wombatofludham Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 Just noticed a message on the British Trams Online website that author Andrew Coward has produced a book on the history of the Ansaldo built T69 trams of Midland Metro, which are being replaced by the new CAF trams. The book will be out in May and profits go to charity. It can be pre ordered at http://www.buryrossendalerails.com/. I was fortunate to be part of the Centro team involved in the Metro project and had a number of trips over to Italy during construction of the trams and was involved in a number of areas of the project, so I'm really looking forward to this book to see what story it tells, especially as no-one from the old Metro team remains at Centro who could offer background to the tram development. It will be interesting to see what the "official" history comes out as! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PLD Posted April 24, 2015 Share Posted April 24, 2015 This is the same Author as the recent book "Superb" about the Manchester Metrolink T68s. The book certainly lives up to that title, even if the trams in question fell some way short... I'm sure this one will be the same! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan J Kirkman Posted April 25, 2015 Share Posted April 25, 2015 This is the same Author as the recent book "Superb" about the Manchester Metrolink T68s. The book certainly lives up to that title, even if the trams in question fell some way short... I'm sure this one will be the same! Certainly "Superb" is a superb book and should augur well for this one, however I was very surprised to see that a former Manager, Andy Steel, who was much involved in the sorting out and reengineering of the cars say that he had not been consulted by the author. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyc Posted April 30, 2015 Share Posted April 30, 2015 Just been made aware of this thread and thanks for the kind comments about SUPERB. The T69 book is now back from the printers and most, if not all, the contributors should have received their copies. The book is available from my website, www.buryrossendalerails.com, and also on sale through MDS book sales, Ian Allan Bookshops and Platform 5 Publishing, priced at £17.50. With regards to the people I have spoken to about the vehicles, I had meetings with original Midland Metro General Manager, a former operations manager, the current Director (who also worked at Midland Metro during the earlier years) and the Head of Metro Operations at Centro. I made approaches to speak to Andy Steel, through someone who knew him via the LRTA, but no further contact details were forthcoming, so unfortunately I was unable to speak to him. A photo of the cover is shown below. Any other questions, I will try to answer. Regards Andy Coward Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alan J Kirkman Posted May 5, 2015 Share Posted May 5, 2015 I am surprised, so unlike Andy Steel who is on email and indeed has a role, maybe even as ICP, in accepting etc the New CAF Cars so many people at Wednesbury must know how to contact him. Indeed it was in emails between local officers of the TLC group of Societies that Andy commented that he had not been approached when the subject of the book came up. Something must have gone sadly amiss in the contact process. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNCF stephen Posted May 20, 2015 Share Posted May 20, 2015 I would just add that this is a great book. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading it from cover to cover. The research is thorough and the content is very interesting. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Revolution Ben Posted May 20, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 20, 2015 Hello Andy, I too am enjoying reading my copy. Very good work, and some excellent photography. One request: on our N-Gauge club layout Horseley Fields, which is loosely based on Wolverhampton/Chillington/Bilston we have now added a tram system, and I am planning to repaint some Tomytec trams to represent the Midland Metro ones. (See link in my signature.) Your livery diagram on p103 is very helpful, and I wondered if you had similar drawings of either of the other two liveries - that perhaps weren't printed for reasons of space - that you could post here. Alternatively, do you have references for the colours used? cheers Ben A. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wombatofludham Posted May 20, 2015 Author Share Posted May 20, 2015 Ben, you might be interested in N-Train's work in progress to develop a T69 Metro tram kit. He posted some photos of a 3d printed body on his Facebook page back in February. If he progresses it I might even be tempted to come over to the dark side of N Gauge and do a small Metro themed layout! https://www.facebook.com/NTrainUK/photos/pcb.922973761067795/922973627734475/?type=1&theater Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Revolution Ben Posted May 20, 2015 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 20, 2015 Hi, Thanks for that - looks impressive, though I am not sure if it can be motorised easily in that form... cheers Ben A. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wombatofludham Posted May 23, 2015 Author Share Posted May 23, 2015 Hi, Thanks for that - looks impressive, though I am not sure if it can be motorised easily in that form... cheers Ben A. The last comment he made about the project was that he was working on a chassis design for it which would use (I think) Kato motors but that he was struggling a bit. It may be a while yet before the kit is available so the Tomix/Kato options might be the best bet as placeholders for now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.