This large park near Newcastle in the North East of England is like an "Industrial
Disneyland" - preserving many aspects of life at the beginning of last century. One of the main attractions,
as well as being the principal form of transport around the site, is the tramway which forms an interesting
circuit. This video traces the line from the entrance stop clockwise round the Museum.
The 40th Anniversary weekend featured two visiting cars, Glasgow 1068 from the National Tramway Museum at
Crich, and Lisbon 730, from the Heritage Tramway at Birkenhead.
I believe this is the first time a Lisbon and a Porto car have operated in public service side by side. Porto 196
is one of the cars resident at Beamish, and has been repainted to represent a car from the nearby town of
South Shields. There are examples of both a Lisbon and Porto car in La Coruna, Spain, but I don't think they have
worked simultaneously in service there.
The Lisbon car was driven on this occasion by Mike Mercer who co-ordinated and worked on the car's excellent
restoration at its home museum line. Alan Pearce, who was also pivotal in securing the car for preservation
was also on hand.
The other car seen is Blackpool 31, which ironically started out life as a three-window four wheel car very
similar to Glasgow 1068, before being rebuilt at Blackpool.