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| Archive 2015 |
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Santa Special
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Saturday
19th December saw the most successful Santa Special so far. For the
first time all Santa Special tickets were sold solely through facebook,
which proved to be a resounding success. All available seats were sold
out in under a week. With Birkenhead 20 dressed as Santa's grotto and
Liverpool 245 carrying all our guests from Woodside to meet Santa the
museum was crowded with Parents and children enjoying the refreshments
and taking part in our quiz to find the names of European cities that
have tramways. We even had a visit from Frozen stars Elsa and Olaf.
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A Night At the Museum
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Friday
13th November saw the first evening event held at Wirral Transport
Museum, "A Night at The Museum". A four car service was in operation
throughout the evening which carried over 300 passengers on a very
successful evening. Passengers were able to thoroughly enjoy riding the
trams in the dark for the first time. Many photographers were out and
about to record our inaugural evening event which saw the Taylor Street
building lit up with multi coloured lights and atmospheric smoke. The
evening was deemed a great success and is to be repeated in early 2016.
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Calendar Girls
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Wallasey
78 is to appear alongside Miss June in the Nissan Figaro Owners Club
Calendar. The Car is owned by MTPS member, Conductor and Thursday night
volunteer Dave Corey
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| 18th Wirral Bus& Tram Show | | The
weather was kind with lots of sunshine as the Wirral Bus and Tram Show
took place at Wirral Transport Museum & Heritage Tramway. The whole
show was very busy with thousands of people out and about along the
tramway. The sales stands at Taylor Street museum were very busy
through the day. Pacific Road car park contained displays of classic
buses, new buses and classic lorries. Woodside had classic cars, the
Wirral Wobblies moped display and there were military vehicles both at
woodside and Lord Street at the back of the museum. The trams carried
full loads of passengers throughout the day.The heritage buses were
taking passengers on trips for free. |  |  |  |  |  |  |
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| | Liverpool Tram 245 |
| Saturday
12th September 2015 saw VIP guests and MTPS members with special
tickets congregate at Wirral Transport Museum for the historic and long
awaited launch of Liverpool Baby Grand 245. The Lord Mayor of
Birkenhead and senior members of Wirral Borough Council, Senior members
of National Museums Liverpool and Heritage Lottery Fund along with
Terry Martin, MTPS Chairman all made passionate speeches about the
partnership between all the groups that were involved in the
restoration of Liverpool 245. National Museums Liverpool provided a
buffet for all the invited guests and even had a cake made with a
ptcture of 245 on it.
Liverpool 245 exited the museum driving
through a banner bearing her car number where she was parked on the
curve opposite to receive her first paying passengers in almost 58
years. Two inaugural runs were carried out, such were the numbers
purchasing a special ticket.
Car 245 was escorted on the
return journey by Wallasey car 78 with a brass band playing on the
top deck to mark such a special occassion. Once the special runs had
been completed 245 began carrying members of the public who not only
rode the last surviving Baby Grand in the UK, they also received a
genuine "last tram" ticket from 1958. | | Sunday
13th September saw 245 carrying passengers as part of the heritage
fleet of tram cars at Wirral Transport Museum. Passenger numbers on
this day were very high. | | The
partnership between the MTPS, Wirral Borough Council and National
Museums Liverpool made this restoration possible. 245 arrived in May
2006 for a feasibility study to assess the likely costs involved in
this restoration. Once this had been done a successful application was
made to the Heritage Lottery Fund by National Museums Liverpool which,
with further funding from NML and donations from MTPS members, enabled
the restoration to commence. Taking over nine years to complete by the
volunteers of the MTPS Liverpool 245 is in service once again. | | Our
very grateful thanks to Ellesmere Port Concert Brass for providing the
music on Car 78. More information about Band on a Tram here | |
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| | Ron
Martin, MTPS Treasurer is shown below feeling very proud. His Crosville
bus having won First prize in the Custom / Special Interest Vehicle
category at the Frodsham & Helsby Rotary Club Charity Motor Show
2015. We would like to congratulate Ron & his partners on a fine
win. |   |  | | The winners tankard, Ron Martin with certificate & The Winner |
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Dave
Corey stands alongside one of the four newly erected brown tourist signs. Two
have been erected on Canning Street and two on Cleveland Street, Birkenhead.
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|  | Liverpool
Horse car 43 made the journey from Pacific Road to Taylor Street on
Friday 6th March. Pacific Road is undergoing building work to
accommodate it's new tenants, Wirral Chamber of Commerce.
Horse car 43 has been moved to prevent any damage to the car during these works and will return when works are completed. |
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Teddy Bear Day |
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21st February we held our Teddy Bear Day. All children that brought
their teddy bears to Wirral Transport Museum were invited to take part
in our Teddy Bear Treasure hunt. |
All the completed entry forms were put into the prize draw box to win a large tin of sweets
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| from which our winner was chosen at random |
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| And the winner is... |
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| Melanie Semerad of Storeton |
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| Congratulations! |
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Bill Stock
1930 - 2015 |
| It
is with regret that we announce the death of MTPS stalwart Bill Stock.
Bill will known by many who observed the work on 245 in the last few
years, he was bespectacled, with denim overalls and a flast cap. |
Bill
was acraftsman and worked all his life as a joiner. Those that remember
seeing Bill's tools will recall, every auger bit going up in size in
1/8th's from "very small" to "very large", held in a canvas slotted
pouch, and he had cabinet makers slotted screwdrivers going up in every
size, the right screwdriver for the right sized screw. Likewise his
chisels, he'd had most of his life and were nearly worn down to a stub,
but still extremely sharp.
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| After
National Service and seven years in the reserve, Bill seemed to enjoy
his time in the Royal; Engineers. He told me about the staging that
they had made for the coronation, and then being sent home on leave for
the actual Coronation service, due to lack of accommodation! Which
didn't worry Bill at all. Another task Bill and his colleagues were
involved with, was the flood defence work during the great floods on
the East Coast in 1953. |
Bill
was a season ticket holder at Everton from 1956, and had it right to
the end. He used to joke that he wasn't going renew it, but each year
they would make an offer he couldn't refuse if he renewed it early! he
never failed to be caught by the offer. He also joked that he had the
season ticket longer than his marriage to his beloved Doreen.
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| On
leaving the Army Bill worked for a number of companies including
British ENKA, who made synthetic yarn. He then moved to the Dock Board
as it was known. He worked in most of the workshops:- North, Central
and South. I remember him describing a giant curved planing machine for
planing dock gates, which was at the South workshops. From 1981 he
moved to the Dock office building, or Dock Board Building that we know
at the Pier Head. It was at this place he worked in maintenance until
his retirement in 1994. |
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Fron
the late 1980's Bill helped Stan Heaton at Steamport Southport to
restore Stockport 5, when that was done he helped me restore
Wolverhampton 23. From there he came to Pacific Road Tramshed and threw
himself into the Tuesday working parties with Rick Stansfield and work
shot ahead on Wallasey 78. |
Then
when MTPS moved up to Taylor Street about 2002 he moved up and helped
here. With the arrival of 245 he and Dave Webster bore the brunt of the
difficult joinery work.
Bill leaves a widow, Doreen, son and
daughter, Jeff and Shirley and Grandchildren anf Great Grandchildren,
Craig, Steven, Liam, Bethany and Isabell. |
Bill died from heart problems and MTPS members attended the funeral on 5th February.
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| We have lost one of the greats. |
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| Rob Jones |
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