Heaton Park Tramway

02/11/2023

and we're in the city centre again at the height of Edwardian Manchester when the cotton trade was booming. Piccadilly was the heart of the tramways with cars from all parts of the city passing every few seconds. In this view two of Manchesters first boy scouts take a moment to pause on the steps of the statue to Queen Victoria while a string of trams head towards Market St and onwards. Meanwhile the horse for the waiting hansom cab enjoys the contents of his nosebag before heading of with its next client. A young chap in his stylish boater looks on - was he appreciating the new balloon top covers to the trams - or had the young lady in the huge brimmed bonnet caught his attention - we'll never know.

26/10/2023

Make sure you put Wednesday 27th December in your diaries for our Winter vintage fair, being operated in partnership with So Retro - Vintage Fair! See their post below for more information on the traders attending :)

We will be operating a tram service during the day - a very rare opportunity for a winter tramride in the Park! We are planning to use at least one of our open vehicles, Stockport 5 or Blackpool 619, for a truly bracing experience!

https://fb.watch/nWgSuvG1li/

26/10/2023

The 53 route is always special to us with our flagship tram being built to run on it. So here's a lovely shot of car 666 working the service sometime in the 1920s. The location is Stanley Grove in Longsight with one of the infamous low railway bridges that prevented double deck trams from working the route and led to the use of the classic 'California' style of trams. While the bridge still serves the main line from Manchester to Stockport, the shops and houses have been replaced by supermarkets.

22/10/2023

Thanks all who attended our running day yesterday in conjunction with Museum of Transport, Greater Manchester! We had a great time and we hope you did too.

Our next event, in partnership with So Retro - Vintage Fair, is our Winter Vintage Fair on Wednesday 27th December, a Tate chance to enjoy a tram ride with us in the winter months and our first fair in many years! See the poster and the So Retro page for more information.

20/10/2023

We're ready for a great day out with our friends from the Museum of Transport - tram services start at 11:30am! See you there?

Our fantastic twilight bus and tram event is tomorrow - bus and tram rides, night photography including expert tips, comfort food and atmospheric trips in the dark.

It'll be almost impossible to park in the street outside our museum. Instead, please come by public transport to Queens Road Metrolink or drive to the Irish Centre where we've arranged free car parking; or catch the 135 bus from Manchester City Centre.

We're running a shuttle bus service to and from the Irish Centre and Queens Road Metrolink, see the first comment below for the timetable.

We're also running a service to Heaton Park, where after dark we'll venture into the park itself for some fantastic photo opportunities and a chance to ride a vintage tram operated by our friends Heaton Park Tramway (modest charge applies for tram rides).

Please note, we are NOT running a service to Shudehill at this event.

19/10/2023

Only 3 careful owners...
Not all trams came to their owners brand new from the builders, or from their own in house works. Some were bought secondhand from other operators who were ceasing to run their trams.
Bolton's number 36 is one such - Built in 1901 for the local Farnworth Corporation it was soon sold to the South Lancashire Tramways Company. When the SLT withdrew its trams in 1933, 36 along with 7 other SLT cars were sold on again, this time to Bolton. Car 36 continued to run in the town until late in 1946, but is seen here in 1935 before the final replacement of the trams on the Four Lane ends R route in 1936. This was when the SLT trolleybuses took over the sole operation of the route, as part of the through working to Leigh.

18/10/2023

See below for the FREE vintage bus service timetable for this Saturday, being operated by our friends at Museum of Transport, Greater Manchester,

The timetable also includes the shuttle buses from Queens Road Metrolink and the Irish Centre, where parking will be available for their museum, which is also staying open late until 8pm.

Don't try and park at the transport museum itself - it won't be available. Park at the Irish Centre or travel by Metrolink or modern bus on the 135 route, then travel in style from there!

Here's the timetable for our 'Twilight running' event on Saturday. The buses we plan to use are Leigh 15, Stockport 321, Greater Manchester 3065, Greater Manchester 5871, Stockport 91, Lancashire United 97, North Western 174 and... Yelloway HVU244N, making its first-ever appearance on our free heritage bus services.

Please don't come to the museum by car - parking will be almost impossible. Instead, please use Go North West bus 135 from Manchester City centre; or Metrolink to Queens Road; or park at the Irish World Heritage Centre on Queens Road where we've arranged free parking. We’ll run a frequent heritage shuttle bus along Queens Road calling at stops close to the Irish Centre and Queens Road Metrolink.

18/10/2023

We're pleased to announce our timetable for this Saturday's tram service, operating into the evening in partnership with Museum of Transport, Greater Manchester, who are operating a FREE vintage bus service to and from the Park - see their page for more information on their bus timetable.

Blackpool 623 will be operating the daytime services - please note these only operate to our Whitegate stop and not the usual Lakeside terminus due to a run taking place in the park.

For the evening, we have chosen Stockport 5 to join in the fun (enabling an open top tram ride if the weather if favourable and somewhere to shelter if it suddenly turns damp!), with both cars operating a two car service to Lakeside during the evening - please note only be possibly to board this evening service at Middleton Road Gates (if arriving by public transport) or Middleton Road Depot (if arriving by the vintage bus service) - all other tramway stops are closed.

We look forward to seeing you at the tramway this Saturday!

17/10/2023

We're excited to be taking part in this event this Saturday, with trams operating from 12:00 until 19:30. Make sure you arrive in style using the FREE vintage bus being provided by Museum of Transport, Greater Manchester.

Blackpool 623 will be taking the lead operating our daytime service, which will be operating as far as Whitegate only from our Depot until 16:30 due to events in the park - with some of our other veteran tramcars joining in along the full line for the evening.

We're really excited because this weekend we're holding our first ever Twilight Buses running event - bus rides after dark, night photography inside the museum (including advice from our ace photographer who took this photo) and evening comfort food from our tea room. For more details see https://motgm.uk/events-themed.html

Please don't try to park at the Museum - we're on the frequent 135 bus service and we'll run a frequent free Park & Ride service between the Museum, Queens Road Metrolink stop and the Irish World Heritage Centre where free parking is available.

15/10/2023

Just two of the vehicles that the Museum of Transport, Greater Manchester will be using - we're particularly looking forward to seeing the Yelloway coach, which would have been seen regularly alongside Blackpool 623 and Blackpool 619 when operating the famous X60 service to the seaside.

Want to see what other wonderful vehicles they'll be using? You'll have to come on down and find out!

15/10/2023

Evening Photography on Saturday 21st October - Cancelled...but read on!

We're disappointed to announce we have had to cancel our Evening Photography event - the number of bookings made meant that the Tramway would not have broken even on the event and, as a completely volunteer operated organisation, we cannot afford to make significant losses like this.

However - all is not lost! We would like to announce that our day service already advertised as operating from 12:00 till 16:30 will now be extended through until 19:30, in conjunction with the Vintage Bus service being operated by our friends at Museum of Transport, Greater Manchester. The tramcars will only be picking up passengers at Middleton Road Depot (for those arriving by vintage bus) and Middleton Road Gates (for those arriving by foot and other methods of transport.

Please note that, at these times, the rest of the Park is closed and it will not be possible to disembark at any of our usual stops, other than supervised at Lakeside where we hope our Depot will be open for visits, subject to volunteer availability.

We hope you will still come and join us and our friends at the Museum of Transport for a evening of vintage vehicles!

12/10/2023

They say Guinness is good for you - well that it may be, but so would getting along to the park next Saturday be for the night time photo charter. We cant lay on Ashton 37 on one of its last ever trip from Manchester on 28/2/38, but we've got a great mix of trams to photograph in the dark, so come along and see if you're as good as Mr Gunn was.
If you want to take part you can find more details here https://facebook.com/events/s/tramway-photography-evening-by/335026795607871/?sfnsn=scwspmo

11/10/2023

Evening Photography Event - any more for any more?

Unfortunately, we've not had the expected uptake on bookings for our Evening Photography Event - we're currently in single figures for participants booked.

We need to hit a minimum of 20 participants by this coming Sunday (15th October) for this event to be financially viable - else we will forced to cancel the event as the Tramway cannot afford the expenditure. We would remain open in some capacity for the visitors on the Twilight bus service being operated by the Museum of Transport, Greater Manchester - we will confirm our offering in due course if this eventuality happens.

If you're planning to book, please do so before Sunday! The link is below - click Tickets and then 'Register Now' when it takes you through to our website, then simply fill in your details.

Thankyou.

https://facebook.com/events/s/tramway-photography-evening-by/335026795607871/?sfnsn=scwspmo

09/10/2023

It's less than two weeks until our Tramway Photography Evening - "By the Seaside!" event on Saturday 21st! 🚋📸

Our vintage Blackpool and Manchester trams will be under the spotlight alongside heritage buses, making for a great selection of cameos and scenes along the whole route of our tramway.

If that's not enough, we'll also be running trams and opening our museum during the daytime, and you'll get a very rare chance to see our under-restoration Blackpool Works Car 752 in public throughout the day and evening. A vintage bus service will operate from the Museum of Transport, Greater Manchester too :-) 🚍

Limited tickets remain available - check out the link at the top of this post or check out our events page to find out more.

05/10/2023

Life's a grind sometimes
Works cars were often the unsung heroes of the tramway fleets carrying tools and workmen around the systems, or doing jobs like grinding the track or watering the rails to keep them clean etc.
In the collection we have one - this ex Blackpool rail grinder built in 1928 and seen here at work in its home town in the 1950s.
It will also feature in our photo night on the 21st if you want to book a ticket and come and grab your own photos of it in the dark.

03/10/2023

The Museum of Transport, Greater Manchester have released their timetable to the Park for Saturday 21st October - tying in with our Photography Evening at the Tramway.

If you want to come and photograph our trams, you'll need to book in advance - see our event page for more information!

In a few weeks' time we'll hold our inaugural 'Twilight Running' event, on Saturday 21 October. We'll be running lots of our buses, including - we hope - one that has NEVER operated on free services for us before.

The Museum will be open from 10 am to 8 pm that day, and we'll run two free heritage bus services. One will connect us with our lovely friends at Heaton Park Tramway, who are running tram services into the evening, and one will be a 'Park & Ride' connecting us with Queens Road Metrolink stop and the Irish Centre, Queens Road, where we've arranged for parking to be available.

Parking at the museum will be very difficult, so please use the Park & Ride service or public transport to get here.

Please note, we will NOT be running to Shudehill Interchange at this event.

We'll offer our legendary menu of refreshments all day, and we'll also have a 'bonanza' sales stall with pre-owned books, models and other memorabilia at discounted prices. If you want to polish your night photography techniques we'll have a photography expert on hand to show you hints and tips.

02/10/2023

We still have plenty of availability on our Evening Photography event, taking place on Saturday 21st October! Click the link below to see more details and book your ticket to attend!

https://hptramway.co.uk/civicrm/event/info/?reset=1&id=51

01/10/2023

We're getting ready at the Park for our End of Season Gala!

Unfortunately, Blackpool 619 has been failed during preparation this morning - we'll still be continuing our event with four cars in action across the day. We also have our rare book sale taking place in our Museum and Shop from 12 until 4.

30/09/2023

Rare tramway book sale - tomorrow! 📚🚋

We've emptied our archives and filled our shop shelves full of rare and hard to find tramway books, featuring subjects from across the UK and further afield.

We'll be looking at making some available to buy online in the future, however they'll be available at bargain prices at both tomorrow's Gala and our photography day on the 21st October!

If you've been looking for a rare book on your favourite tramway, or you're missing a gap in the collection, come and give us a try!

28/09/2023

Evening Photography 2 – By the Seaside!

Heaton Park Tramway is pleased to bring you further details about the day and the opportunity to book our second Evening Photography event, taking place on Saturday 21st October.

EXTRA DAYTIME SERVICE!
First of all, we are pleased to announce we will be operating an additional day service, to tie in with the operation of the free heritage bus service to the Park by the Greater Manchester Transport Society, using Blackpool 623 from 12pm to 4pm. Please see the GMTS website for details of their service and times of operation.

Due to other events taking place in the Park, this service will be operating from Middleton Road Gates to Whitegate only, and will not be serving our usual Lakeside terminus.

Our usual fares will apply and the Museum and Shop will be open. There will also be opportunities to photograph Blackpool 752 in our workshop prior to the Evening Photography event.

EVENING PHOTOGRAPHY – BESIDE THE SEASIDE

To celebrate the return to service of our ‘Replica Vanguard’, Blackpool 619, our Evening Photography event this year has a Blackpool theme!

The event will be split into two sections, with static photography taking place on our double track section at Middleton Road, and the opportunity for some night time photography and a open top tram ride using Stockport 5 between Middleton Road Depot and Lakeside!

For our static display section, we will be using Blackpool 619, Blackpool 623 and, specially prepared for static display at the event, our ‘Railgrinder’ car, Blackpool 752, with 623 and 619 moving around to create different scenes with 752.

We are also pleased to announce we will have a vintage bus in attendance in the form of Routemaster RM1152, courtesy of Peter Crichton.

The Routemasters enjoyed a short afterlife in Blackpool following their service in the capital and, although not one of the Blackpool examples, we hope Peter’s Routemaster will invoke some fond memories and create some interesting scenes with our three cars, all of which will have seen Blackpool’s Routemasters when they were in service!

For our operation between Middleton Road and Lakeside, Stockport 5 will be in use, allowing you to have a rare open top tram ride in the darkness.

It is planned that Manchester 765 and Blackpool 702 will be on display for photography outside our Lakeside Depot.

This service will operate to a timetable, which will be published in the days before the event.

Like our event last year, we hope to undertake a ‘Grand Finale’, operating tram and bus through the Park to the Lakeside terminus. This will involve Peter’s Routemaster, the tramcar will be confirmed soon!

The fare for this event will be £15, bookable at the below link:

https://hptramway.co.uk/civicrm/event/info/?reset=1&id=51

We hope to see you at the Park soon!

28/09/2023

Some better news for our END OF SEASON GALA - Sunday 1st October 2023!

Thanks for a herculean effort by our volunteer team, we can provide you some more details about our End of Season Gala!

First of all, we're very pleased to say our Museum and Shop WILL be open for the duration of the event. Please stop by to see what we have to offer - there is sure to be something in our extensive second hand book collection for you!

Second of all, we can now announce the running order of the tramcars - this remains subject to availability/weather etc.

12:00-1:30 - 'Little and Large'

Our smallest tramcar, Hull 96, takes to the stage alongside our longest tramcar, Blackpool 619, for the first 90 minutes of operation.

1:30 - 3:00 - 'Beside the Seaside'

Blackpool 623 replaces Hull 96, with Blackpool 619 remaining in service, so our pair of operational Blackpool cars are in action together.

3:00 - 4:30 - 'The Bee Network'

In honour of the launch of the Bee Network and the new electric buses, we thought we'd get our Mancunian electric tramcars out! Manchester 765 and Stockport 5 will operate from 3pm until the end of the event.

We look forward to seeing you at the Park this Sunday!

28/09/2023

Postcards from the Edge
The Tramway runs into the park from Middleton Road but of course the trams of Salford Corporation ran along the other side of the park too along Bury Old Road to Besses o' the Barn and Whitefield where they for a while met those of the Bury Corporation. This commercial postcard shows the Bury Old Road with the road leading to the park at the St Margarets entrance off to the right. The area's undergone a bit of a change since those times.

26/09/2023

END OF SEASON GALA - 1st October 2023

Unfortunately, due to volunteer availability, we are having to scale back out End of Season Gala.

There will be a maximum of two trams in service at any one time - we are going to try to get all of our vintage tramcar fleet out across the day, but unfortunately we cannot say for sure we will achieve it. We will try our very best!

Unfortunately, as it stands, our museum and shop will also be closed.

We will issue an update if this situation changes.

In slightly more positive news, we will be announcing our plan for our Evening Photography event very soon - stay tuned to the page!

23/09/2023

Tomorrow and next Sunday are your last chances to ride a vintage tram in Heaton Park as part of our regular summer season! ☀️🚋

Tomorrow we'll have one of our historic tramcars in use, but if that's not enough, we'll be using all FIVE of our operational trams next Sunday as part of our End of Season event!

What's more, normal fares apply for both days, with return tickets at £2 per adult, £1 for children over five and family tickets for £5. All day tickets are available too.

We'll be offering further chances to ride our trams through the autumn and winter too, check out our events page and keep an eye out here too for the latest info 🍂⛄

21/09/2023

this week keeps us in the park, but with an unusual tramcar.

2023 celebrates 125 years of the Blackpool and Fleetwood Electric Tramroad. Running along the Fylde Coast from Gynn Square, the first trams arrived in Fleetwood in July 1898. The company became part of the Blackpool Corporation network in the early 1920s, and only two trams survived into preservation.

'Box Car' 40 was built in 1914 and used mainly as a Winter season vehicle until the mid 1930s. It survived to be restored to service for the 75th anniversary of Blackpool's trams in 1960, before moving between a few sites and arriving at Heaton Park in 1979. The tram was overhauled in our Middleton Road depot for further use, and joined us for several years before returning to Blackpool in 1988.

This tram was the first of several Blackpool's vintage tramcars to operate on our tramway, with no less than five forming part of our current fleet.

19/09/2023

Great to see our very own 765 sharing the limelight on the Parkrun page - another highly popular activity in the park!

14/09/2023

keeps us in the heart of Manchester this week, with the early days of Manchester's second-generation tram system - the Metrolink.

Seen shortly after the opening of the initial network in 1992, a pair of T68 trams are seen shortly after leaving Piccadilly station heading towards Piccadilly Gardens. The initial network connected Bury and Altrincham with the city centre, using converted railway lines, however the network has grown ever since and is now the most extensive light rail system in the UK.

The city is no stranger to holding such accolades, as the original Manchester Corporation Tramways network was the second largest in the UK, with almost 300 miles of track.

The site seen here has changed almost beyond recognition in the last thirty years, with M5000 trams now weaving their way through the skyscrapers forming Piccadilly Place, heading through the busy city centre.

Transport for Greater Manchester

07/09/2023

Our friends at the Wirral Transport Museum & Heritage Tramway are holding their Transport Show on Sunday 1st October 2023.

Sadly, they are unable to operate their trams this year, but if you want your "bus fix", there is no better show to go to!

If you're still wanting a tram ride, we are holding our End of Season Gala on the same day! The Wirral Transport Museum and Heaton Park Tramway are about 90 minutes apart by public transport - so why not come see us both? 😊

07/09/2023

The bit in the middle. St Helens, not a tramway system to have seen much attention from tramway enthusiasts, or photographers it seems. However with links to the Liverpool network at Prescot and with the SLT lines at Haydock, it was a vital link in the network of lines that stretched from the Pier Head in the west to the outlying villages beyond Stalybridge in the foothills of the Pennines.
Alistair Gunn visited once on the 7th of July 1935 and caught car 28 in the town centre on Ormskirk road.
This along with a small number of other images from St Helens were missing from the Gunn collection but copies were found in the Online Transport Archive and we're grateful to them for sending us copy files of them.

06/09/2023

☀️🔥 Its looking like a Sunny September scorcher in Heaton Park this weekend, so why not come down and enjoy a vintage tram ride on Sunday?

We're running from 12pm to 4:30pm with regular departures from the Boating Lake and Middleton Road Gates 🚋

We can't wait to see you and make the most of the Manchester sunshine 😎

04/09/2023

END OF SEASON GALA - Sunday 1st October 2023

A late addition to our events calendar - details to be confirmed, but expect trams to be running between 11am and 4pm, with all five of our operational trams taking part over the course of the day, subject to availability.

Stay tuned for more information!

02/09/2023

Today's the day for our models event at the tramway - Be like these keen park visitors and catch the tram to the sheds at Middleton Road and at Lakeside and enjoy the exhibition and take a ride on the trams between the two. And fingers crossed the weather's looking better so its looking like it will be a great day. Drop in and say hello.

31/08/2023

Yesterday saw the 163rd Anniversary of George Francis Train's first street tramway in the UK with the opening of his line in Birkenhead.
Manchester however had to wait nearly 17 years before tramways came to the city. On the 17th of May at 4.30pm the Manchester and Salford Tramways line from Pendleton to Kersal (Higher Broughton) line via Albert Bridge.
Car 23, one of the 30 trams built by the Starbuck company of Birkenhead for the opening is seen at the Higher Broughton terminus with the gates of the Kersal toll bar behind it.

30/08/2023

Join us on Saturday for our annual Model Tram Exhibition!

We will have exhibits showcasing model trams large and small, spread across both our Lakeside and Middleton Road Depot buildings, with our full size trams in action shuttling between the two.

Check out the comments for a link to the full info.

Entry to the exhibition is FREE! We will also only be charging our usual fares for rides on the full size tramcars - £2 per adult, £1 for children over the age of 5 and £5 for a family of 4. Children under 5 travel for FREE!

The show and trams will be operating between 11am and 4pm - see you there?

*LATEST NEWS! We are also being joined by an Austrian inspired HO gauge tram layout - "Tram Aus Tirol!'*

28/08/2023

Blackpool 623 is today's service car from 12-16:30.

Our shop and museum are also open, so come down and enjoy a ride on our seaside tramcar in the leafy greenery of the Park!

27/08/2023

The rain has stopped and we're open and running! Come down to the park and join us for a ride on one of our oldest trams - Hull 96 from 1901 🚋

Tram rides and the museum are both in operation until 4:30 today and tomorrow.

26/08/2023

Some folks visit the park by car, some arrive on the Metrolink tram and some even get here by foot if they live locally. This group however did it a bit differently and came in their own bus. Too good to miss the chance to get two generations of vehicles from Manchesters famous 53 route together for a picture before they headed into the park by tram.

24/08/2023

Back to the early days of Oldham's trams today and the route to Shaw. Oldham 38 heads along High Street in Shaw in the first few years of the service. Delivered in December 1901 as the first of a batch of cars (27-42) ahead of the starting of services, it had an eventful life. It was soon fitted with a balcony top cover but in 1910 was involved in an accident with another tram in Crompton and was again in trouble in December 1912, when it collided with car 92 on Salem Brow. On repair it was renumbered 93 with its old number then being reused by the water car.