Anniversaries are in the air at Manchester paintmaker, HMG Paints. This year the family-owned firm is celebrating its 80th anniversary, while across the Pennines the Sheffield Supertram operator, for whom its supplies high performance refinishing paints, is marking half a century since the first generation of corporation trams made their final journeys through the city streets.

Now a new generation of street-running trams serves the city and the operator, Stagecoach Supertram, has marked the passing of 50 years by running one of its current fleet in the former Sheffield Corporation livery of azure blue and cream, for a limited period. Through its regional commercial transport coatings distributor, Spray Centre of Woodburn Hill, Sheffield, HMG Paints supplied a high performance primer and topcoat system for refinishing Tram 120, which is now attracting plenty of local attention and promoting the important role trams play in the life of the city.

Sheffield’s Supertram network reopened in 1994 with a new fleet of 25 articulated trams, each with a capacity for up to 250 passengers and powered by an overhead 750vDC current supply. There are three main routes radiating outward from Sheffield city centre, giving a total system length of 18 miles, half of which runs alongside mixed urban traffic.

Independent paint manufacturer, HMG Paints is a leading supplier of commercial transport coatings to the UK bus, coach and rail industry, supplying products and local technical support through a network of specialist paint distributors. In South Yorkshire its distribution partner is Spray Centre, which operates from a purpose-built industrial unit in South East Sheffield, and it regularly supplies HMG products to Stagecoach Supertram, when trams become due for routine refurbishment. The usual paintwork is a variation of Stagecoach Group’s railway livery, but to mark 50 years since the last Sheffield Corporation trams stopped running, the traditional blue and cream colours have been adopted for just one tram.

For the topcoat, HMG’s popular Acrythane XSC98/08 ultra high solids, two-pack acrylic was selected on the grounds of its high gloss finish and simplicity of usage. This was undercoated with HMG’s AMC4 2-pack polyurethane primer, which offers excellent adhesion and anti-corrosive properties and enables ultimate gloss levels in the fastest processing time. Together, this well-proven commercial transport coating system ensures optimum protection against harsh weather conditions, atmospheric pollution, road grime, sharp cleaning agents and mechanical brush washes, so that limited edition Tram 120 will remain pristine throughout its commemorative duties.

Enquiries to HMG Paints at Riverside Works, Collyhurst Road, Manchester M40 7RU, telephone 0161 205 7631, email sales@hmgpaint.com, www.hmgpaint.com