Blackpool's Historic Trams, 1985

1985 was a great year for tram enthusiasts in Blackpool. It was the centenary year of electric trams. Whilst other places had displayed electric trams, Blackpool was the first town in the world to run them on public streets and, of course, the only English town to have kept its trams in service to the present day.

The year was marked with the visits of several restored tramcars from different parts of the UK.

This one was a Blackpool Standard and stayed in Blackpool for quite a while, becoming a favourite sight on the Promenade. It is not the same car as the current Standard restoration 147 now named Michael Airey.

The Manchester single decker originally ran between Cheetham Hill and Belle Vue, where there was a large Amusement Park.

Glasgow was represented by one of their trams in its distinctive livery of cream, green and brown.

Not to be outdone, Edinburgh had one of its trams at Blackpool too. As I write, they are about to get them back! The last time I was in Edinburgh they were cordoning off Princes Street ready for tracks to be laid. I'll be interested to see developments when I go again!

But what about Blackpool's own historic trams? Well, they don't come any older than this. This orange tramcar was one of Blackpool's original fleet. It doesn't have a pole or a pantograph to pick up current from the overhead lines because Blackpool's original trams used a conduit system and picked up their electricity from a slot in the ground running between the wheels.

This, of course, used to fill with blown sand from the beach and every now and then there would be a short and a burst of flame from the ground, which made crossing the tram tracks quite exciting. They soon switched to the overhead lines which, whilst far less pretty, were quite a bit safer...

"Will I get a shock if I stand on the line?" asked an early female visitor.
"Only if you hook your other foot over that line up there..." came the reply.

A Coronation tram had been restored for service. These trams were first brought into service in 1953 when the Queen had her coronation. They were heavy trams and fitted with the unreliable Vambac equipment. Most disappeared but one or two are still about, though the Vambacs have been replaced by railcoach equipment.

The number of "boat" trams has dwindled too, since then, though public outcry saved some of them. They are the oldest public sevice vehicles still in service, having been built in 1934 and never having been totally withdrawn from service.

The mighty Dreadnought tram was a Blackpool original and the first tram to have been conciously preserved. The conduit car was preserved only through the happy accident of having been drafted as a works car, which also accounts for the continued existence of Standard 147 and Marton Car 31, which you can find at Beamish in the North East...

This tramcar is of a design that first ran on the conduit system and remained in service until replaced by the familiar double decked balloon cars in 1934.

Blackpool OMO (One-Man-Only) car 11. They were dubbed "coffin" trams because of the elongated nose and - as they had been built from stretched railcoaches and brush cars and the bogies were still fairly close to the centre - they had a tendency to start breaking their backs. This is their second livery in red and cream, after a sort of sickly plum and custard livery was quickly withdrawn.

The year also saw the unveiling of Blackpool's first named tram, the Princess Alice, only saved from scrapping due to a well-worn upper deck saloon when someone said "Well... we could take the top off...?"

1985 saw a grand parade of the historic trams on the actual day of the centenary - but that will have to wait for another day... and for the slides and negatives to go through the scanner!

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