Following on from the highly successful mid-life refresh of Blackpool 31 last winter, we are now undertaking a similar job on Newcastle 114. This has entailed removal of the truck in order to have the wheelsets reprofiled and the motors serviced as necessary. Also, Phil Anderson is repainting the tram to the same high standard as 31. The livery is of a slightly different style to that previously carried. There has been some discussion by various authors regarding early Newcastle livery. This centred on two pieces of evidence. One, that the Hurst Nelson built trams (which 114 is) were ordered to be painted ‘as per Glasgow livery’ (supported by Newcastle’s then manager being an ex Glasgow manager) and secondly that the film stocks used to capture early images can differ wildly in their representation of yellow shades – some, when printed, appear very dark and with the Newcastle livery being as it is, this led to an assumption that the waist panels were dark (the crimson/brown shade) when they were in fact the cadmium yellow/orange shade. of course, we can never know for certain, but this repaint seems a good opportunity to see what it might very well have looked like. I have prepared a paper on this and will endevour to place it in the downloads section (top right of your screen) for those who wish to read more of the rationale behind the decision. It will leave 114 looking really quite different however, and presenting an argument for not always believing what you see in a photograph!

The target is to have the car ready for April’s GNSF, to be seen as a classic late Victorian and Edwardian tram alongside Manchester 765…

Below: A close up of one of the motors, showing the simple, almost model railway like, direct drive from motor to axle.

Below: Two views of the truck as removed earlier.

Below: When ribbed back, paints often reveal their ingredient shades, and the brown here shows the red tones rather well. Of course, it isn’t actually brown, rather a deep crimson, but its all in the eye of the beholder to be honest – the debates that take place over paint shades will never reach a conclusion!

Below: A view of 114, rubbed down and sans truck.