Iasi 2011

We made it to Iasi and have a room overlooking the tramway. The tram is,of course, an ex-Stuttgart GT4 which was built in 1963 and is probably older than the Timis car in my 1982 picture.

For pictures of our journey from Luton to Iasi please see http://www.focustransport2011.blogspot.com/ including areoplanes, a horse and a country that doesn't exist according to the United Nations and lots of trolleybuses.

A room with a view.

Open Letter

To: The Chairman of the Tramway Museum Society
From: Richard Lomas

Hello Colin

I was very pleased to see from Contact that the Adlib Collections Management system is finally going to be brought into use this Autumn. It is five years now since I attended an initial training session that revealed a few issues to be resolved before it was implemented and it is goodness knows how many years since the Museum had a functioning cataloguing system. Probably not since Rosy Thacker retired.

In the absence of a collections management system and with the knowledge and agreement of the curator, I prepared a simple Excel spreadsheet to list all maps and timetables in the Museum's collection. The plan was for this data to be imported into the Adlib system once it was implemented. Adlib had confirmed that this was practicable.

The most recent version of this spreadsheet I have contains 6760 entries. I also prepared Excel lists of other artifacts with 1139 entries.

Please confirm that all this work I did for the Museum will not be lost and that it will be incorporated into the new Adlib system.

Many Thanks.
Richard

http://tramways.blogspot.com/2006/06/motorbikes-training.html

29 years on

We are on our way to Romania and hope to stay at the hotel in background of this picture of Iasi in 1982.

Pictures of buses, trolleybuses and even aeroplanes on this trip can be found at www.focustransport2011.blogspot.com

Surplus books

Some of the surplus books I had prepared for sale in March 2009.

Surplus books on sale in May 2011.

Surplus books were offered for sale at the recent Enthusiasts' Day at Crich and a printed book list will be circulated with a future Journal. Before I was kicked out of the Library I had raised over £300 by selling such books using the internet http//spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p7_DSJtCkRgQ1oZ2WTf-qeA

It would have been nice if this pioneering work had been acknowledged.

Crich car park

This is what visitors to the National Tramway Museum saw on Wednesday morning. Surely some of these cars and vans could have used the public car park and the others have parked more discretely round the corner.

Leeds 345 on Wednesday

Rain

159's bogies

As previously reported by Andy Bailey, 159's trucks are now ready for final painting and assembly.

£400 worth of nuts bolts and washers.

Dan Heeley has agreed that I can publish his summary of the work on the trucks.
"To give a little more detail on 159s trucks:

The project originally acquired a pair of ex-Lisbon 22Es with a view to re-gauging them. An abortive start was made on this, as some will recall one truck was partially assembled. However numerous defects were discovered including a twist in one of the side frames.

A decision was made to have new side frames made. These differ from the Brill standard as the pattern was made un-handed so that only one pattern was required. This new approach also allowed the strengthening bars to be dispensed with that were present on the Lisbon trucks, which would no doubt have been criticised as unauthentic!

Of course most of the transverse components are new, but a number of other parts have been reused after refurbishment, including pony wheels, most of the axle boxes (although one proved beyond repair so a new one has been made) and the `plunger' mechanism as well as some sundry items. The driving wheelsets are ex Blackpool & Fleetwood by the way! – again with new axles and brand new gears.

After many setbacks the end is now in sight and I think we will all be glad to roll 159 out and show it to the world!"

Stone workshop (15) - A glimpse of the future

Frank in Florence

1012 crossing the Arno river bridge - built for the tramway

A scene that once indicated a closed route but in modern Florence the points have been laid for a future extension

1007 on a typical reserved track scene

(Frank Bagshaw was in Florence last week.)

Swadlincote Scaffolding

These pictures were taken on Friday (I don't understand why the lorry wasn't parked inside the safety barriers as there were quite a lot of young children at the Museum at the time).

159's bogies

Andy Bailey reports on Saturday's progess on London United 159.
"Today has been a momentous occasion when 159 for the 1st time sat on one of its bogies. This was only temporary for the purpose of setting up the quadrants at both ends. A few hours later the bogie was stripped down ready for painting and hopefully its final assembly. The other bogie has been stripped and most parts painted ready for reassembly."

Black Country Museum

The Black Country Living Museum has two trams, Wolverhampton Corporation 49 and BET owned Wolverhampton District 34 which operate on a short line within the museum. There is also a separate trolleybus circuit. The trams operate all the year and the trolleybuses at summer weekends. In January this year thieves stole a lot of the overhead line and services were suspended. Whilst the tramway overhead was being replaced, the opportunity was taken to refurbish both the track and number 34. Tramway operation restarted at Easter but the trolleybus overhead has yet to be reinstated.

Leeds 180

I was conductor on Leeds 180 yesterday. It is a few years since I have worked on this tram and I was surprised by how smoothly it runs now.

These two pictures were taken from an open top deck window whilst we were waiting in front of the workshop.

Publicity photos were being taken for the 1950s event next weekend.

Trees

Twenty years ago we used to spend Wednesday evenings at this time of year cutting back trees. Nowadays this work is carried out by employees and contractors when the Museum is open. Perhaps one of the reasons that nobody wants to be Treasurer is the ever increasing cost base. How much will it cost to light and heat the Stone Workshop and how much extra revenue will it generate?

Four trams on Tuesday

Blackpool 166

Cardiff 131

Glasgow 812

Berlin 3006

Stone Workshop (14)

It is now the middle of June and the trams are still having to turn short.

The first of the glass roof panels.

Kerb stones being replaced.

Manx Electric number 7 in blue

After an extensive overhaul Manx Electric number 7 entered service on 5th June with matching trailer number 48. Both are painted in a dark blue livery. Pictures and further details can be found Dave Martin's web site.
I have a couple of pictures of 7 in 1969 and 1975.

Dave Martin has sent me this picture of number 7 last September but please have a look at his web site for more pictures.