{"id":7047,"date":"2014-04-02T18:48:12","date_gmt":"2014-04-02T18:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=7047"},"modified":"2014-04-06T10:36:07","modified_gmt":"2014-04-06T10:36:07","slug":"metrolink-t68s-enter-the-scrapman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=7047","title":{"rendered":"Metrolink T68s: enter the scrapman"},"content":{"rendered":"

The day that we all knew was coming has finally arrived, the mass scrapping of the withdrawn T68 and T68A fleet of Manchester Metrolink has started. A low loader arrived at Trafford Depot on Wednesday 2nd April to take 2004<\/strong> to meet its maker in Rotherham with the well known company C F Booth Ltd having won the contract to dispose of the LRVs.<\/p>\n

Some may consider it a surprise that 2004<\/strong> has been chosen to be the first T68\/T68A to be scrapped (with the exception of course of 1011<\/strong> which met its maker last September following its use at the Red Bull Trials in Manchester City Centre) but it has been out of sight within the workshops at Trafford for a number of months presumably preparing it for this day. 2004 has been in Manchester for less 15 years having arrived in August 1999 \u2013 a staggeringly short operational life. It was the 14th vehicle to be withdrawn and last carried passengers on 28th March 2013 (don\u2019t forget you can find out all the facts and figures on the T68\/T68As in the excellent book Superb, available from http:\/\/www.buryrossendalerails.com\/<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

It is now expected that the remaining T68 and T68As will leave Trafford Depot at fairly regular intervals and that it won\u2019t be that long before they are but just a memory on Manchester Metrolink metals.<\/p>\n

There currently remains three operational T68\/T68A vehicles with just two of these available for passenger service. 2001<\/strong> and 2003<\/strong> continue to be used sporadically on the Bury-Abraham Moss shuttle service but now tend to only be used when there are not enough operational M5000s available. Although it was originally thought that they may see service for a large percentage of 2014 it now appears that they will be withdrawn sooner rather than later so if you see one in service you better jump on for a ride or take a picture before its too late!<\/p>\n

The other operational vehicle is T68 1023<\/strong> which was retained for use as an ice breaker tram over the winter period but now we are in spring it should be hoped it won\u2019t be needed for this purpose anymore (fingers crossed it will continue warming up now!) One significant event for 1023<\/strong> occurred at the end of last week when it received a name on the \u201cA\u201d end only \u2013 it\u2019s first and only name of its career meaning that finally all T68\/T68As have now carried a name. The LRV was named MIKE MABEY to mark the departure of Metrolink\u2019s Head of Operations who had been with Metrolink since 1991.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

2004 seen during happier times at Harbour City on 3rd September 2008. (Photo: Gareth Prior)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

2004 departs Manchester for the last time on the back of a low loader. (Photo: Reece Hughes)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The day that we all knew was coming has finally arrived, the mass scrapping of the withdrawn T68 and T68A fleet of Manchester Metrolink has started. A low loader arrived at Trafford Depot on Wednesday 2nd April to take 2004 … 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":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7047"}],"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=7047"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7047\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7122,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7047\/revisions\/7122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}