1985 was the centenary year of the trams and saw several visiting restored trams. On 29 September 1985 a parade or cavalcade of these trams alongside several of Blackpool's own trams - themselves mostly over 50 years old - travelled down the Promenade tracks.
I had hoped to be on the walkway over the Promenade roadway, but I was a bit late in getting there to secure my place! I settled for a spot on the side of the track, where I could be on the front row, so to speak.
This is the sole survivor of Blackpool's original fleet, designed to pick up power from a conduit slot set between the rails. As this no longer existed, the tram was running on batteries.
The vast Dreadnought tram was Blackpool's early workhorse. They first appeared with the conduit system and carried on after conversion to pole and overhead line operation, moving thousands of people daily until at last they were replaced by the Balloon double-decked trams in the 1930s. Tramcar 59 is the sole survivor.
A Blackpool Standard tram. Originally built 1923-29 with open ends to both lower and upper decks, the Standards were mainly used on the Layton and Marton routes, the inland route that had taken early visitors on a circular route around the town. The last two such trams to be built were fitted at last with windscreens and after a decade whose drivers endured wind, rain and blown sand, they were retro-fitted to the remaining Standards. Two cars, 158 and 159 were fitted with external decorative lighting for use during the Illuminations. Car 158 went to the Crich museum for spare parts, but car 159 still exists without its illuminations and offers rides at the East Anglia Transport Museum at Carlton Colville, near Lowestoft.
Princess Alice, an open topped Balloon variant was due to be scrapped due to the corroded state of its upper deck, when someone suggested taking the top off altogether. The result was an elegant and popular addition to Blackpool's fleet. There had previously been open-topped versions of the Balloon tramcar, but they had all been enclosed during World War II.
Dating from 1928, this luxury tramcar with upholstered seating and enclosed body ran on the Fleetwood to Blackpool North Station route. It ran until 1957 upon which it was used for five years as an engineering car before being donated to the national tramway museum at Crich in Derbyshire.
A slightly strange story behind No.10, one of two final tramcars ordered for the Hill of Howth tramway in Dublin, Ireland. These were slighly longer than the company's existing eight cars and tended to derail often due to the lack of cross springs between the bogies. Built in 1902, because of the tendency to derail they were used mainly for peak period running only and when the rest of the fleet was repainted to a new blue and yellow livery they kept their teak colour. Car 10 had to be re-guaged from 5 feet 3 inches to the UK standard of 4 feet 8 and a half inches to run in Blackpool.
Likewise an Edinburgh tramcar. Built in 1948 at Edinburgh's Shrubhill works it joined the Edinburgh fleet just as the city was starting to wind down its tramway operations. It saw just eight years of service and was preserved only due to the tram of first choice suffering a bad accident and the tram of second choice being repainted in "last tram" colours. It spent several years on display in Edinburgh before appearing on the Blackpool tracks throughout 1985.
Manchester single-decked tramcar 765 was built in 1914 for use on routes that had to pass under low bridges. To cater for smokers who would normally be directed to an upper saloon, the tram had an enclosed middle saloon and open areas at either end where smokers could indulge their habit. It is the only surviving such tram car and has operated for many years at the Heaton Park Tramway, Manchester. Incidentally, it has lost its original bogies and runs on re-guaged bogies from our old friend, the Hill of Howth tramway.
One of a rare clique of post-war tramcars, Glasgow tramcar 1297 was one of a class of trams known as Cunarders and was built in 1948. Seating 70 passengers on two decks, it came to the end of its service in 1962, was sent to Crich the following year and went straight into passenger carrying service there without the need for any large scale refurbishment. It remains on display at Crich, but is no longer operational.
Another late build tram is the Sheffield tramcar 513, which dates from 1950, having been built by a Wakefield firm which would much later be acquired by Bombadier, the firm whose Flexity 2 trams have run as Blackpool's main fleet since 2012. Carrying 62 passengers, the Sheffield tram saw just 8 years of operation before Sheffield ditched trams for 35 years before opening the South Yorkshire Supertram in 1995. This tram returned to Blackpool long term in 2001 and with the temporary closure of the tramway to refurbish for the new Flexity 2 trams it transferred to the East Anglia Transport Museum where it still operates.
Blackpool's own Balloon double-decked tram. This type of tram ran continuously in Blackpool from 1934 until 2011. This was one of the final cars to be delivered, dating from 1935. Subsequent to withdrawal from service, this tramcar was acquired privately and has been stored in agreement with the Fleetwood Heritage Leisure Trust.
Blackpool's own post-war tramcar was the Coronation class, built in the year of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1952. In keeping with other post-war tramcars they had plush comfortable seating and were fitted with VAMBAC equipment under the trolley tower. This allowed for smoother acceleration than the more common 8-position power controllers, though they drew more power from the system and frequently blew circuit breakers on sections of track which meant queues of stationary trams would result. They also had problems with roof and window leaks, and water would also get into the VAMBAC equipment above the roof, leading to most of the Coronation fleet being converted to more standard controllers. Luckily Blackpool retains a small number of the Coronation tram as part of the Heritage fleet.
A steam tram brings up the rear, puffing smoke out from its funnel. These were designed to pull a double-decked trailer, seating 26 people on both upper and lower decks, 52 in all. They had a relatively short working life between the days of horse-drawn trams and electric trams. Laws were passed that all moving parts had to be covered by a metal skirt in order for them to be used on public roads to avoid anyone being dragged into wheels or workings in case of collision with a pedestrian. This appears to be an example from the Rochdale, Bury and Manchester area. This was the second largest steam tramway in the country at the time. The steam tramway used a narrow guage of 3 feet 6 inches. It closed in stages as both Rochdale and Bury electrified and the Heywood Corporation Steam Tramway came into being, running trams from Rochdale to Heap Bridge from April 1905. It lasted a mere 6 months, closing on 20 September 1905.
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