discussions centre around a number of potential projects and accurate details of estimated costings are awaited. With future projects in mind, it is essential funds continue be donated to the TSO for future projects. New members are always welcome as the current age profile of the TSO is well over 60. New members are needed if the museum is to continue its excellent restoration work into the future. If you would like to support TSO by committing either a one-off payment or regular payments, please send an email to tsotrams@gmail.com<\/a> and a member of the TSO will respond.<\/p>\n

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Two internal views of 298 showing the excellent progress being made on the restoration of the tram. (Both Photographs courtesy of the Tramcar Sponsorship Organisation)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As is well known restoration projects at the Crich Tramway Village, home of the National Tramway Museum, would not be possible if it was not for external funding. The recent restoration of London County Council 1 was funded by the … 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\/59721"}],"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=59721"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59724,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59721\/revisions\/59724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=59721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=59721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=59721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}