SK3455 : The Saturday cavalcade at Victoria Park
taken 10 years ago, near to Whatstandwell, Derbyshire, England
This was a two-day event held on Saturday 13th and Sunday 14 September 2014 to celebrate 50 years of operation of electric trams at the Museum. This is longer than the majority of British electric tramway operators managed to achieve.
On both days a cavalcade of 25 passenger cars was operated, a greater number than had ever been achieved previously. In addition 2 restored non-passenger cars (131 and 330) joined the cavalcade on Sunday.
The line-up on Saturday was set up to represent the order in which the cars have been restored. On Sunday the line up represented the development of the electric tramcar in the British Isles from around 1900 onwards.
The following cars took part in the cavalcades:
Blackpool & Fleetwood ‘Rack’ 2
Blackpool & Fleetwood ‘Box’ 40 (visiting from Blackpool where it is on long term loan from the Museum)
Southampton 45
Blackpool Balcony 40
Glasgow 22
Sheffield 510
Glasgow 812
Leeds 180
Blackpool 166
Glasgow 1068
Blackpool 167
Blackpool 236
MET 331
Leeds 399
Sheffield 74
Chesterfield 7
London 1622
Berlin 3006
Oporto 273
Leeds 345
Blackpool 630
LUT 159
Blackpool 711 (visiting from Blackpool)
Blackpool 762
Newcastle 114 (visiting from Beamish Open Air Museum)
The non-passenger cars operated were
Cardiff 131
Sheffield 330
Blackpool Electric loco
As a prelude to the event, the service the day before was operated by the three visiting cars, Box 40, 114 and 711, to give an opportunity for visitors to get some operational views away from the crowds of the main event. On both Saturday and Sunday special photo opportunities were set up featuring particular groups of tramcars.
The final act of the weekend was to operate all four available operational open-top double-deck cars on the last departure of the day on Sunday. This was a unique opportunity, as one was the visiting Newcastle 114, and another was Southampton 45, making its final journey before being retired indefinitely after several years of active service.