I recently visited Crich Tramway Museum in Derbyshire. This was my second visit to the museum; my first visit was in the summer of 2012 (Derbyshire - Heights of Abraham and Tramway Museum), and I arrived toward the end of the day and managed to ride on one of the trams, have a quick look around the museum, and check out some of the classic MINIs that were scattered around before they left. That first visit felt a little bit rushed, so I decided to visit the museum again as I was in the area. Museums are also suffering due to coronavirus, and there were not many people at the museum.
Visitors to the museum were assigned a socially-distanced seat on one tram. Normally, visitors can enjoy multiple tram journeys with hop-on and hop-off service. Due to coronavirus, visitors get assigned one tram journey and can go back later to request another one, if available.
In addition to the trams, some other bits of old English town and branding/signage is located at the musuem: pub, tea room, sweet shop, telephone box, post box, police box, and so on.
Visitors to the pub or tearooms had to sit outside.
On the plus side, there were plenty of great photo opportunities with one of three trams that were running at the time.
Three trams were running. The first was a green and white tram, the Blackpool 236, an open-top tram dating from 1934. The second is a brown and yellow Leeds tram from 1926, number 399. The third tram also dates from 1926 and is a Blackpool number 40 with white and red colour. I read on the number 40 Blackpool tram. This may have been the same tram that I rode on when I visited before.
The tram journey was socially-distanced with plenty of space between other passengers. The trams were washed down before the next visitors, so this meant fewer trams running and hygiene measures in place to allow everyone to be safe.
I did manage to get an ice cream from the ice cream shop.
After visiting the trams and the tram ride, I visited the museums. There are three parts to the museums. The first museum is a general history museum about the history of trams and their use as a postal and passenger service. The second museum has a small section on mining and another on early transport, starting with horses and then going to railroad information. The third museum showcases different trams and tram models from the different decades.
A ticket to the Crich Tramway Museum is valid for a year, so visitors can come back and visit as many times as they would like.
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