Cardiff 131

The 4:00 pm departure from Town End to Glory Mine was delayed by the arrival of Cardiff 131. By 5:00 pm it had been unloaded and was being pushed slowly towards the workshop and by 6:00 pm these pictures were published on the internet. Contrast this with 1959 when 131 arrived a day early and no one knew until the next morning.

Friday was an all too familiar grey day with Leeds 345, Glasgow 812 and Sheffield 74 in service.

Men at Work

1. Richard Stead selecting some wooden trim.
2. Geoff Lomas sweeping Paisley 68 at the end of service.
Not a bad day with some sunshine. Trams in service Paisley 68, Leeds 345 and Southampton 45.

Trams and trees

A busy (and a disappointing) day

After grey skies and a cold wind in the morning the sun came out for the afternoon. Trams in service were LCC 106, Jo'burg 60 and Glasgow 22. The driving school was using Paisley 68 and Leeds 180 made some test runs. Add to this a few trips by Berlin 3006 and we have a busy day.
1. Tony Stevenson at the controls of LCC 106.
2. Jo'burg 60 between trips with Leeds 180 in the background.
But for me it was a disappointing day. I signed at 9:00 am for a tram driving test that I had expected to take until mid-day or perhaps 1:00 pm. However I was wildly wrong in my assumptions and at 3:30 pm I was told that the practical part of the test would not begin until around 4:30 pm. I am a morning person. This was simply too late in the day to start a stressful activity having hung around waiting and doing odd jobs since 11:30. There was no way that I could have given my best in these circumstances so I signed off.
Two comments have been added to this post. I would simply add that the sequence of events was most unfortunate for all concerned. I would like to thank the driving instructors and all other operations staff who helped me.

Test Runs

Surprisingly the weather stayed fine today. Glasgow 22, Leeds 345 and Leeds 399 were in service.
1. Oporto 273.
2. London transport 1622.
3. TIM ticket machine.

London, Leeds & Glasgow

Presentation

Caption competition

1940s - People

Pictures taken on 11th August 2007.

1940s- people

Pictures taken on 11 th August 2007.

1940s - Trams

Pictures taken on 11th August 2007.

Leeds 399

1. Leeds 399 returned to service yesterday after a break of 10 months after a seemingly intractable problem with the air track brakes had been solved. It is seen with driver Mike Crabtree and note that headlamp masks have been fitted.
2. 1940's Weekend - this weekend.

Tony Wilkes

I was very pleased to see Tony Wilkes today who retired from tram conducting last year. Here he is working for the museum by repainting some railings. In the picture he is chipping away old flaking paint.

Mansfield, Glasgow, London

Today's trams: J'burg 60, LCC 106 and Southampton 45. Berlin 3006 also made 3 trips.
1. The gentleman on the right in the blue shirt claimed to remember Mansfield trams.
2 & 3. Glasgow 22 has been fitted with CDB2 controllers and has already been out on a test run.
4. Interior of LCC 159 showing work on the seat frames.

Chesterfield in 1924

This timetable is by far the oldest in my collection of Derbyshire bus timetables.
It is dated 30th June 1924.
It contains details of civic dignitaries, the Tramways Committee and the senior officers.
Following this are details of country walks that can be accessed from the Corporations bus and tram services.
Then come departure times for the bus services including one from Whittington Moor Tram Terminus to Woodseats Tram Terminus effectively linking Chesterfield to Sheffield.
Finally on pages 47 and 48 are lists of tramway fares and on pages 50 and 52 are lists of tramway departure times. (The only thing that is missing is the running time but perhaps I can find this from another source).
Virtually every other page is given over to adverts which add to the social history.

3 trams and a Workshop

At least it stayed fine today but it was not as sunny as I had hoped. I was a trainee driver today and drove all three of these trams.
1. LCC 106 at Glory Mine.
2. Chesterfield 7.
3. Not a tramcar repair 'workshop' but an educational 'workshop' for young children.
4. Paisley 68.
Photographs taken somewhere in England.