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Sheffield Supertram


Stuart0742

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it was shown around 1984/85 on calander news remember my gran rushing thru into bedroom to show it me

Not had any luck with my search for the old Calendar news footage,

but I did come across this vid on YouTube.

Someone had BIG ideas for the Supertram,

and I bet the the computer animation cost a few bob when it was created in 2003.

<object width="640" height="505"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9NdDh-egl8?fs=1&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;color1=0x2b405b&amp;color2=0x6b8ab6"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9NdDh-egl8?fs=1&amp;hl=en_GB&amp;color1=0x2b405b&amp;color2=0x6b8ab6" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="505"></embed></object>

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Guest alexander

Not had any luck with my search for the old Calendar news footage,

but I did come across this vid on YouTube.

Someone had BIG ideas for the Supertram,

and I bet the the computer animation cost a few bob when it was created in 2003.

SHEFFIELD TRAMWAY MEMORIES is a new book published by the South Yorkshire Transport Museum priced at £7.95 . As well as being available from the Museum it is also available from Sheffield Transport Models on London Road and Sheffield Scene on Surrey Street . The book records important dates of both the old and new systems as well as photographs many in colour and featuring interesting stories of the old trams in Sheffield

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Not had any luck with my search for the old Calendar news footage,

but I did come across this vid on YouTube.

Someone had BIG ideas for the Supertram,

and I bet the the computer animation cost a few bob when it was created in 2003.

Nice find though Steve.

Yes they sure had big plans, - some of those routes go way beyond the current tram route and well beyond the City boundary.

But most interestingly, - Supertrams up The Moor!!!

It seems that a mere 14 years after closing and pedestrianising The Moor they had plans to run Supertram down it.

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Guest transit

All this trouble with the blue on the Supertram could have been avoided by repainting it in the two-tone green livery lol

Puts on flak jacket and helmet :blink:

Runs for cover :o

.....F*!?*"/.;*; - !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! . ... please God NOOOOO !!!!! - even the public caused so much objection to the green livery when it appeared in 1952 , that it only lasted several months , before they were repainted back into the beloved Sheffield blue and cream by '53 !

...btw , what makes you think Supertram would get the green shade correct !!!! lol

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.....F*!?*"/.;*; - !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! . ... please God NOOOOO !!!!! - even the public caused so much objection to the green livery when it appeared in 1952 , that it only lasted several months , before they were repainted back into the beloved Sheffield blue and cream by '53 !

...btw , what makes you think Supertram would get the green shade correct !!!! lol

Sticks head above parapet :unsure:

I have no faith in them getting the green right, although given how short lived the green livery was, will anyone remember the exact shades. :unsure::blink:

If they painted 120 green history could repeat itself, as the tram would be repainted again very quickly afterwards, just like in the 1950s :)

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Sticks head above parapet :unsure:

I have no faith in them getting the green right, although given how short lived the green livery was, will anyone remember the exact shades. :unsure::blink:

If they painted 120 green history could repeat itself, as the tram would be repainted again very quickly afterwards, just like in the 1950s :)

While the discussion is around Supertram liveries, when Stagecoach took over they repainted the trams in the companies standard white, with the orange, red and blue stripes, what was the range of years the trams carried this livery.

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Guest transit

While the discussion is around Supertram liveries, when Stagecoach took over they repainted the trams in the companies standard white, with the orange, red and blue stripes, what was the range of years the trams carried this livery.

...Stagecoach "stripe" livery was applied from May '98 (after takeover in Dec '97).... and they stayed in this livery till around 2006 , when refurbishment started on all the trams including painting in the new current Stagecoach "beachball" livery - the first one completed being tram 115. ;-)

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...Stagecoach "stripe" livery was applied from May '98 (after takeover in Dec '97).... and they stayed in this livery till around 2006 , when refurbishment started on all the trams including painting in the new current Stagecoach "beachball" livery - the first one completed being tram 115. ;-)

Last tram to have the new livery applied was 116 in January 2009, although I think this one was in an advertising livery for Meadowhall before being "refreshed", so the last one in the first Stagecoach livery might have been 111, which was dealt with in December 2008.

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...Stagecoach "stripe" livery was applied from May '98 (after takeover in Dec '97).... and they stayed in this livery till around 2006 , when refurbishment started on all the trams including painting in the new current Stagecoach "beachball" livery - the first one completed being tram 115. ;-)

quite a long period then,

I have a pile of photo's, all in the stripe livery, suspect they were all taken a the same time, will have to dig a little deeper to date them.

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Guest transit

quite a long period then,

I have a pile of photo's, all in the stripe livery, suspect they were all taken a the same time, will have to dig a little deeper to date them.

....general rule of thumb - so to speak .......

94 - 98 - two -tone grey Sheffield Supertram

98 - 06 - Stagecoach stripe livery

06 - on - Stagecoach beachball livery

....not forgetting the various all-over ad liveries and other special one-offs during these years ! ;-)

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Guest transit

...heres the short clip featured on BBC Look North , Fri 8 Oct ............

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/sheffield/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_9075000/9075086.stm

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Guest transit

I saw 120 in daylight today, I'm no expert but it does look wrong

...along with the majority ! - the only problem is , all the young ' uns of today (under 30 ?) probably thinks it looks ok , and will accept the livery as "Sheffield " colours of old , - as they have been told this tram is - and will probably use it as a referance in years to come as an example of the old "Sheffield " livery - which , as everyone who can remember the true colour of blue knows , is WAY OUT ! :angry:

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Guest transit

.....and another mistake ............ WHEN did you EVER see a Sheffield Transport livery vehicle all cream , with a blue skirt and blue roof ???????? - Retro ?, NO WAY ! , nothing like , and totally wrong blue - what if , MAYBE ! - but please admit to that !

...now if the blue was brown !!!! , it would pass as a retro SYPTE livery !!!!!! which DID have brown skirt and roof - even though they would probably get the wrong shade of brown !!!!!! he he (although does'nt matter cos SY didnt have trams)

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...along with the majority ! - the only problem is , all the young ' uns of today (under 30 ?) probably thinks it looks ok , and will accept the livery as "Sheffield " colours of old , - as they have been told this tram is - and will probably use it as a referance in years to come as an example of the old "Sheffield " livery - which , as everyone who can remember the true colour of blue knows , is WAY OUT ! :angry:

As far as I'm aware, all colours used for jobs like this have a BS colour reference. (This is so that it remains standard when ordering supplies) Couldn't they just consult some old records.

Failing that, I don't see why they couldn't just look at an old one and copy the colour. There are enough of them around, and thousands of photos

My view is that they chose the new colour to be pleasing to their own eye (and agenda), and assumed that no one would be bothered or even remember.

edit:

It's a bit like telecom doing a retro phone box in GPO colours and doing this.

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Guest bus man

No the colour they used was they beleived the proper colour , the problem with the origional colour is that it was BEFORE the BS colour codeing .

Rember that the pte brown was mixed in house and it wasnt until the early 1980s that a BS colour was used

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Guest bus man

I dont wnat to start another debate the cream on 120 is slightly too light the actual light on comercial street wasnt too good yesterday so it didnt show it up very well

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As far as I'm aware, all colours used for jobs like this have a BS colour reference. (This is so that it remains standard when ordering supplies) Couldn't they just consult some old records.

Failing that, I don't see why they couldn't just look at an old one and copy the colour. There are enough of them around, and thousands of photos

It always beats me how these spray cans designed to "touch up" just the odd panel of some repaired car bodywork work.

There are places that claim to mix up paints to an exact match to your car.

Everyone knows, particularly if they have a red car, that after a few years of weather exposure to sunlight uv, heat, cold dirt, grime etc even after being cleaned up, T-Cut and polished that its colour will have faded and will not be the same as the original colour reference and will not match it.

I used to have a Mk2 Vauxhall Cavilier that was Mexico Red and needed to touch up a repair. The Vauxhall Mexico Red can didn't match the colour at all, but some stuff mixed up by a place on Staniforth Road, Darnall which claimed "WE CAN MATCH ANY COLOUR" did. I seem to remember asking them for some "Mexico Red that has been aged about 6 years" at which point the guy said "Have you got your car with you?" I had, so he went outside with some advanced colour matching tool and mixed me up a tin of paint to an exact match.

I also used to have a Crimson Red Reliant Rialto2. on this only the roof and bonnet faded down to a very blotchy and uneven pinky shade. The bonnet was most severely affected, possibly from the heat of the engine beneath it. No amount of colour matching could cure this, possibly as the car wasn't made of metal and so did't use undercoats.

My current brand new car is also red, mainly because I didn't get a choice. Hopefully it's paintwork will retain its colour better than in my previous experiences.

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Guest transit

...heres my explanation once and for all !...

....Prussion Blue was used by the Transport Dept up till 1948 , after which the blue was changed to a slightly lighter shade called Azure Blue , which it kept right up to takeover by SYPTE in 1974.

The problem with the Supertram version of Azure Blue (which everybody agrees is too light !) , is that 30+ years ago , Prussion or Azure blue would be supplied by one nationwide company , and was probably a British Standard coded colour , meaning other companies could call the colour another name - like midnight , royal , ect ,but with the BS Code , it would still be the exact same shade . Remember also , back then it was almost all oil based , and brush applied paint.

These days , with the introduction of mix your own , and oil,synthetic,cellulose,acrylic,and recently water based auto paints , and paint suppliers en masse, Azure blue probably has a choice of a dozen or more shades , none of which probably match the BS Coded one of years ago.

This is obviously what has happened with the Supertram . They have obviously gone to the first paint supplier and asked for "Azure Blue" and then applied it onto the tram without checking the paint against a sample / pic until the shade is correct. Colour swatches are used till the exact shade is matched ,and the reference noted. THEN the colour is mixed and bought .( as a car resprayer for the past 25 years , i know all about the probs of paint matching !) In this day and age , and paint technology revolution in recent years, ANY retro colour (vintage cars , retro listed buildings,ect )can be replicated easier than ever before , so there is no excuse.

Just through a little bit of research with the correct people , an exact match these days could be easily achieved ! Instead , the Supertram Sheffield retro livery will become remembered for being wrong amongst the people who can remember and know !. The problem is, I just hope the younger generation dont accept this as "Sheffield " livery referance for restorations in the future as the blue is NEITHER Prussion or Azure Blue in the original, correct shade of Sheffield Transport / Tramways spec.

...btw Dave , the car paint suppliers on Staniforth Rd was called the "Spray Centre" , and are now situated on Woodbourne Hill - just over the brow from Supertrams Nunnery Depot - now if they had only asked them to supply the paint from a small shade sample !!!!!!!!!! :rolleyes:

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...btw Dave , the car paint suppliers on Staniforth Rd was called the "Spray Centre" , and are now situated on Woodbourne Hill - just over the brow from Supertrams Nunnery Depot - now if they had only asked them to supply the paint from a small shade sample !!!!!!!!!! :rolleyes:

Yes it was "The Spray Centre", and it was around 1992 or 93 that they did a match to my 1986 Vauxhall Cavilier.

They did an excellent job of it too, so I am sure they could do a fantastic job of matching up old tram livery colours.

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