Friday 11 October 2019

A big bit of tram history ........ travelling from Bury to Manchester ......... April 1992

Now I have no idea what I was doing on April 6 1992, but I know that Geoff Ankers had a ticket to travel, and used it on that day to take the tram from Bury to Victoria Station.

Travelling by tram from Bury, 1992
And I have his Metrolink Commemorative Ticket, Issue No. 09765.

I should of course have asked him if he took pictures, which would add to this unique bit of our history.

But I suspect the tram would have been full, and a photograph of the back of Miss Edna Trellis will not stir the pot of transport moments.

That said, I will go back and ask him, and perhaps also for his memories of that tram ride.

These will find their way into that new book which is beginning to take shape, and will be ready sometime in the new year.

It will be the story of the Metrolink written as ever from a slightly different angle. The History of Greater Manchester... By Tram - The Stories At the Stops* is just what the title says, and will be a collection of

The small print on the reverse of the ticket
Peter’s original paintings, old photographs and my stories, and will feature all of the present 93 stops, and the additional 6 which will be part of the proposed extension of the network to the Trafford Centre.

So in all 99 tales about how the network was built, the people who travel the lines, and above all each of the Metrolink stops.

Last week I ran the first story asking for accounts of journeys taken and of pictures snapped, and quick as a flash Geoff came back with the ticket, which he remembered was in a draw.  He was more than happy to donate it, and it will have pride of place in the book.

It turns out Geoff tells me that he had “travelled on the tram to work and whilst it was busy it wasn't full.

Also, in the days of non smart phones, I was really bad at thinking to take pictures”.

But he has promised to come back with more memories.

So that just leaves me to thank him and record that his name is the first to be entered into the credits in the Hall of Fame.

Picture; Metrolink Commemorative Issue ticket, Issue No. 09765, 1992, courtesy of Geoff Ankers

*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/  


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