Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
RESTORATION
Hidden in a busy workshop at Summerlee museum is “Scotland’s best-kept secret” – which is set to become a unique attraction thanks to the work of dedicated volunteers.
Members of the museum’s Transport Group are working on a painstaking restoration of Coronation tram 1245, known as “Glasgow’s last tram”.
They plan to have it back in working order next year – and say nostalgic passengers and tram enthusiasts will be queueing up to travel in style when it takes to the museum’s tracks.
Known for its art deco fixtures and fittings, the Coronation tram dates to 1939 with only four left in existence – and Summerlee’s will be unique in operating for passengers.
Group volunteer Charlie McAloon said: “It will be the only running one in the world once the work is finished, people will be coming from all over to see it.”
Tram 1245, which once travelled through Coatbridge, was used to shunt other trams to depots for scrapping after passenger services stopped in 1962 and was the last tram to run in the city.
Summerlee acquired it for just £1 in 2006 and it lay in storage for six years before the volunteer group stepped in.
With several members having worked as mechanical and electrical engineers prior to retirement, they put their skills into rebuilding the tram and its workings.
First came three years of repairing the four motors which allow the tram to operate. Charlie said: “We wanted to make sure they would run and there was no point in working on the body until we knew they would.
“They had to be stripped and refurbished – we had to figure out how to strip them down and it was a learning curve, taking four months just to strip the first one.
“We obviously didn’t want to break anything because there isn’t something else to replace it, so that section was probably the hardest part.”
Fellow volunteer Bobby Davidson said: “There was no-one we could call on, we had to work it out on our own – and now we’re experts. We just