FOUNDING FATHERS RE-UNITE AFTER 50 YEARS
As young men they had a simple vision born out of necessity – to save some of the nation’s fine old trams from the scrap yards. Now fifty years on, the founding members of the Tramway Museum Society will re-unite at Crich Tramway Village, home of the National Tramway Museum, Derbyshire, to re-enact the ceremonial handover of Southampton 45 the tramcar that started it all.
In a weekend of celebrations on Saturday 28 & Sunday 29 May, the surviving founding members will be joined by hundreds of tramway enthusiasts from around the world to mark the 50th anniversary of the formation of the society, and to reflect on their remarkable achievements.
It was on 29 May 1955 that a small group of tramway enthusiasts gathered at Blackpool’s Marton Tram Depot to witness the ceremonial handover of Southampton 45, the first tram to be saved by private enthusiasts, to the founders of the Tramway Museum Society.
Geoff Hyde was there that day and recalls the occasion, “It was at a meeting of the Light Railway Transport League (LRTL) in Blackpool. That is where we had been able to store the Southampton tram that LRTL members bought in 1948. By 1955 we had saved about half-a-dozen trams and decided that a separate group, the Tramway Museum Society, should be set up to look after them. The Chairman of the LRTL, Jay Fowler, drove the tram out of the depot and handed over the controller key to Major Charles Walker representing the embryonic Tramway Museum Society.
“Back then we were just enthusiasts who saw these beautiful old trams that we had grown up with going to scrap. Something had to be done but none of the city corporations were that interested in saving them, so we organised ourselves and just got on with it.”
Another founding member Ian Yearsley, who as a teenager gave half-a-crown towards the cost of saving Southampton 45, said, “Who would have thought that we, a group of well-meaning enthusiasts, would become the ones responsible for preserving the nation’s tramway heritage. Preserved steam railways get a lot of attention but people forget that it was tramway enthusiasts who started it. No-one had ever heard of a tram or a locomotive being owned by members of the public, it was groundbreaking stuff.”
On Saturday 28 May at 2pm there will be a ‘Cavalcade of Trams’ with over a dozen trams, representing the many saved by the museum, parading down the period street with a live commentary. Visitors will also have the chance to tour the museum workshops to see the latest trams being restored
On Sunday 29 May at 3pm, fifty years to the day, there will be a re-enactment of the handover of Southampton 45. Trams from Blackpool will line up to re-create the scene of the ceremonial handover in Blackpool fifty years earlier. Watched by founding members who were present then, David Russell Chairman of the Light Rail Transit Association (today’s equivalent of the LRTL) will officially hand over Southampton 45 to Colin Heaton today’s Chairman of the Tramway Museum Society.
Click here to see photos from the event.
