Sunderland 16 Tram at Beamish Museum, Co. Durham
Sunderland 16 was built in 1900 by Dick, Kerr & Co. in Preston for Sunderland Corporation Tramways, part of a batch of five open top double-decker trams, numbered 13 to 18. It is the sole-surviving original Sunderland tram, Sunderland having been the second-largest tramway undertaking in the North East. This batch had to wait until after World War One to have its open top rebuilt as a closed deck, something which had been done to most of the rest of the fleet by 1916. Subsequent modifications in the 1920s and 1930s saw changes to the interior (seating and staircases), running gear (trucks) and current collector (a bow set up replacing trolley pole). Following the Sunderland system’s closure in 1954, it was one of a few trams to escape destruction, instead finding use as changing rooms for football teams, before being broken up in the late 1950s – its lower saloon being moved to Westwood Farm in Low Warden near Hexham, for use as a tool shed and apple store.
The museum then rescued the body as a potential restoration project, moving it to the museum in 1989. Returning it to 1920s closed top condition, the reconstructed lower deck was mounted on a refurbished second hand Peckham P35 truck, with a new upper deck built from scratch. The restored tram entered service in July 2003. Following another overhaul, it returned to service in December 2014. Re-tyred in 2018.