Crich Postscript

To augment the account of my visit to the National Tramway Museum the past weekend I am posting some additional images from this encounter with a great assemblage of the TMS collection.

The 'Star' of the day at Crich - singularly uninspiring Oporto 65 amid a fleet of pristine gleaming trams, albeit on a dull afternoon.

The tram that started it all off. Southampton 'knifeboard' 45 - a one time visitor to Blackpool.

Slight disparaties in both height and styling ! Johannesburg 60 faces off with a Glasgow Coronation car (in the depot).

One can never get away from Fleetwood - even in the Derbyshire Peak District. Liverpool classic 869 takes the prize in this brief encounter of passing contrasts.

Where can one ride on a tram that typified the former DDR? In the UK - only at Crich. Berlin (Ost) dourful 'Reko' two axle tram built on the truck and frame of an earlier Berlin tram in the 1960s.

A great lineup of contrasts. LUT 159 heads Liverpool 869 and Leeds 'Convert' 345 also in dark blue and white. Another blue and white double deck tram is due to add further contrast when LCC 1 is restored to its showcase 1932 condition. And finally a quick look at one of the open depots. Left to Right : Sheffield 189 (well just half of it) Sheffield works car 330 (formerly from Bradford), Gateshead 5, Halle Merseberg Tatra double ended T something car, and in the shadows New York Third Avenue car of 1939 courtesy of Vienna where it was shipped to after the war along with other examples of its class. Built by the NY Third Avenue Street Railway Company at their Workshops at 65th Street, Manhattan. I lived for several years on East 66th Street just a block away but unfortunately all traces of this major tram workshop and depot had long gone. The Vienna chapter allowed for several of these classic NYC trams to be repatriated to US museums, as well as an example retained by the Wien Stadtwerke, and of course the example seen here at Crich.