CHALLENGES with tram availability and workshop capacity led to plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Beamish Museum tramway being scaled down.
Instead, an event entitled ‘Fares Please!’ was held on the weekend of May 6/7, including both trams and buses.
It had originally been hoped that Gateshead No. 10, which inaugurated the tramway at the County Durham visitor attraction, would be back in service in time to mark the system’s half century, but its extensive overhaul is now not expected to be completed until spring next year at the earliest.
With its destination blind reading ‘Pleasure Beach’, Blackpool ‘Marton Box’ car No. 31 is seen in the High Street at Beamish Museum on April 2.
BARRIE WOODS