Home | Tramways
Heaton Park tramway

Heaton Park is a large city park on the north side of Manchester. In the days of the old city tramways (closed 1949) it was served by a branch off the Middleton Road route. In 1979 this branch was revived to form the basis of the Heaton Park tramway. It is operated by the Manchester Transport Museum Society.

On May 3rd 1979, Blackpool & Fleetwood 40 arrived at Heaton Park from storage at Clay Cross.

The building in the background is the depot. This was orginally a large park shelter which was rebuilt in 1979 for the tramway. Due to restricted height, the floor had to be lowered to get the trams in. Even then it can only accomdate single deck cars.
Here 40 is being winched off the trailer.

No.40 was built in 1914 by the United Electic Car Co. at Preston. Its design was rather dated for 1914 and was very similar to the orginal 1898 B&F cars.

Manchester 765 leaving the depot (Sun April 26th 1981).

No.765 was built in 1914 for the 53 route. This had many low bridges so single deck cars were required. It arrived at Heaton Park in May 1979 and was the first car inservice when the line opened in March 1980.
No.765 poses next to a preserved Manchester bus.(Sat June 6th 1981)

Home | Tramways

© Ian Thompson 1999