Croydon (2)

Church Street stop in Croydon town centre.

Elmers End station.
Arena stop.

Straight on for Elmers End and left for Beckenham.

Stephen Parascandolo

We spent a day in Croydon on Friday. The first tram we rode on was 2535 and Kath noticed a plaque in honour of Stephen Parascandolo. I was a frequent visitor to his web site until his untimely death in an accident. I was touched to see that he has been remembered by the tramway that he loved.
http://www.croydon-tramlink.co.uk/report/tram_naming.shtml

Croydon(1)

Johannesburg 60 arriving back at Crich

I was busy being a tram conductor when 60 arrived back. Rich Westman sent me these pictures which are low resolution.

Loading Johannesburg 60 (2)

Loading Johannesburg 60 (1)

These pictures were taken on Monday morning when 60 was loaded on to a low loader for its trip to Blackpool which had to be aborted because of trees overhanging the rural roads near Crich. I have published them because they demonstrate the relative ease with which a tram can be loaded using modern technology.

1940s Evening (2)

We continued our walk and sure enough the rumours were right. One of the new top secret short runway aircraft had landed. But where were the RAF?

We suspect that these two erks should have been guarding the aeroplane but that they had been distracted by a fifth columnist or even an enemy spy.
Finally we're not sure about this land girl. Something just doesn't seem quite right but no one else seems concerned.

1940s Evening (1)

We watched the umpteenth repeat of Dad's Army on Saturday evening and then put our anoraks on and nipped up to Crich for a couple of hours.
The first vehicle I saw was this fine Bristol LWL6B which was built in 1951.
An evening view of Blackpool 167 casting a shadow over Gary's bank.
Despite wartime restrictions, we saw this smartly dressed couple.

We felt safe as there were lots of soldiers everywhere. However later in the evening we penetrated an air base. (to be continued...)

Blackpool - change of plan

The plan was for J'burg 60 to go to Blackpool today. First the lorry was late but it was skillfully loaded between 10:30 and noon and provided quite a spectacle for Museum visitors. However 60 is the highest tram at Crich and after a very few miles it had an encounter with some trees resulting in two broken windows and scratched paintwork. The decision was taken not to risk further damage and so by 14:00 60 was back at Crich where it was unloaded.

Oporto 273 was the next scheduled tram for Blackpool so it was loaded later in the afternoon. I think that Blackpool 167 will be going to Blacpool later in the week but I don't know about the double deckers.
I will publish some pictures of 60 being loaded and unloaded later in the week.
 

Last tram

Because of war-time restrictions the last tram ran at 9:00 pm on Saturday.

Friday the 13th

Heavy showers were forecast so Chesterfield 7, Glasgow 812 and Liverpool 869 were in service. I was conductor on 869.

Cardiff 131 was being used by the driving school which together with the Blackpool test running managed to delay the service trams by upto ten minutes. It doesn't sound long but when you have a tram full of impatient young children you soon run out of excuses.