This is the last news report of 2013 – if anything exciting happens over the next two days I’ll add it onto this post.  There will be a couple more posts appearing over coming days, and I hope to make a number of announcements in early 2014 that will be of great interest to locomotive and tramcar enthusiasts, especially in the build up the Great North Festival of Transport…

Below: Commissioning 280 is a real team effort – Peter (left) and Les (in the cab) plus Mel (hiding inside) from the Beamish Tramway Group have been hard at work on the electrical circuits, with 280 (as we shall refer to it as) connected to a shore line to test the systems.  Quite a lot of work has been identified and this is in hand.  Separately, Brian and Tom are working on the mechanical side and interior and Hugh will start the electrical servicing on the controllers, compressor etc. later today.  As I am sure will be appreciated, whilst notionally a ‘runner’, much work is needed to become a safe and reliable runner that we can put into service here.  With the delay in getting the tram to us, and Christmas looming, we will probably undertake only limited testing over the next few days, with a full commissioning programme beginning in earnest at the start of January.

Below: Following shotblasting and priming, 280’s tower was undercoated white…

Below: …and then painted into cream, mixed to match the body colour.

Below: Once the tower was completed, David turned his attention to the tram itself, rubbing back the beading and priming it.  The handrails around the platform have also been prepared and painted (green) and will be second coated with the beading.

Below: New trolley planks for 280…  The tram arrived sans bell pushes and several seat swaps (believed to have been removed as souvenirs – if you’re sat on one while reading this, shame on you…).  BTS have supplied bell pushes and spares but the seats may well have to be borrowed from another of the Heaton Park collection.

Below: Matt is seen busy removing old paint to reveal the condition of the side panel ends where some cracking has been observed.

Below: The side panels are teak, and some have split.  Tony has lifted them to clean the joints and landings on the frame, then screwed them back together with long screws (not nails, as originally used) in order to tightly tie the pieces back onto a solid base.  The cracks have been cleaned and a deep filler will be possible (with a better grab) as a result.

Below: Much of the focus on 264’s structural strength is focussed what turned out to be very loose ironwork.  This is being refurbished and enhanced to stiffen up obvious weak points as well as extended to include areas that were not reinforced in this way before.  The underframe is sound and will not need renewal, which is a huge relief and big saving in cost.  However, the body flexing was well known so needs to be addressed before the tram is reassembled.

Below: The various corner brackets and angles have been removed, cleaned and primed too.  Work on 264 will slow down shortly as the gallopers will be in for a huge amount of work to be carried out in a very short time – not helped by the operations department extending the time they will be in use for (thus shortening the winter maintenance period and squeezing the workshop programme hard).  Next season also opens a little sooner than usual, so the team will have a major challenge to get the gallopers done, its contribution to the Home Farm project complete, a major piece of work on the swing boats finished and all the usual maintenance jobs (not forgetting all the railway locomotives and the annual boiler inspections) done.

More on Newcastle Transport’s early Tramcar liveries:

Below: Mr W. T. Dalton was the Chief Engineer for Newcastle Corporation Transport.  He held various positions between 1901 and 1943 (so was there for the initial opening of the electric tramway system).  In 1966, in an edition of ‘Modern Tramway’ he responded to correspondence titled ‘What colour were Newcastle’s trams?’.  In this he stated that: “They were painted dark maroon, with yellowwaist panels and white or cream roker panels.  About 1920 the roker panels were changed to dark maroon.  All the cars up to No.236 had white or cream roker panels.  The seventy ‘B’ type double deck truck cars built by the Brush Electrical Engineering Co. Ltd. in 1922-26 were delivered with maroon roker panels, and the older cars were gradually painted maroon.”  He also described the yellow as ‘more orange than yellow’ and that some trams received lighter yellow panels during the war due to interrupted paint supplies.  Mr Dalton’s file (which his descendants presented to us) contains numerous photographs. articles and notes he made, as well as those by what I presume to be his son.  Included is this photograph taken at Byker Car Works, well known to us now and well discussed in relation to the livery debate:

Below: Here is a more detailed scan of the Newcastle postcard, along with a close up of the above shot and one of 114 taken by Andy Martin last year…

I am therefore still pretty happy that 114 carries the correct arrangement of colours in its present guise!

Below: By way of further interest – this view shows cars under construction for NCT by Brush (the B series referred to above) – note how the waist panels (those beneath the windows on the lower saloon) render different shades between each tram looking along the line.

And finally…

I don’t often put links to other websites on this site – the danger is having a rather full site and the usual sources and search engines are very good at directing folk to even the more obscure sites, however, I came across this one whilst researching something on Gateshead’s tramways that is in the pipeline, and I thought it worth sharing: http://www.birches.plus.com

It is a very useful resource and reflects a considerable amount of work by its author and is well worth a look if you have some dark post Christmas excess days to fill!

Below: Finally, to finish on, here is a mystery object!  The photo was taken a couple of days ago at Stonehurst Farm, Quorn, near Loughborough.  It is clearly a tramcar body, note the roof hoops and apertures for staircases at both ends, but what is its origin?  The flat sides are unusual, likewise the matchboarding (if original).  I very much like this sort of thing – a tram body should be preserved and restored in this form as so many of our preserved and running trams originated from such situations.  The trailer itself is interesting and there are a number of early period solid tyred ex lorry chassis close by too.

STOP PRESS!

Many thanks to all of those who have replied re the identity of this tram body – it is a former London County Council tram trailer – four wheel non-powered trailers towed by the E1 bogie cars and a brave (and rare) example of towing practice in the British Isles.