Now here is a coincidence, which matches what seems to be an urban myth with a photograph from my old friend Ron Stubley.
A few days ago I was talking to Peter about our new tram book,when Peter mentioned a story he had heard about tram 1013, which he had been told never left the sidings because of its unfortunate number, leaving him to ask “why didn’t they just miss out the number and jumps straight from 12 to 14?”
Neither of us was sure whether this was just one of those silly superstitious stories, and Ron seems to have proved us correct, because here is a picture tram 1013, which Ron took on “the third day of the Manchester Victoria-Bury service, on April 8th, 1992 when 1013 was on driver training duties at Victoria”.*
At which point someone will point out that a training run is not the same as being in passenger service, which is true, so we will just have to wait to for someone come up with evidence of travelling on 1013, or the powers that be admit that the said tram never carried a collection of people in possession of a valid tram ticket.
Either way I rather think Ron’s picture will feature in the book which, will explore the history of Greater Manchester using the Metrolink tram stops as starters.
Already we have had a souvenir ticket from Geoff Ankers, Ron’s tram picture and a request from Bill Sumner to look into the history of Holt Town,which is on the East Manchester line between New Islington and Etihad Campus.
Bill commented that “whilst for me the Stretford stop has an interesting history with its goods yards coal wharf etc, the one that I would like to learn about is the at present unprepossessing Holt Town which I have discovered on old maps must have been a very different place back in the day”, which of course it was.
Following on from that, if there is anyone who wants to share their story of their stop, along with the treasured photograph or piece of memorabilia we would be happy to include them. Just add a comment on the blog or on facebook or by following the link below and leaving a message.**
And no sooner had the story gone live and, Steven commented "as someone who remembers the introduction of the T68's very well I do not remember an issue with 1013 and I am sure it entered service as normal along with the rest. I do seem to remember that 1014 & 1015 entered service a lot later than the rest though.
One of them could clearly be seen at the back of Queens Road depot, but the other was missing for quite sometime".
Which just leaves me to thank Fran who added "as a tram driver, I've copied the link onto our closed page to see if some of the former T68 drivers can help you out".
Pictures; tram 1013, on driver training duties at Victoria, April 1992, from the collection of Ron Stubley and tram 1001, from the collection of Andy Robertson
*Ron Stubley, December 17, 2017
*The History of Greater Manchester ..... By Tram-The Stories At the Stops, Andrew Simpson and Peter Topping will be published during 2018, for details of this book and all the others written by the two authors, go to,http://www.pubbooks.co.uk/
Neither of us was sure whether this was just one of those silly superstitious stories, and Ron seems to have proved us correct, because here is a picture tram 1013, which Ron took on “the third day of the Manchester Victoria-Bury service, on April 8th, 1992 when 1013 was on driver training duties at Victoria”.*
At which point someone will point out that a training run is not the same as being in passenger service, which is true, so we will just have to wait to for someone come up with evidence of travelling on 1013, or the powers that be admit that the said tram never carried a collection of people in possession of a valid tram ticket.
Either way I rather think Ron’s picture will feature in the book which, will explore the history of Greater Manchester using the Metrolink tram stops as starters.
Bill commented that “whilst for me the Stretford stop has an interesting history with its goods yards coal wharf etc, the one that I would like to learn about is the at present unprepossessing Holt Town which I have discovered on old maps must have been a very different place back in the day”, which of course it was.
Following on from that, if there is anyone who wants to share their story of their stop, along with the treasured photograph or piece of memorabilia we would be happy to include them. Just add a comment on the blog or on facebook or by following the link below and leaving a message.**
And no sooner had the story gone live and, Steven commented "as someone who remembers the introduction of the T68's very well I do not remember an issue with 1013 and I am sure it entered service as normal along with the rest. I do seem to remember that 1014 & 1015 entered service a lot later than the rest though.
Which just leaves me to thank Fran who added "as a tram driver, I've copied the link onto our closed page to see if some of the former T68 drivers can help you out".
Pictures; tram 1013, on driver training duties at Victoria, April 1992, from the collection of Ron Stubley and tram 1001, from the collection of Andy Robertson
*Ron Stubley, December 17, 2017
*The History of Greater Manchester ..... By Tram-The Stories At the Stops, Andrew Simpson and Peter Topping will be published during 2018, for details of this book and all the others written by the two authors, go to,http://www.pubbooks.co.uk/
No comments:
Post a Comment