As our reading lists show, in LR Towers we firmly believe it’s important to look outside London to understand the city, and its past, better. Much of London’s own tram history is lost to it, but for Blackpool the story is very different. If you know where to look.
Blackpool currently has a tram network, running primarily along its seafront but with an extension to the station underway and stretches much further out. This is the modern child of what was once an even more extensive system, and thus Blackpool is arguably one of the most-overlooked components in the long history of trams in the UK. Too often it becomes bracketed in the ‘seaside attraction’ category in the public imagination, when the reality was – and is – so much more. Blackpool was the home of the first electrical streetway system in the world back in 1884 and has seen some form of tram network in operation ever since.
One of the contributing reasons to this has perhaps been the lack of dedicated museum space related to Blackpool’s light rail history. Something that, tragically, in the past has often led to many historically important tram units or architecture at best falling into private hands – whether for display or secondary use – or worse, simply being scraped.
For those rightfully lamenting this situation, however, there is also an element of hope. Blackpool Transport (the current operator) and its various predecessors have always had a strong sense of history, and although preservation has never taken a front seat, elements within it – from senior management, to workshop, to operator level have always quietly worked behind the scenes to preserve as many of its historic fleet vehicles as possible in the spaces available to them, and with the limited funding allocated. This has, as is common at operators throughout the world, occasionally led to trams “falling off” inventory lists, but the net result has been that a number of historic units still exist within Blackpool Transport’s control.
More importantly, as the value of heritage transport has become increasingly recognised, those units are no longer simply being preserved but playing an active role as heritage units in service. That leads to restoration budgets and, increasingly, to talk of permanent display.
With all the above in mind, we thought it might be of interest to LR readers for us to give a glimpse of what can be found behind-the-scenes up at Blackpool, both to give an idea of the collection and support spaces and to highlight that as volunteer days are now a semi-regular occasion at the Blackpool depot, timing a trip to coincide with one may be worthwhile. So we were delighted when we requested, and Blackpool Transport agreed to give us, access and a full tour of their current collection on a recent expedition outside the M25.
The photos below represent only a percentage of their collection, but give you an idea of the work underway as they try and balance running the new fleet of trams against their history, and establish – in these restricted financial times – whether a more permanent display of these vehicles would be of interest not just within Blackpool, but draw visitors as well.
For now, you can find out more about Blackpool tram heritage tours on the dedicated website. Our thanks to Blackpool Transport and their heritage department for being so accommodating to our visit.
I don’t know if the branding has been retained, but in late 2021 the visitor access to the “heritage tram” depot was called “Tramtown”.
The new trams which run the current “public” service are kept in a new depot at Starr Gate (the southern end of the line).
The heritage trams pictured with modifications are like that to allow the use of the new tram stops (which have low platforms and level access to the new trams). In late 2021 some heritage trams seemed to be in use for the public service (and stopping at the “public” stops) .
As the heritage trams are designed with steps from ground level access, there are a few “Heritage Tram Stops” where the tours start or drop off.
I found that for both the depot tour and the heritage tram rides, although the tickets had sold out it was worth asking if they could take a “walk up”. Advance booking is obviously highly recommended.
Brilliant article, great to hear (and see) more about the history and preservation of this system. The bit about the shed roof sounds worrying.
To prove that I was paying attention, a couple of possible typos.
“…first electrical streetway system in the world…” – should that be “electrical street tramway”?
“…or worse, simply being scraped” – “scrapped”, perhaps?
Funnily enough, ex-Blackpool trams also make up a significant number of the trams at Crich Tramway Village in Derbyshire. Not quite the same as seeing them run in a very normal setting though!
Fascinating stuff. Heritage trams share tracks with state-of-the-art trams in many other places, all overseas, including Zurich, Brussels, Turin, Melbourne, San Francisco, etc etc. So why isn’t the same same done on our other British tramway systems? Where there’s a will there’s a way!
Great article on Blackpool tramway where it was oft said there was ‘always a tram in sight.’ In the older days one could walk around the depot quite unhindered with nothing more than an acknowledgement from BCT staff. For me the ‘Fleetwood Tuesdays’ of the past was one where large numbers of trams were sent north on market Tuesdays and these then jockeyed among competing road traffic in order to set down or pick up passengers from the hugely popular market!
In terms of ‘behind the scenes’ not mentioned is the controversial tram dump at Fleetwood where a number of the system’s trams have ended their days including celebrated Balloon car 710. These abandoned trams have featured in local and national news articles and a number of urbex videos on Youtube. An appeal was launched two weeks ago to rescue 710 from this ‘tram jungle’ – the latest is it’ll be going back to Rigby Road.
https://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/threads/blackpools-lost-tram-graveyard-lancashire-april-2021.38160/
https://twitter.com/StevenHughes129/status/1595840071248547840
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/blackpool-promenade/query/tram shows a very early view. The pioneer line opened in 1885 with centre conduit but changed to overhead wire in 1899 due to problems with damp sand shorting the power! Early moving pictures were developing from 1895, and a shot from a moving tram was quite an innovation compared with unmoving shots as the first part shows. This may be one of the Lumière productions, since their men travelled the world to film and show locals the latest wonder. The first tram is one of the prototype Dreadnought design intended for fast (un)loading at the Pleasure Beach, built in 1898. One still exists at Crich tram museum in Derbyshire. I remember it operating in Blackpool in 1960 when we were there for the 75th celebrations, along with many other old designs.
The East Anglia Transport Museum is home to a few Blackpool trams. Standard 159 and Vambac 11 have been there for many years but recently a couple of single deck cars have arrived and I have just seen the delivery of a balloon (29/11/22). I don’t have the numbers of these three but I am sure the cranks out there can oblige.
Readers may be interested that the latest Railway Magazine has an article about the development of Blackpool Tramtown.