The Heaton Park Tramway is a heritage tramway that operates within Heaton Park, a large municipal park in the English city of Manchester. It is operated by the Manchester Transport Museum Society, a registered charity.
In normal times, the tramway operates on Sunday afternoons between March and mid-November and on Saturday afternoons between May and mid-September. Operation may be suspended whilst major events are being held in the park, and is currently suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Heaton Park was originally the private landscape park surrounding Heaton Hall, but was sold to Manchester City Council in 1902 for use as a municipal park. Shortly after the park was bought by the council, a branch of Manchester Corporation Tramways was built 280 yards (260 m) into the park from the existing tramway on Middleton Road. A large waiting shelter was constructed at the end of this branch, and the first tram arrived on 31 May 1903. By 1934 buses were taking over from trams and the stub tramway into the park was disconnected from the main system and covered in tarmac for use by buses.
The Manchester Transport Museum Society (MTMS) was founded as a registered charity in the early 1960s, with the aim of the preservation of documents and artifacts relating to public transport in the Manchester region. An early project of the society was the restoration of Manchester Corporation Tramways 765, which had been found on a farm near Huddersfield. The restoration was carried out partly at the National Tramway Museum at Crich in Derbyshire, and partly at various borrowed workshops around Manchester, and once completed the car ran for a couple of seasons at Crich. However the MTMS had aspirations to operate the car in Manchester, and identified Heaton Park as a possible site.
In the 1970s the society approached the city council with this idea. The initial plan, to construct a tramway from Grand Lodge to Heaton Hall, was considered too expensive, as it would require remedial works to carry it across the railway tunnel. A new scheme was proposed to open up the old Manchester Corporation Tramways spur from Middleton Road to the old tram shelter. The original track was buried under a layer of tarmac which was cleared and the tram shelter restored and modified to form a depot and museum. Work was completed in 1979 and the Heaton Park Tramway was officially opened on 28 March 1980.
Since 1980, the museum tramway has been extended further into the park on three occasions, using track salvaged from elsewhere, and is now some 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) long. The most recent extension was in 2011 and reaches the boathouse and lake. A new tram depot has been constructed at this terminus. Additionally, major restoration of the original depot and museum complex was completed in 2007.
Overhauls to Stockport 5 are now complete, Vanguard 619 is now the main focus of priority for the tramway. A funding appeal will soon start for extension of the Lakeside depot in order to provide space for the T68 being preserved to move to the tramway. Future projects include the restoration of Manchester Corporation Tramways open top tram 173 built in 1901, Blackpool Balloon 702, Oldham 43 built in 1902 and the Blackpool railgrinder No. 752. Plans exist for a further extension of the tramway towards Heaton Park Metrolink stop.
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