{"id":7235,"date":"2014-04-17T20:04:39","date_gmt":"2014-04-17T20:04:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=7235"},"modified":"2014-04-17T20:04:39","modified_gmt":"2014-04-17T20:04:39","slug":"metrolink-t68-1001-heads-off-for-scrap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=7235","title":{"rendered":"Metrolink T68 1001 heads off for scrap"},"content":{"rendered":"

1001<\/strong> has become the second T68, and third T68\/T68A combined, to depart Manchester for scrapping with it making its last journey on the back of a low loader on Tuesday 15th April having spent the previous couple of weeks in the workshops at Trafford Depot being stripped of any useful components.<\/p>\n

1001<\/strong> quite rightly has a major place in UK tram and light rail history being the first of the new generation of on-street light rail vehicles to arrive in the UK when it was delivered to Manchester on 29th August 1991. Over the next 21 years the LRV went about its business on the ever expanding Manchester Metrolink network before it was withdrawn from service on 7th August 2012, becoming the fifth of the class to run its last passenger journeys. Like all of the class 1001<\/strong> was suffering from a corroded solebar and the costs involved in rectifying this problem were deemed prohibitive especially in light of the deteriorating reliability the vehicles were suffering from.<\/p>\n

After initial component removal took place at Queens Road Depot 1001<\/strong> made its last fateful trip across Manchester in late 2012 where it was positioned on the scrap lines at Trafford Depot, a position it remained in until early April 2014. It was then moved into the workshops where any remaining useful components were removed in preparation for a one way trip to C F Booth of Rotherham, where it is to be scrapped (indeed by the time you read this it may already be history).<\/p>\n

Thanks 1001<\/strong> for your years of service and for starting the light rail \u201crevolution\u201d in the UK. It is probably fair to say that without the T68s \u2013 despite their faults and dated design \u2013 we would not be enjoying light rail in Birmingham, Blackpool, Croydon, Nottingham, Sheffield and soon in Edinburgh.<\/p>\n

It is expected that 1004<\/strong> will be the next T68 to head across to the other side of the Pennines with this vehicle having also been in the workshops for final component recovery.<\/p>\n

It hasn\u2019t been all bad news from Metrolink this week as the latest M5000, 3082<\/strong>, arrived at Queens Road Depot on 12th April and is now undergoing initial commissioning work whilst 3081<\/strong> has moved to Trafford Depot for preparations to be made for it to enter service.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

1001 departs Manchester for the last time. (Photo: Reece Hughes)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

1001 nears the end of its journey as it is caught on camera at Wooley Edge services near Rotherham.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Another view of 1001 at the service. (Photos x2 Bob Hodges)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1001 has become the second T68, and third T68\/T68A combined, to depart Manchester for scrapping with it making its last journey on the back of a low loader on Tuesday 15th April having spent the previous couple of weeks in … 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\/7235"}],"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=7235"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7240,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7235\/revisions\/7240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}