Issue Thirteen of Tramways Monthly has now been released, and inside we take a look at the events coming up in 2010, some more of Blackpool’s preserved trams, trackwork at Blackpool and much more.
As ever, your views are welcome on our forum at forum.tramways-monthly.com or via email to info@tramways-monthly.com
On behalf of the Tramways Monthly team I hope that you enjoy the latest Issue!
Regards,
Jack Gordon
Editor
January 9th 2010 saw my first trip of the year to an extremely snowy Crich. Several inches had fallen and due to it being so high it is unlikely to be completely gone until the end of the month.
While full snow coverage will be featured in the next Issue of Tramways Monthly, I just thought i’d whet your appetites a bit more with this photo of the A&B phone box in front of the Assembly Rooms… Enjoy!
Regards,
Jack
Our 2010 Calendar is now online and available to download – for free – from http://www.tramways-monthly.com/2010-calendar – just select whether you want it in high or low resolution!
Perhaps more excitingly though – and something we’ve been keeping quiet about but has been in development for a while – is the new ability to be able to create your own blog, all from within the Tramways Monthly site. Just visit http://blogs.tramways-monthly.com to get started!
Unfortunately at the moment to create a blog you will need to create a new account, however we are hoping to have full account integration between our main site, blogs and forum in the future.
I hope you all enjoy these new features, and wish you all a happy new year!
Regards,
Jack
We’re taking an oppurtunity over the New Year period to put together a “Review of the Year” and a 2010 Calendar, both of which will be available to download from our website in the very near future!
The calendar will be available as a PDF download – completely free – and contains 12 high quality images from 12 different tramway systems – both modern and heritage – from across the UK. We would like to get a European/Worldwide version made at some stage too, though we are lacking photos at this point in time – please email any you have to editor@tramways-monthly.com.
Our “Review of the Year” will also be available from early January – also as a FREE PDF download – and will include a summary of all the biggest tram happenings from 2009 – watch this space for more details!
Finally, don’t forget that although there is an extended break for the magazine itself, our Forum is always open so please come on over and say hello! Everyone is extremely welcome, and we have a wide variety of forums to discuss things on – recent posts have included the Southend Pier tramway, the Blackpool 2010 Visitors and an original Destination Blind box – http://forum.tramways-monthly.com if you’re interested!
I finally want to wish all Tramways Monthly readers and their families a Happy New Year, and thank you once again for your support throughout 2009.
I’m sure everyone knows about the recent snow that has swept across the country, and here in the Tramways Monthly newsroom we’ve been getting a few pictures sent in of trams in the snow.
We are planning a feature in Tramways Monthly Issue 12 which will (hopefully!) have full coverage from all of the UK’s tramways, but in the meantime here are a couple from the Metrolink in Manchester, courtesy of the camera of James Harkins, taken yesterday, December 22nd:
Hope you like!
Jack
Issue Eleven of Tramways Monthly has now been released, and inside we have coverage of Heaton Park’s Leeds Day, Brush Car 634 entering preservation, trackwork at Crich and Blackpool and much more.
As ever, your views are welcome on our forum at forum.tramways-monthly.om or via email to info@tramways-monthly.com
On behalf of the Tramways Monthly team I hope that you enjoy the latest Issue!
Regards,
Jack Gordon
Editor
I made a trip up to Blackpool yesterday. After a 5 hour car ride my plans of doing anything in the daylight were scuppered, so I instead focussed on riding what I could before night fell and then brought the video camera out one I reached Little Bispham.
I got on two trams that were on my checklist – Balloon 717 and Twin Set 5 – and saw many more… thirty three trams were out and about and I think that’s probably the biggest all year – perhaps even for a few years? This allowed me to see & video plenty of trams.
The trams were:
Balloon Cars: 700, 707, 709, 711, 712, 713, 715, 717, 718, 719, 721, 723, 724
Brush Cars: 622, 630, 631
Centenary Cars: 641/2/3/4/5/6/7/8
Jubilee Cars: 761/2
Illuminated Cars: 733/4, 736, 737
Vintage Cars: 66, 147
Twin Cars: 673+683, 675+685
Total: Thirty Three Tramcars, counting Train & Twins as one
Despite only getting an hour riding time, this was definitely the right day to go on!
Some pictures will appear soon…
J
Sadly my first blog post contains bad news – 722 has become the second Blackpool Balloon car to be scrapped. It moved into the works for scrapping to commence earlier this week.
Whilst I’m sad this has happened, it was always pretty much inevitable that some Blackpool trams would meet this fate as there are so many of them, and so few people have the resources needed to actually preserve any. Let’s just hope that the news about 722, and the warning that more of the mothballed fleet will probably follow this winter, will encourage preservation groups to act to save the best trams before its too late!
No word has been given about which other trams could be scrapped, but presumably the ones in worst condition that no-one has expressed any interest in taking will be chosen. I think Trailer 687 is a likely candidate, along with Railcoach 678 which is in terrible condition, and some of the worst Brush cars. These are just my thoughts though, and only time will tell what will happen!
The October 2009 Tramways Monthly Supplement has now been released, and it can be downloaded from our magazine archive at http://www.tramways-monthly.com/magazine-issues on the main website.
The Supplement is focussed around the last weekend of trams to Starr Gate in Blackpool, and also includes some more general Illuminations stuff and photos of Starr Gate two weeks after closure.
All comments are always welcomed greatly!
I hope you enjoy it.
Regards,
Jack Gordon – Editor
Ok, not really Tramway related, but bear with me! I’ve been at the University of Derby today attending some workshops produced by the BBC and Radio 4, and two in particular were very useful. One concerned journalism and the other social media.
The journalism confirmed a lot of what I already try to do with Tramways Monthly, and revolved how you go about getting reliable news information. We we’re given some actual scenarios from 2002/3 about the Iraq war and asked what we would do. I find it very interesting and helpful.
The social media one was very helpful as well, and covered using things like blogs, forums and Twitter, all of which is used by Tramways Monthly already, but also not to expect things to grow rapidly overnight. I’ve learnt some new things for these that i’m going to be looking into exploring shortly…
Hopefully Tramways Monthly will benefit!
Jack