Leicester Trams

Even as a close up - It's a busy scene with no less than four trams in view. Car No.31 approaches the Clock Tower from High St passing what was then British Home Stores. The building is now a Laura Ashley store and the entrance to the High Cross Shopping Centre (formerly The Shires) is just to the left of BHS.

First of all we remove the rails that surround the platform. There are still parts of the wooden framework attached to this railing and these give us great measurements for the windows that were introduced when LCT rebuilt the car from an open platform to an enclosed car.

Michael demonstrates the drivers duties before the car is parked in the depot for maintenance!

Tony's electric winch makes light work of dragging the platform out of the mud that has gripped it these last 61 years.

So with a winch and four people what could go wrong? Well, we never thought it a problem but the trailer has sides. When we winched the platform up to the trailer we realise that the platform is one inch wider than the trailer!

So after some serious head scratching and the wise words that if we winch it into the trailer (which would be a very tight fit), then how do we get it out of the trailer when we get to the other end? Best thing to do is leave it on blocks for now and try again another day.

As we are leaving it parked in this position all that remained was for Michael to apply the imaginary hand brake and follow the close down procedures for leaving the car.

A first class example of just how many layers of undercoat, paint and varnish go into a lower saloon.

Rob and Andy study the Leamington and Warwick car preserved in 'as found' condition. Rob and Andy between them attempted to save Car No.31 back in the 80's (and again in the 90's) with a vision of preserving it just as you see here with plastic chickens and a flower bed but the idea hit many walls and had to be abandoned (twice!).

Another lower saloon side section which gives us an idea on how to use our own lower saloon side section after new sections have been produced.