This is what greeted us when we first saw her in 2009!
It had been 20 years since I last set foot on the farm. I had heard that developers wanted to build on the site and after seeing a Leicester Transport Heritage Trust presentation on the closure of the tramway system I had a reel bee in my bonnet about going back to the farm and trying to salvage what was left. Several attempts had been made to try and salvage the tram – when there was a lot more of it standing than you see here! None of the attempts came to anything solid and to my amazement there was still a lower saloon under all the vegetation.
Further investigation revealed that much of the upper deck was still present. The curved boarding you see in this photograph on top of the saloon roof is actually the advertising panel now facing the sky. Attached to the ad-panel is the window frames and winding mech still in situ. As well as this was the oak vestibule sliding door still attached at one end! It is the door attached to the left that is causing the bow in the side panel.
On the floor behind the tram can be found the remains of the roof and it’s support girders; and underneath this is another ad-panel, window frames, and a wealth of metalwork that held the roof in place. Behind that could also be found the remains of No.95 – which to be truthful – wasn’t very much!