So its been a while since we have posted anything on here, so here is an update for the year so far.
At the time of writing, we are all still recovering from our Tramtastic event on Sunday 7/7/19
The team worked tirelessly to get everything ready for the day.
The whole line required safety checking and cleaning after 4 weeks of downtime due to the ParkLife event held in Heaton Park.
765 made it back home (eventually) after spending some additional time gaining a tan on the M62.
All service cars (96, 623 and 765) fell on the same week for our deep service, which meant a full day over the pit for each.
The museum and shop both had a late spring clean.
After rebuilding the lifeguards and protective ironwork on 765, we managed to sneak a quick test run in.
All work was completed in time for Tramtastic.
Below are a selection of pictures taken on the day.
Our next event this this year will be the Translancs Transport Festival which will take place on the fairground at Heaton Park.
http://www.gmts.co.uk/what-s-on.html#translancs
The tramway will be operating everything we have that is serviceable and there may also be surprise at the start and end of the day (winky face)
As part of the national scheme, we will be taking part in the “Museums at Night” event on Saturday 02nd of November meaning we will be operating a service after dark, hopefully with an illuminated tram.
After our Season Swansong Event on Sunday 17th November we close for the winter. This is a time where our workshop team get a chance to work on all those nitty gritty jobs that we have been putting off all year like finally tidying up the workshop and tidying up the doors on lakeside depot. We may also have a bit of a suprise ready for when the 2020 season starts up in March 2020.
So should we expect from 2020?
Well…
Thanks to the enormous popularity of our Taster Tram Driver Experience in 2019 we are introducing an online booking system with time slots most weekends. This will increase our overall ability to facilitate more experiences throughout the year.
We will hopefully be introducing a new online shop, and the ability to track our trams in real time via our website. As far as I am aware, we will be the only tramway to offer this.
We may have 2 additional cars in our passenger carrying fleet.
5 is incredibly close to being completed, with just the top deck seats needing to be secured, some fiddly woodwork bits in the lower saloon and its final coat of paint on the truck.
619 is edging closer and closer to completion with its floor receiving its second coat of floor paint, scallops being measured and a test fit, and seats to be fitted over the winter shutdown, it is looking more and more likely that she will be ready by the middle of 2020.
We are still on the lookout for new volunteers, so if you fancy getting your hands dirty in the pit, serving in our shop, guarding on one of our trams, guiding visitors around the museum or even coming in and having a good chin wag please get in touch. info@hptramway.co.uk
We are still taking donations for the Lakeside Depot extension.