Heaton Park Tramway

Our tramway museum will be open with FREE ENTRY this Sunday 6th June!
Additional attractions include:
• Vintage Bus Display outside our Middleton Road Depot
• Vintage Bus Rides from Heaton Park Tramway to the Museum of Transport.
• Full size and model trams on display.
• Fully stocked gift shop with rare and out of print tramway and transport books on display.

Don't forget that next Saturday is also the Queen's Road 125 event - celebrating 125 years of this former Manchester Corporation Tramways depot!

As well as our tramway museum in Heaton Park being open both days, we'll also have a pop-up stall at Boyle Street alongside our unique Eades Horse Tram L53, as well as regular buses running between our tramway museum and the Museum of Transport, Greater Manchester on both Saturday and Sunday.

Don't miss this unique chance for a look behind the scenes of one of Manchester's most historic bus and tramway depots!

If you're coming to our Queens Road open day next Saturday, here are some notes on logistics to make your day really enjoyable.

First and foremost, please come by public transport if you possibly can - parking near the museum or the garage will be almost impossible. We'll have free heritage buses from Shudehill Interchange (stand H) at 00/15/30/45 minutes past each hour, and Corporation St (stop NU) at 10/25/40/55 minutes past each hour. First bus from Shudehill will be at 0945.

You can also catch a Metrolink to Queens Road stop - we're a 12-minute walk from there or our free heritage buses will call there at 10/25/40/55 minutes past each hour.

Bee Network bus 135 between Manchester and Bury calls at Queens Road stop at frequent intervals - we're a five-minute walk from the stop.

You must go to our museum before going to the Queens Road garage, either to buy your ticket or, if you're pre-booked, collect your wristband to enter the garage. You won't be admitted to the garage without a wristband from the museum, even if you've pre-paid.

If you've pre-booked there'll be a gazebo just outside the museum to collect your wristband: if you haven't pre-booked, just pay inside the museum as usual.

If you want to pre-book to beat the queues, use online booking https://mtgm.hops.org.uk/tickets/book/qs125

Our Free Model Tramway Exhibition is next weekend!

Come and join us at your Middleton Road museum and Depot next Saturday for our Model Tramway Exhibition! Featuring a wide selection of tramway modelling, including classic Manchester trams, Manchester Metrolink, and larger scale models including the stunning Ashley Best collection of miniature tramcars.

If that's not enough, our museum will be fully open too as well as our gift shop which includes many rare and hard to find books on the UKs tramway networks. A shuttle bus will connect with our friends at Museum of Transport, Greater Manchester too!

is at Pendleton Church in Salford this week back in around 1903. Car 33 is heading to Higher Broughton via Deansgate in the city centre, while the outbound tram heads for Peel Green and will soon turn left onto Eccles Old Road at the well known Woolpack hotel which was not far behind the photographer.
Its an area that's greatly changed over the last 60 years with a huge underpass on Broad Street dominating the area now, but I'm sure many of our older fans will remember it fondly. St Thomas' church does still stand of course.
Just seen heading off to the right is the track which led to the former Manchester Carriage Company horse tram depot in Church st. Horse bus pioneer John Greenwood had lived in the Horseshoe Hotel which was on the opposite corner of Church st to the general store, just out of shot in the photo and hidden by the edge of another passing tram in this busy scene.

is heading on a day out.
Replacement bogie car 360 from 1927 is seen in Boyle St, outside Queens Road depot in the early 1930s, at the head of a line of trams setting off on a special working. Maybe they were heading up to Heaton Park & Hall as crowds of happy trippers board the trams.
It's a timely reminder that both the tramway and our friends at the Museum of Transport, Greater Manchester will be celebrating the 125th anniversary of Manchester's tramways and the Queens Road depot on the 6-7th of June.
Sadly you wont be able to get a tram like 360 from one site to the other, but there will be heritage buses from the museum running to get you there instead.

Don’t forget we’re open today till 4.30pm drop in and see us

brings you this week a wonderfully detailed view of open topper Manchester 469 in the summer of 1903.
Delivered the year before for the expansion of the network, and still with the original glass destination indicators, its working to Palatine road.
With the growth of the tramways, Piccadilly would become very busy with trams passing every few seconds and not just Manchester's own trams. In time trams from Salford, Stockport, SHMD and Ashton Corporation would join the city's own trams to serve the wider city region, and the ornate waiting shelters would be erected in the background to meet the needs of the passengers.

FREE ENTRY TRAMWAY MUSEUM AND SHOP OPEN THIS SUNDAY 3RD MAY!

With our substation works still ongoing, we're currently unable to operate our trams on our tramway within Heaton Park.

However, we are pleased to announce that we will be opening our free entry Museum (with newly renovated displays) and Shop at Middleton Road on select occasions during Spring 2026, the first of which is the Sunday, 3rd May.

The centerpiece of our space for this period will be Hull 96, one of our longest serving tramcars, having been in the Park since 1988. You'll be able to climb aboard and we hope to have our volunteers on hand to talk about our history.

You will also be able to view the ongoing restoration work on Manchester 173, one of the last two surviving trams from Manchester's original tramway!

We look forward to seeing you in our museum soon! We'll be open from 12 until 4.

With our news shared earlier today regarding the only surviving part of a Bury Corporation tramcar, it's only fair that we visit the town for tonight's

Fourteen open top bogie cars were built for the commencement of services in 1903, being provided by G.F. Milnes. All were rebuilt with top covers, new trucks and motors in the mid 1920s and survived until the withdrawal in 1948/1949 - the tramway itself closing on the 13th February with one of these original Cars (No.13) being the final car in service.

This photo shows Car 9 (sister to No.7, the top deck end of which is now in our custodianship) in post-war condition at the terminus in Walmersley. This route closed in February 1949 - the final route into Bury town centre which brought the closure of the tramways in Bury.

📷 - Photo from the MTMS Archives

We're delighted to announce that we are now the custodians of the sole surviving part of a Bury Corporation Tramways tramcar, in the form of the top deck end of Car 7.

Owned by the Greater Manchester Transport Society and recently on display at the Bury Transport Museum, the top deck was moved to our Lakeside Depot yesterday, bringing it into contact with other preserved trams from Greater Manchester for the first time in many years.

Car 7 was one of the original double deck bogie cars built by Milnes delivered for the opening of Bury's electric tram network in 1903. The top deck cover was built and installed in the mid 1920s, surviving on the tram until it's withdrawal in the final year of BCT trams in 1948/1949.

The top deck is now located in our Lakeside depot whilst our volunteers efforts are focused on returning our tramway to operational service. Once this is complete, we will then be reviewing the most suitable way to display Bury 7 as part of our museum and collection.