Midland Metro
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Tram 28 stands in the reversing spur at Birmingham Stephenson St. This was the southern end of the Midland Metro
line after it was extended from Snow Hill in 2016, and is located where Stephenson St meets Pinfold St. Nice building
on the right, an iconic building just visible in the centre (the Rotunda), and something more nondescript to the left.
This photo was taken at 13:11 on Saturday 25th March 2017.
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Tram 24 exits the "lawn" alongside Snow Hill station and is about to cross Colmore Circus en-route to Bull St. This shot
was taken at 13:48 on Wednesday 11th September 2019. 24 was one of at least three trams in this blue/green livery with
adverts for taxi firm OLA at the time, the others being 27 and 32. Co-incidentally none of these three had batteries at
this point.
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Tram 21 arrives at St Chad's from Wolverhampton, photographed at 14:29 on Wednesday 11th September 2019. St Chad's is one of two stops
that effectively replaced Snow Hill when the line was extended further into Birmingham city centre. It's at the country end of Snow Hill
station platforms, whereas Bull St is round the corner from Snow Hill station entrance, at the city end.
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Tram 18 was the other tram with red "Just Eat" adverts in late summer 2019. Here it is approaching St Paul's at 15:09 on Wednesday 11th September.
It was on driver-training duty here, but did enter passenger service later in the afternoon.
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Tram 32 arrives at St Paul's. It was heading into Birmingham when photographed at 15:07 on Wednesday 11th September 2019.
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This shot was taken from All Saints St, which is half-way between Soho Benson Road and the Jewellery Quarter. The BT Tower is visible to the
right, and is 0.93 miles away as the crow flies. Unfortunately trees on the right mean that this spot is only useful for trams, and not
so good for main-line trains. Tram 18 heads north at 15:23 on Tuesday 11th August 2020.
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Tram 27 was heading south between Soho and the Jewellery Quarter when photographed at 14:53 on Tuesday 11th August 2020.
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Tram 08 arrives at Soho Benson Road with a service from Snow Hill to The Royal. This shot was taken at 14:53 on Monday 2nd March 2015, a day
on which the afternoon off-peak service included just a single T69, alongside nine Urbos trams. This was the first occasion that I'd seen
fewer than three T69s out on any day other than a Sunday. At the time it seemed to finally signal that time was nearly up for the original
trams, but in reality another six months elapsed before the last one ran. 08 lasted until the beginning of July, outlived only by 10 and 16.
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This shot was taken on Friday 6th March 2015, when there were three T69s in use at lunchtime (06 09 and 16). Birmingham-bound tram 16 approaches Soho
Benson Road at 11:58. The bridge nearest the camera carries Benson Road, the grey bridge carries Bacchus Road, and the white bridge carries the railway
line from Soho East Jn to Perry Barr West Jn.
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Photographed in almost exactly the same spot as 16, above, this is tram 06 seen from Benson Road bridge at 12:43 on Friday 6th March 2015. Just
visible from this height is an OHLE support on the Network Rail line just east of Soho East Jn.
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Along with the canal bridge in Wolverhampton the other significant gradients on the Metro line are the ones over the
viaduct at Handsworth. This structure was built to provide a non-conflicting route across the railway line into Queen's Head sidings,
which once served the cement terminal, and was used to run-round scrap trains from EMR at Handsworth which is on the other side of
the Metro line. Latterly Queen's Head sidings have been used as a scrap terminal in their own right. Tram 03 breasts the summit
with a northbound service at 14:04 on Wednesday 4th February 2009. Directly at the bottom of the gradient is Handsworth Booth St station.
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Tram 21 leaves Handsworth Booth St for Wolverhampton. This shot was taken at 13:27 on Sunday 8th September 2019. The Sunday timetable
only saw a tram every 15 minutes, and my visit to Wattville St bridge saw a gap in the southbound service of just about 30 minutes at
one point, with some bunching thereafter.
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Wolverhampton-bound tram 05 in the new pink livery, and 11 in the original livery, pass just south of the Hawthorns on Friday 8th April 2011.
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Tram 14 heads away from The Hawthorns with a Wolverhampton-bound service on the afternoon of Friday 8th April 2011. At this point the Metro line
diverges from the Network Rail line, the former heading north-west towards West Bromwich and the latter south-west towards Smethwick. Tram 14 wasn't the
first T69 to be withdrawn from service, but it was the first to leave the system, moving from Wednesbury to Long Marston in June 2014.
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The same spot as the previous shot. Birmingham-bound 16 passes Wolverhampton-bound 31 at 13:19 on Friday 6th March 2015. I couldn't have
placed the trams better, but had to get the camera out of the bag sharpish when I realised that the passing shot might be on (you can see
approaching southbound trams for about half a mile, and northbound ones are visible as they pull into The Hawthorns station, just beyond
the arch bridge). To deliberately get a shot of two trams passing you'd normally go to one of the stations where this happens routinely,
and one of them would likely be stationary, thus maximising the opportunity. To get two of them as well placed as this, when both are moving,
requires a lot more luck. And by this stage, when there were likely to be only two or three T69s in service most days, it was even more jammy
to get a mixed pair like this.
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Tram 20 approaches Kenrick Park at 13:45 on Saturday 14th September 2019. The northbound tram was photographed between the M5 and
Kenrick Way overbridges, and is passing the site of recent tree felling on the north side of the line.
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Birmingham-bound tram 21 approaches Kenrick Park at 13:41 on Saturday 14th September 2019.
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Tram 19 leaves Kenrick Park for Wolverhampton at 15:00 on Tuesday 22nd October 2019. The advert on this tram celebrated 20 years operation
of the Metro.
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Same spot but looking the other way. Tram 36 is seen between Trinity Way and Kenrick Park at 14:15 on Saturday 14th September 2019. The advert
on this tram is for the Metro's phone app.
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Tram 09 leaves Trinity Way (West Bromwich) for Wolverhampton at 16:01 on Wednesday 15th April 2015. Note the pantograph height, as the contact
wire dips under the road bridge.
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Birmingham-bound 27 approaches Trinity Way at 15:08 on Sunday 8th September 2019. The building in the background is the
central campus of Sandwell College in West Bromwich town centre.
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Tram 36 departs from Trinity Way for Wolverhampton at 16:22 on Wednesday 11th September 2019. The advertising on this white/blue/yellow
tram is for the Metro itself, and it was the only one in this livery. Holy Trinity church can be seen to the left. Note the tree clearance
behind the tram, much more of this had recently taken place between Kenrick Way and The Hawthorns.
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Tram 08 is seen about half-way between West Bromwich and Trinity Way at 16:27 on Wednesday 15th April. The Trinity Way stop is visible just beyond the second
overbridge, and the West Bromwich stop is about the same distance behind the camera.
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The shadows are lengthening as tram 06 leaves West Bromwich for Snow Hill at 15:00 on Wednesday
4th February 2015. It's seen here passing the distinctive new Central Campus building of Sandwell College.
The footpath from which this photo was taken runs parallel with the tram line all the way through West
Bromwich, from Black Lake station to just west of the Hawthorns. It's mostly on the south side of the
line, bar two short sections where it crosses to the north, on the Brum side of Swan Lane level
crossing, and on the Wolves side of Lodge Road station.
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Tram 18 leaves West Bromwich for Birmingham at 15:42 on Tuesday 22nd October 2019. It had not long lost its hybrid white/blue livery for the
standard all over blue, but retained its red "Just Eat" advert. The other tram in white/blue with "Just Eat" adverts (21) was also out on this
day, but it hadn't gone blue.
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Tram 21 heads south from West Bromwich at 14:59 on Thursday 5th September 2019. The bodyside advertising is for "Just Eat". Tram 18 carried exactly
the same livery at this time.
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Trams 37 and 34 cross at West Bromwich on Thursday 5th September 2019. 34 was heading south in this photo, taken at 14:48. Note that it doesn't
have the battery pods on the roof that 37 does
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Tram 15 has just left Lodge Road station, and is about to enter the short tunnel that takes the railway
under the Victoria St/Price St road junction in West Bromwich town centre. This shot was taken at 14:16
on Saturday 2nd April 2011.
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Birmingham-bound tram 29 pauses at Lodge Road, West Bromwich. This shot was taken at 14:58 on Tuesday 12th May 2015.
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Tram 05 sets off from Dudley St (West Bromwich) towards Snow Hill, while tram 12 stands in the northbound platform. This shot was taken at 12:03 on
Wednesday 30th March 2011, a rather damp day.
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Tram 11 is seen making the Dudley St stop with a southbound service at 22:19 on Friday 27th June 2014. Dudley St is on the western edge of West Bromwich
town centre, and as the name suggests it's where the tram line goes under the road to Dudley. The station is down in a cutting, as are most in the West
Brom area, and it's not a particularly nice place to hang about at this time of night. My 25 minute visit, during which four trams called, saw about
eight passengers use the station. A tiny sample, but it didn't surprise me that none were female.
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This shot was taken at 08:58 on Tuesday 16th June 2015, and shows an Urbos leaving Dudley St for Wolverhampton. Time was nearly up for the T69s, and
that morning's peak featured just one, number 10, on a peak-extra diagram.
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Tram 28 heads south underneath Bilhay Lane, West Bromwich, at 16:02 on Tuesday 12th May 2015. Swan Lane level crossing can
be seen in the distance.
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Midland Metro tram 11 was re-painted into a version of the Birmingham Corporation tram livery in August 2013. It's not, in my view, a
livery that suited the vehicle, although it was nice to see one that wasn't a mobile billboard. Here it is approaching Black Lake for
Wolverhampton at 16:45 on Friday 18th April 2014. Number 11 has just passed under Bilhay Lane road bridge. The tram tracks here follow
the path of the GWR route towards Wednesbury, passing under the left-hand bridge span as you look south. On the right are two further
spans, the middle one was used for the branch to Great Bridge, which joined the South Staffs railway at Horseley Fields Jct and eventually
led to Dudley Port and Dudley. The right-hand span was used by the connection into Swan Village gas works. The earlier track layout at Swan
Village is nicely illustrated by the map on this Industrial Railway
Society page. This view is seen from a spot which would once have been at the south end of the Wolverhampton platform at Swan
Village station.
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Tram 03 is slowing to a stand, checked by a signal on the far side of Swan Lane level crossing, West Bromwich, at 16:01 on Monday 16th
March 2009. The traffic lights will be on green for road traffic, but the lack of any overlap beyond the tram signals means
that trams draw up to within a few yards of the road. Trams can't be seen by car drivers until their cars are almost on the crossing, and it's
rather disconcerting to glimpse a tram so close to the roadway at the last second - even though the traffic lights are at green. You'd think
that trams would always have priority here, but it isn't so. Southbound trams often come to a complete stop, waiting for a proceed signal.
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Swan Lane level crossing seen from the other side. Tram 15 was photographed at 17:01 on Wednesday 24th August 2005, and is just about to
stop at Black Lake station. Apart from the street running sections in Wolverhampton and Birmingham city centres there are two level crossings
on the Midland Metro. This one crosses a very busy road; the other crosses the access road to the Metro car park at Priestfield station. There
are conventional tram signals either side of the crossing, one of which is visible here showing a stop aspect (horizontal white line). Even with
a proceed aspect trams often slow almost to a stop before crossing the road. Motorists see conventional traffic lights, with three heads facing
each direction. Note how the right-hand mast carries both contact wires. There are a couple more like that behind the photographer.
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Same spot looking the other way. This was my first shot of a Midland Metro tram, and was taken at 15:27 on Wednesday 1st September 1999.
Tram 12 is seen here heading over the cut at Black Lake with a service for Snow Hill. Note the double-bladed windscreen wiper, a distinctive
feature of the T69s when they were first introduced to passenger service. Also the red livery continuing along the top of the bodyside,
where adverts have yet to appear.
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Tram 06 heads south away from Black Lake station and passes tram 01 on a northbound run. This shot was taken at 15:34 on Friday 2nd September
2005. An obvious gradient change here, as the line falls sharply towards Hill Top tunnel. Tram 01 had been out-of-use for many years before it
was moved from Wednesbury to Long Marston in October 2014. This is the only shot I have of it, largely because I only took a handful of shots
of Metro trams in the first six years or so, when 01 was still active. By chance none of them featured 01 as the main subject.
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Tram 06 runs into Black Lake station on a northbound service, just as an unidentified Urbos arrives
on a southbound run. This shot was taken at 07:36 on Thursday 4th June 2015. That morning's twelve-tram
peak service consisted of T69s 06 08 10 16 plus Urbos 19 22 24 25 26 27 28 and 29. There were only four
T69s still in traffic at this time, 06 was the next one to go and only had a few days left. Reports
suggest it last ran on Monday 8th June 2015.
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T69 number 08 passes an Urbos tram at Black Lake. 08 was heading north when this shot was taken at 07:51 on Thursday 4th June 2015. All four of the
remaining T69s were in traffic during the morning peak that day, the others being 06, 10 and 16.
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Tram 03 stands in the platform at Black Lake, having terminated with a southbound service from Wolverhampton. The line
towards West Bromwich was closed for engineering work, hence the stop signs and earthing wires from the OLE. The guys
on the platform are staff, who have recently directed the alighting passengers towards the buses. This shot was taken
at 16:05 on Wednesday 27th October 2010.
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Tram 05 pauses at Black Lake with a Birmingham-bound service. This shot was taken at 17:08 on Sunday 17th December 2006.
All but one of the T69s were put up for sale in early 2018, the result being that thirteen of them, including 05,
went to the scrap man.
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Tram number 16 climbs away from Hill Top tunnel on the approach to Black Lake (West Bromwich). This shot was taken in a downpour
at 12.33 on Friday 2nd April 2010, as the tram heads south towards Birmingham.
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Tram 09 is seen descending towards Hill Top tunnel from the Black Lake end at 16:08 on Monday 11th May 2009. Vegetation growth would almost
certainly make this shot impossible within a few years.
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A decade later, tram 19 is seen in roughly about the same spot as 09 above. 19 still retained its special "20 years of the Metro livery"
when photographed at 17:24 on Monday 6th July 2020. Despite some vegetation control further south the cutting here had become very overgrown,
and this was about the only remaining spot from which a decent shot could be had.
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Tram 15 heads towards Hill Top tunnel from the Wednesbury end at 16:26 on Saturday 30th May 2009. The tunnel is half-way between Wednesbury
and West Bromwich, a couple of hundred yards north of the Black Lake stop. Note how the trees are engulfing the OLE masts in this area.
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This is the view from the same spot, looking the other way towards Wednesbury. It's from Monday 11th May 2009, and tram 09 is seen on the
approach to Hill Top tunnel. It's about to cross over Bilport Lane via the bridge with the blue railings, and it will then cross the Tame
Valley canal by the bridge alongside the photographer. This shot was taken at 15:26, and number 09 will take about 43 minutes to make the
journey to Snow Hill and back from this spot.
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Tram 22 is seen between Wednesbury Gt Western St and Hill Top tunnel in this shot which was taken around 16:10 on Saturday
20th August 2022. This was one of eight Urbos 3 trams which had returned to service after repairs to cracks that had taken
the entire fleet out of service from 19th March to 9th June - resulting in no Metro service at all between those dates.
The service restart was contingent on getting all eight of the later Urbos 100 trams (38-45) into service, with the returning
Urbos 3s supplementing them over subsequent months as they became available after repair. By the time this shot was taken the
following trams had been repaired and cleared for use: 18 19 21 22 31 34 36 and 37. All of these bar 37 had unvinyled white
replacement panels around the doors, although blue vinyls would be applied in due course.
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Tram 08 arrives at Wednesbury Great Western St on a Snow Hill to St George's service. This shot was taken at 16:15 on Tuesday 31st March 2015, the
first day that trams had run to Wolverhampton St George's since early September 2014. Also in use during this evening peak were 06, 09 and 16.
16 was less than two minutes behind 08. 09 had gone south 45 seconds earlier.
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Withdrawn Midland Metro trams 03 and 11 parked around the back of Wednesbury depot at lunchtime on Sunday 18th January 2015.
To the right is tram 09, pan up and lights on.
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Tram 09 arrives Wednesbury Great Western St at 12:26 on Friday 13th March 2015.
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Trams 06 and 03 pass between the two Wednesbury stations at 12:19 on Saturday 17th January 2009. 06 is just drawing into Wednesbury
Parkway while 03 heads south towards Great Western St. The telephoto lens accentuates the gradient changes with the line falling as
it heads north, levelling through Parkway station, and then falling again towards Moxley. Also noticeable are the different types of
OLE support. In the foreground are masts supporting a single contact wire, which is the conventional arrangement on the ex-railway
alignment. Beyond that a mixture of portal (gantry) and headspan supports carry the contact wires across the three-track alignment
through Parkway station.
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Tram number 13 approaches Wednesbury Parkway at 13:21 on Sunday 7th December 2008. The area near the depot entrance, which
is the right-hand track in this shot, has the most complex track and signalling on the line. The station here also has three platforms,
the third one normally being used only for very early and late trains which start or end at Wednesbury. There are no signals in this shot,
the diagonal orange lights are indicators to show which way the points are lying. These are numbered with a PS prefix, whereas the signals
show horizontal (stop) or vertical (proceed) white lights and are numbered with an S prefix.
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This shot was taken on Sunday 17th December 2006 and shows tram 13 at Wednesbury Parkway with a northbound service. The illuminated
building to the left of the tram is the Metro depot. The exposure details for this shot are 1/4 sec, f4, ISO400. No tripod, but I
was able to brace my arms on top of a fence.
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Tram 08 pauses at Wednesbury Parkway with a service from The Royal to Snow Hill. This photo was taken at 17:39 on Friday
6th February 2015, when 08 was one of six T69s in service during a very chilly evening peak. The others were 04 05 09 10 and 16.
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Tram 07 arrives at Wednesbury Parkway in the rain at 13:39 on Friday 6th July 2012. Note the destination, St Paul's
rather than Snow Hill. This was the first of the four pink-liveried trams to be withdrawn, last running in
September 2014.
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Tram 05 approaches Wednesbury Parkway with a southbound service at 11:25 on Wednesday 25th February 2015. There were only
three T69s in traffic at the time this photo was taken, the others being 06 and 16. Seven Urbos were in service: 18 19 20
22 24 26 31, with 33 also out on test. The signage shows the way to reach buses, but by this stage
buses no longer used the stops on Leabrook Road North, the access road to Parkway station. Instead they continued straight
along the main road, saving at least a minute by avoiding the double back. A prudent decision I think, given the tiny number
of people inconvenienced by the extra 100 yard walk compared with the much larger number of people on the buses whose journey
was speeded up.
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Friday 8th May 2015, and late afternoon in the West Midlands was damp and gloomy. By this stage thirteen new Urbos trams had been
commissioned on the Midland Metro, and as a rule there were eleven diagrams during the evening peak. Nevertheless four T69s worked
that evening. 06 and 10 crossed in Parkway station around 17:00. Twelve minutes after that 16 came off the depot, parked in the
back platform and opened the doors for passengers to board. Clearly it was going to form a service to Wolverhampton, most likely
relieving an incoming tram from Snow Hill. It turned out that the incoming tram was 08, and the passengers duly swapped vehicles
before 16 departed. This shot was taken at 17:24 and shows 08 proceeding towards the depot, having reversed a little way north of
Parkway.
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The path clearing team step aside as tram 35 arrives at Wednesbury Parkway with a southbound service on Monday 11th December 2017.
Services to Wolverhampton City Centre had resumed on Friday 8th December, the street section north of Priestfield having been closed
for six months (starting on Sunday 11th June). The indicators advised of a "disrupted service" but during my 15 minute visit trams
were going both ways at around 7 minute intervals.
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All five of the remaining T69s were out in the off-peak service on Tuesday 7th April 2015, with five Urbos making up the ten tram
service. Trams 06 and 20 cross at Bradley Lane station. 06 is on a southbound service, and this shot was taken at 14:32. Although
trams regularly cross near Bradley Lane, they only pause for a few seconds and hence it's relatively unusual to get a pair in the
platform simultaneously. Other trams out on this afternoon were: 08 09 10 16 20 24 26 27 and 31. A new car park for the Metro was
built on the playing fields to the right in early 2020.
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Tram 10 was pausing at Priestfield with a southbound service when photographed at 16:35 on Monday 26th September 2011.
It's just come off the Wolverhampton street section and dropped onto the old railway alignment. From this point on there's
little view of anything from the tram, apart from a few brief sections around Wednesbury depot, West Bromwich town centre
and the viaduct at Handsworth. Those stretches of line which aren't in cuttings are closely hemmed in by tall trees, as
seen here.
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Trams 14 and 15 cross at the Priestfield Metro stop. Taken at 16:12 on Saturday 30th July 2011.
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Tram 19 waits time at Priestfield before heading south to Snow Hill. This shot was taken at 20:25 on Thursday 2nd October 2014, on which day
trams were turning back at Priestfield due to maintenance on the street-running section to Wolverhampton. The exposure was ISO640, f4.5 and
0.3 of a second, hand-held.
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Tram 22 takes the trailing crossover at Priestfield on Sunday 28th September 2014. The line between Priestfield and Wolverhampton St George's
was closed for repairs starting in early September 2014. The section to The Royal re-opened in December 2014, but the final stretch to
St George's remained closed until the end of March 2015. At Priestfield the trams reversed just north of the station before heading back
south.
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The driver of tram 08 has changed ends, switched on the headlights, and is about to run bang-road towards the trailing crossover at Priestfield.
This shot was taken at 20:04 on the evening of Thursday 2nd October 2014. Trams were still turning back at Priestfield in early October. This
provided the opportunity to do night shots away from a station, although the penalty was a less well illuminated scene. The exposure here was
ISO1000, f4.5 and 0.6 of a second, and the picture was taken hand-held.
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Tram 09 climbs off the railway alignment at Priestfield with a northbound service at 13:40 on Saturday 4th September 2010.
It's just about to cross the access road to the station car park, which has no traffic control. Car drivers cross on sight,
and the view from this side of the line as vehicles exit the car park is not dissimilar to that portrayed here. In fact a car
driver will usually have a slightly lower view than this shot, which was taken at eye-level from a standing position. Tram
09 was the fifth-last T69 to run on the Midland Metro, outlived in service only by 06 08 10 and 16. My last sightings of
09 in service were in April 2015.
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Tram 25 comes off the Bilston Road and onto the dedicated railway line at Priestfield. This shot was taken at 14:13 on Monday 14th
September 2020, and 25 was the second blue tram I'd seen with white battery boxes on the roof. 32 was the other one.
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Tram 06 had just left the railway alignment at Priestfield, and was running along the bus/tram lane when photographed at 14:39 on Saturday 7th March 2015.
The bus/tram lane starts where the tram line joins the A41, and runs for about 200 yards to the junction with the A4126 Ettingshall Road.
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On Saturday 7th March 2015 there were only two T69s running. This is 05, passing the junction between the A41 Bilston Road and the
A4126 Ettingshall Road, a little way north of Priestfield, at 13:54. In reality the cars on both sides of the tram had stopped
for the lights, and were just pulling away, while 05 got the jump on them as the lights cleared just as it approached. 06 was the
other T69 in traffic.
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On the left is Midland Metro tram 23, dating from 2014, and seen here heading north along the Bilston Road
towards Wolverhampton at 15:10 on Wednesday 12th August 2015. On the right is a Sunbeam Dawn motor car,
dating from 1934, built in Wolverhampton as it happens, and nowadays available for hire as a wedding car.
One of these vehicles has cushioned seats for its passengers, the other only provides benches.
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Just north of the junction between the A41 and the A4126 trams share the same carriageway as motor vehicles. This shot was taken at
13:29 on Saturday 31st January 2009, and shows tram 16 running behind WMT's 4563 working a 79 service. The 79 route was subsequently
curtailed to run between Wolverhampton and West Bromwich only, with a re-instated 75 route covering the Wednesbury - Birmingham section
(75 was the historical route number of Wednesbury - Birmingham services in the pre-WMPTE era). This split occurred in July 2011 I believe.
However the 75 was withdrawn in September 2016, in favour of higher frequencies on the 74 and 79 routes.
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A few days short of six years later, tram 16 is seen in the same spot on the Bilston Road. This shot was taken at 14:09 on Saturday 24th
January 2015. Earlier in the week the ten-tram service had been split 4/6 in favour of new Urbos trams, but on this day the split
was 3/7. Running in the early afternoon were 06 09 16 plus 18 19 22 23 24 25 and 26.
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Tram 19 runs down the Bilston Road at 13:54 on Monday 14th September 2020. It's heading south, and about to pass under the Stour
Valley railway line. Number 19 had lost its "20 years of the Metro" advert in August, when it was replaced by an ad for Marks Electrical,
a white goods firm based in Leicester. However it retained its hybrid white and blue livery, and remained the only one that wasn't in
the standard blue at this time.
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Tram 08 climbs up the Bilston Road towards journey's end in Wolverhampton on the afternoon of Tuesday 7th April 2015.
All five of the T69s still in traffic at the time were running, with the following trams forming the off-peak service:
06 08 09 10 16 plus Urbos 20 24 26 27 and 31. This stretch of road is full of glossy car dealers on its north-east side.
Immediately beyond the Toyota garage is a Volkswagon dealership, and behind the camera on the other side of the canal
bridge is a Vauxhall outlet.
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Tram 02 crosses the bridge over the Birmingham canal in Wolverhampton. The photo was taken at 13:45 on Saturday 31st January 2009.
Tram 02 followed number 01 as the second one into storage. After a considerable time out of use it was eventually moved from Wednesbury
to Long Marston in early October 2014.
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This shot shows a tram coming over the same canal bridge as in the previous shot, but seen from the northern side of the bridge. Tram 04 was
photographed at 15:01 on Saturday 31st January 2009.
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Tram 09 had just arrived at The Royal (Wolverhampton) when this shot was taken at 13:16 on Saturday 24th January 2015.
The line between here and St George's was shut for engineering work at this time, so trams were turning at The Royal.
Only the northbound platform was in use, trams were using the trailing crossover just south of the platforms to regain
the southbound line. They were also going very carefully over that crossover, at less than walking pace. Note the signal
to the right of the frame, showing the stop aspect in yellow rather than the normal white. Presumably added to permit a
reversing move from the southbound line via the crossover.
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Tram 16 was photographed at 15:27 on Tuesday 7th April 2015, running along the then recently relaid track between Wolverhampton St George's
and The Royal. This stretch of line had been taken out of service in early September 2014, and was very belatedly re-instated on 31st
March 2015. Note the OLE provision for a removed crossover.
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Tram 16 comes off the Wishbone bridge and crosses the Wolverhampton ring road at 15:22 on Tuesday 7th April 2015. Not a particularly easy image
to capture, due to the unpredictability of traffic on the road in the foreground.
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Tram 07 arrives at Wolverhampton St George's terminal. This photo was taken at 13:06 on Saturday 4th September 2010.
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Tram 09 departs Wolverhampton St George's via the scissors crossover at 12:31 on 4th September 2010. The platform road to the right was
subsequently taken out of use.
The last week of the T69s (w/c Monday 10th August 2015)...
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It had been an awfully long time coming, but the official end of T69 activity on the Midland Metro took place on the morning of Friday
14th August 2015, culminating in a media jolly from Snow Hill to Wednesbury around noon. The final week saw more T69 workings than late
July, and both the remaining trams were in traffic on Tuesday 11th and Wednesday 12th. With the weather on Thursday 13th and Friday 14th
being rather poor, Wednesday 12th turned out to be the last opportunity to photograph T69s in sunshine. This is 16, arriving at Dudley St
with a southbound service at 08:48, a little over 50 hours before it ran for the last time.
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Another shot taken on the morning of Wednesday 12th August 2015. Tram 10 is seen here leaving Black Lake with a service for Snow Hill at 09:09.
A visit to Wolverhampton that afternoon saw no T69s, so neither 10 nor 16 worked all day. This turned out to be my last shot of a T69 in public
service. Reports elsewhere subsequently suggested that this was the final outing for tram 10, and that this may have been its last journey to
Birmingham. The report being that it returned to Wolverhampton, before coming out of service at Wednesbury on the next southbound working.
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The last passenger-carrying run of a T69 tram. Number 16 worked several trips over the full length of the line on the morning of Friday 14th
August 2015, finishing at Snow Hill around noon. It then made one final run from Snow Hill to Wednesbury Parkway carrying invited guests and
the media. Here's that last run approaching Dudley St at 12:30. It passed non-stop, but was close behind an Urbos, and running fairly slowly
at this point. In fact it was behind a small procession of Urbos trams, backed up behind number 33 which had incurred technical problems
(a door was taped out of use when it passed me). The eagle-eyed may notice that 16 has been turned for the last few days of its life.
The pantograph is at the Brum end of the vehicle, hitherto all trams ran with the pan at the Wolves end.