With 513 making its first runs at the East Anglian Transport Museum, a look back to its arrival at Beamish seems appropriate! Peter Barlow took this photo on the tram’s first run back in the late 1970s after much work had been carried out to make it operational. Obviously at that time it still bore the scars of protracted outdoor storage and vandalism, before it had arrived at Beamish. It also still wore the ‘Last Tram’ decorations, carried at the closure of the Sheffield Corporation Tramways in 1960. This view shows just how much restoration was required to what might have been regarded as a ‘complete’ tramcar’. Note the Glasgow Subway cars in the background – purchased as a source of parts, not a plan (as I have read elsewhere!) to build a circular subway system at Beamish! These were subsequently dismantled and the usable parts have kept various aspects of the tramway running since.

The EATM are now carrying out the necessary work to commission it for service in East Anglia.