Camera operator Holly has rigged up a couple of GoPros in the driver’s cab and that’s where we’re headed. This is a closed line, so I’m the only passenger, as the others head to the cramped confines of the ‘cockpit’.
“Proper bucket list this!” exclaims Ella, as Cheryl gives her a whistlestop lesson in taking the reins of this 39.7-tonne behemoth. “I feel like I’m on my driving test again!”
These vehicles can reach speeds of up to 50 miles per hour, according to Cheryl, but even with no other trams to worry about, we’re restricted to 10 per cent of this.
I’m too far back to see the precise mechanics of starting the engine and setting off, but although there seem to be hundreds of buttons in different colours, our trainee tram driver is apparently a natural.
“There’s actually less to learn than when you start in a car,” she says, as Cheryl reminds her that, to be fair, real staff do have to undertake weeks of learning in a classroom before they’re even allowed access to the keys.
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