Monday 28 July 2014

Watching the trams pass through Chorlton and on to Sale on a sunny July day

Now regular readers of the blog will know of my fascination for trams, both those tall stately ones of the early 20th century and the elegant, sleek ones which are opening up the city to the suburbs and the neighbouring townships.

Passing Chorlton Park
And so to celebrate the new route from Manchester out to the airport via Chorlton, I am going to post a picture a day of the tests being carried out to test the line.

They were taken by Michael Thompson during the Sunday of July 27 and follow on from earlier test runs which were carried out in the dead of night back in June.*

Michael was there to capture those night tests and to celebrate the new service Hardy Productions UK have made and posted a short video on youtube. **

Crossing the meadows
Travelling at a snail’s pace and flanked by engineers and workmen the test tram slowly worked its way from St Werburgh's to Sale with only Michael of Hardy Productions to witness the event.

Now in the glare of a hot sunny day there were plenty more people to watch this important new link south from the city to Wythenshawe.

And to mark the event here are two of Michael’s pictures which were of the test run from St Werburgh's to Sale.

Michael has added, "on the night filming, the trams were running at a snail pace to start with but as the testing continued, the speeds got quite fast and I suspect may have reached 30 or 40 mph or more.

In addition to the video taken at night, I am assembling one showing today's filming (in glorious full 4K (17:9 format as opposed to 16:9). I think I have some nice shots!"

So there you have it with more to follow.

Pictures; courtesy of Michael J Thompson, July 2014

*A little bit of history, on Hardy Lane on June 23rd, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/a-little-bit-of-history-on-hardy-lane.html

**"Tram under Test" on Hardy Lane, in the early hours of this morning. The video can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0QfoBBtHos•



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