Sunday 20th December

WOW!

The operational year ended in whiteout as you can see from the pics! We tried in vain to get 752 and 6 coupled together to break the ice but we got as far as just past depot points and had to give up. Possibly the first time ever that service on HPT has had to be curtailed due to excess snow. It put aroung 6 inches down in the short time we were there.

A wonderful and rare shot of Leeds 6 and Blackpool 752 in the snow. The 2 cars coupled together revived memories of the photos of 6 always oin tandem on the streets of Leeds and usually coupled to something!

An idea of what we were battling - OK its not exactly Normay, but its deep enough when you're trying to revive a grounded Tram!

The snow coming in as we wrestled with the point blade - lots of hot water and elbow grease! (OK so I'm taking the photo rather than helping, somebody had to take the pics, but I did fetch a cketle of boiling water!!)

Total whiteout toward sdepot - beautiful.

Just as we managed to get the Trams back in 2 hardy souls turned up 'Oh, aren't you running?'

So, here's to 2010. We are now closed until January 10th.

I hope to have the full diary of events online over Christmas.

In the meanitime compliments of the season from a wonderful Chritmassy Heaton Park.

6th December

Another wet and quiet day. This time last year we were quite busy because the weather was cold and dry, ah well . . .

We took the opportunity to have a big shunt round to get ready for the main winter work. 765 is now at the back of the shed and will re-emerge spruced up in February.

You may have noticed that Blackpool Transport have issued the list of visiting Trams for next year's 125 celebrations and 765 is now officially on there. Most of you will know that the car inteded to visit Heaton Park is replica Vanguard 619.

By next update we should be ina position to announce a press release about next years' events, with a couple of surprises . . .

John

29th November 2009

Today we operated 12 - 3 in extremely wet conditions!

Whilst we carried very few passengers it did give us the chance to take some wonderfully atmospheric photos and video!

And a few pics of the day.

Track conditions at 'Woodside'

With headlight reflecting on the wt cobbles, 6 waits for a few stragglers outside depot.

With just 3 weekends left until the end of 2009 (yes, its gone that quickly!) lets hope for some fine weather.

Just for the record, this time last year was minus 3 and dry as it was works car day. Here's a quick photo of 752 just to remind you how cold it was!

Until next time . . .

JOhn

Last weekend

Sunday 22nd saw a visit by the Branchlines Society. Both 6 nd 765 were in use and performed lots of unusual workings. For anyone interested these included:
Pushing 6 right out onto the cobbles at Middleton Road, working wrong line, parallel runs, using centre crossover, using crossovers 'wrong way,' riding in and out of depot, short working and anything else we could think to do!

This evening the Manchester LRTA visited and both Trams saw an after dark outing, which makes 3 after dark events this winter!

765 is now officially withdrawn to have some remedial work done before next season, this will include tidying up of paintwork, replacement of filler which has come out over the years etc.

6 will now maintain the service until March. This is the first winter 765 has seen so much use in passenger service and hopefully won't be the last. For the record it is the second winter opening of the Tramway and 15th of November marked the first 12 months of continuous operation (we closed for 6 weeks at the end of the 2008 season). We experienced only one weekend where we had to curtail operations due to the weather, but we still carried a couple of passengers. A big thank you to the Park authorities for the liberal use of a road sweeper to help clear away the leaves.

A correction to the new website, it should be www.heatonparktramway.org.uk

Enjoy, until next time!

John

The Trams

For anyone ubnsure of what we own and run and the current status of them all, here's the current state of play as of 22/11/09.

Manchester 765; Operational, was restored during the 60s and 70s. Entered service at Crich in 1977 while construction was underway at Heaton Park. Moved to the park in 1979. Due some remedial tidying up to paint etc over the winter. It is still hoped that 765 will visit Blackpool again next year.

Manchester L53; The only restored Eades reversible Horse Tram in the world. Entered service in March 2008. Planned to operate on 28th March 2010. (The picture is taken at Beamish)

Leeds 6; Entered service as Hull 96 in 1988. Truck refurbished during 2008 as well as some bodywork attention. Resurfaced in late 2008 as Leeds 6.

Blackpool 752; The Railgrinder arrived in November 2008 and is in use as a Works car. Some attention will be needed later but nothing major.

Rawtenstall 23; Currently in store.

Manchester 173; Our only electric double decker is undergoing restoration and is on display at the Museum of Transport in Boyle Street.

I will try and upload some more pics over the next few days.

http://heatonparktramway.co.uk

Up and running

Hi all.

This is a brand new blog all about the Heaton Park Tramway in Manchester. It will be maintained by me, John Whitehouse, Operations and Commercial Manager.

So much is happening in the coming months, as you can see from this recent photo of 6 at Lakeside.

We are now well into the winter season, when we are open every Sunday 12 - 4. 6 is the winter service Tram but 765 did make an appearance on 8th November and is booked for 2 private hires this month!

Keep an eye on the blog and email me on j.d.whitehouse2@tesco.net if you want to include anything. I will try and update each week, lets see how we go. Oh, and thanks to paul Jarman at Beamish for the inspiration to start blogging.