{"id":7123,"date":"2014-04-07T18:45:01","date_gmt":"2014-04-07T18:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=7123"},"modified":"2014-04-07T18:45:02","modified_gmt":"2014-04-07T18:45:02","slug":"southampton-45-raised-from-the-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=7123","title":{"rendered":"Southampton 45 raised from the dead!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome news from the Crich Tramway Village, is the commissioning of <strong>Southampton 45<\/strong> following a year-long lay-off. On Saturday 5th April, the tram was taken up to Glory Mine on a test run, and now looks set to rejoin the operational fleet imminently having sat idle during the entire 2013 season.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>45<\/strong> last ran at the end of 2012, and was then withdrawn due to concerns regarding the general deterioration of its condition. Apart from a very brief spell away from the museum in connection with the Notts &amp; Derby Tramway Centenary event at Kimberley, the car spent most of 2013 tucked up inside the Exhibition Hall, but was extracted and moved back into the running sheds earlier this year, with <strong>Newcastle 102<\/strong> taking its place. Although it was suspected that this was in preparation of the car being returned to use for the &#8216;Electric 50&#8217; event in September, it has come as quite a surprise that the tram has been commissioned so early in the year. Hopefully this will enable <strong>45<\/strong> to operate throughout 2014, providing an extra open top tram in the running fleet which is bound to be a popular decision.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Southampton 45<\/strong> has a very special place in the national collection, as it was of course the first tram to be preserved by founder members of the Tramway Museum Society, and went on to become one of the first trams to carry passengers at Crich. It was therefore only right that it returns to service for the 50th anniversary year of electric tramcar operation at the museum, and hopefully it will be one of the stars of the much anticipated September events. However, we must bear in mind that this tram has not received much workshop attention for quite some time and therefore its comeback will probably only be a temporary one, unless the required funds for it to be overhauled can be found &#8211; so be sure to take a ride on <strong>45<\/strong> while you have the chance! For now though, the TMS deserve full credit for enabling this much-loved tram to play its part in their historic year, and hopefully its reactivation will be much appreciated by visiting enthusiasts during the coming months.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7124\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?attachment_id=7124\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-7124\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7124\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-7124\" title=\"45 traverser\" src=\"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/45-traverser-1024x680.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"425\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/45-traverser-1024x680.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/45-traverser-550x365.jpg 550w, https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/45-traverser.jpg 1462w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-7124\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Southampton 45 is seen escaping from the Exhibition Hall on 1st February; the first step towards the popular tram being returned to the operating fleet for 2014. (Photo by Andrew Waddington)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Welcome news from the Crich Tramway Village, is the commissioning of Southampton 45 following a year-long lay-off. On Saturday 5th April, the tram was taken up to Glory Mine on a test run, and now looks set to rejoin the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=7123\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/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\/7123"}],"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=7123"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7126,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7123\/revisions\/7126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}