{"id":9341,"date":"2014-10-08T20:07:26","date_gmt":"2014-10-08T19:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=9341"},"modified":"2014-10-08T20:07:27","modified_gmt":"2014-10-08T19:07:27","slug":"t69-02-leaves-midland-metro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=9341","title":{"rendered":"T69 02 leaves Midland Metro"},"content":{"rendered":"

As expected another of the withdrawn Midland Metro T69\u2019s has departed Wednesbury Depot with 02<\/strong> the second of the week to make the trip to Long Marston courtesy of Allelys. The tram departed on Tuesday 7th October and follows in the footsteps of 13<\/strong>, which left just one day earlier, and 14<\/strong> which had made the trip on 17th June.<\/p>\n

Unlike the previous days departure 02<\/strong> has spent quite some time out of service and although we don\u2019t have an exact date of its last service it still carries adverts for film The Crazies which was released in UK cinemas back in February 2010! During the intervening period it has been stored at the depot along with sister 01<\/strong> and has sustained a little bit of damage with at least one window noted broken and covered with plastic sheeting when it left.<\/p>\n

Tuesday 7th October was a poor day weather wise with rain and gale force winds \u2013 not much unlike the previous day when 13<\/strong> had left \u2013 but fortunately the worst of the weather did subside briefly as 02<\/strong> finally left on the back of the low loader. Of note is that 02<\/strong> also retained the original roller destination blinds \u2013 the operational fleet had been fitted with electronic displays several years back \u2013 and these were still set showing The Hawthorns West Bromwich Albion suggesting it may last have operated on a football special.<\/p>\n

It is now not expected that a further T69 will leave this week although it is understood 01 may be the next to leave early next week and is likely to be followed by further examples in that same week although there is always the possibility that this may change.<\/p>\n

Away from the depot and on the mainline, which continues to operate only between Birmingham Snow Hill and Priestfield due to rail replacement works, the T69s seem to have made a bit of a comeback operating the service with this week seeing more in use than in the last couple of weeks. On Tuesday 7th October 04<\/strong>, 05<\/strong>, 08<\/strong>, 09<\/strong>, 10<\/strong>, 11<\/strong> and 12<\/strong> were in use (alongside Urbos 3s 18<\/strong> \u2013 until taken out of service – 20<\/strong>, 23<\/strong>, 24<\/strong> with 26<\/strong> on test) whilst Wednesday 8th saw 04<\/strong>, 09<\/strong>, 10<\/strong>, 11<\/strong> and 12<\/strong> in service (Urbos 3s 18<\/strong>, 19<\/strong>, 24<\/strong> and 25<\/strong> were also in service and 26<\/strong> again was on test). Of the remaining T69s 16<\/strong> seems to be used the least and has recently seen use mainly at weekends.<\/p>\n

Eight Urbos 3s are now available for passenger use: 18<\/strong>, 19<\/strong>, 20<\/strong>, 21<\/strong>, 22<\/strong>, 23<\/strong>, 24<\/strong> and 25<\/strong> with 26<\/strong> currently seeing almost daily use on mileage accumulation runs and so can be expected to see service fairly soon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

02 backs out of the depot.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

02 leaves Birmingham for the last time.<\/p><\/div>\n

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02 on the back of the low loader.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A close-up view of the broken window at one end of the tram, covered with plastic sheeting.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A view of one of the bogies showing the chains used to attach it to the trailer.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

One end of 02.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Farewell 02! (All Photos: Andy Walters)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As expected another of the withdrawn Midland Metro T69\u2019s has departed Wednesbury Depot with 02 the second of the week to make the trip to Long Marston courtesy of Allelys. The tram departed on Tuesday 7th October and follows 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":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9341"}],"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=9341"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9350,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9341\/revisions\/9350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}