Sunderland 16

Fifty years after it was withdrawn from service in Sunderland, tram 16 was launched into service at Beamish on 2 July 2003 by Kate Adie.

Sunderland Corporation Tramways No.16 was built as an open-top tramcar by Dick, Kerr & Co., Preston, in 1900, forming with her five sister trams the batch 13-18. As with many other tramway undertakings, Sunderland fitted its early vehicles with top covers, and most of its fleet was so dealt with by 1916. However, No.16 and the others of the same class had to wait until after the Great War to receive this treatment. Many other modifications followed in the 1920s and 1930s: new trucks, new staircases, alterations to the seating, and the substitution of a bow collector in place of the trolley pole.

When the Sunderland tram system closed in 1954, a number of tram bodies escaped the usual fate of burning in a scrapyard, instead finding a new use as football changing-rooms. After a spell on a football field, the lower saloon of No.16 was moved to Westwood Farm, Low Warden, near Hexham, Northumberland, where it spent the next 30-odd years as a tool-shed and apple store. The body was rescued by Beamish North of England Open-Air Museum in 1989 as a potential restoration project.

A great deal of work and expense was required to restore this sole-surviving original Sunderland tram to its 1920s enclosed double-deck condition, to represent the second-largest tramway undertaking in the North East. Funding for the restoration work came mainly from the European Regional Development Fund.

For a more detailed history, click here.

Please click on a picture for a larger photograph.

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