Stone workshop - 12th January 2011 (1)

Twenty Years On

These pictures were taken in 1991 - twenty years ago.

Blackpool and Leeds

Blackpool 166 has masking tape on its dash panels prior to lining out. Look carefully and you can see that some of Leeds 345's top deck windows have been removed.

Outside

The pile of white stuff is lingering snow which will eventually melt. But what about the red container, will it still be here all the year?

Bits and bobs for 159

Stone workshop - 6th January 2011 (2)

Stone workshop - 6th January 2011 (1)

Scaffolding was being errected yesterday.

A request

I have read that it is hoped to install audio visual displays in the exhibition hall during the winter. Will these replace the present lash-up with speakers on the roof of several trams?
If not can I suggest that these cables, amplifiers and speakers are moved and attached to the fabric of the building rather than disfiguring the exhibits.
(These pictures of Sheffield 264 were taken last summer.)

News from The Hague.

On December 17 2010, former HTM toast rack trailer 402 was saved and moved to the Frans Halsstraat museum building in The Hague.
402 started life as HTM horse tram series 200-215 (Franco Belge, 1896) and was converted to a trailer for the electric services in 1905.
It was disposed of in 1947, but luckily started a new life as a garden shed. Its final owners have now moved to a pensioners residence, making the tram available to the The Hague museum. Since former HTM horse trams are very rare (there exists only one other in Brussels), this is very good news.
It will be restored as electric trailer 402, to form a typical summer tram to Scheveningen with motorcar 265 and toast rack trailer 505. Otherwise it can be used behind HTM 2 (ex Amsterdam 72) on route 4 which at that time was running through the premises of the Houses of Parliament.

All the best for 2011,
Wim Beukenkamp

Nottingham 3rd January

Chuckle Brother's tea party

A collaborator/fellow traveller has sent the following contribution to the sartorial debate in this disturbing blog.
“Following on from the Ken Jones piece on your blog, I note John Shawcross is still wearing the same red jumper! as seen in the attached pics taken during a tea party at the Chuckle Brother's Tea Bar for combined workshop & traffic dept staff, images taken on 30th May 2010.
Will John's red jumper now become another celebrity pullover? Although it looks more like a fleece I think.”

A love letter to a tram

"Each day in Croydon High Street
I watch my darling pass,
By catching in Boots window-pane
Her image on the glass.

She stops; I turn; I tremble!
Shall I reach out my hand?
Too late! She glides on, humming now,
Past Meredith & Bland.

Her poignant perfume lingers,
Electric, on the air -
O! Dare I catch her up in Penge
And gently mount her there?"

Graham Feakins found this 1931 poem by John Betjeman in a book of published artices by Alan Coren.

1st January 1998

These pictures were taken on the Hershey Railway in Cuba which runs from Havana to Matanzas. The regular service was operated by electric locomotives hauling Romanian built steel box cars. Brill car 3011 was operating a local service in Hershey and the other Brill cars were operating a New Year special.