Tram Talk

The Government's announcement by Chris Grayling this week to aid reopening former rai;way lines closed under the 'Beeching' cuts almost sixty years ago is to be welcomed. Evidence from the two years of operation of the brand new 'Borders line' connecting towns and communities on the Scottish Borders with Edinburgh has shown positive economic impact with new investment and development - and importantly more visitors and leisure spending. This was the most extensive new rail

Amid the shoals of sparkly new Alexander Dennis Enviro Palladium themed buses now dominating the townscape - at least one Blackpool bus stood out this week (actually two but I only caught one on camera). The once familiar cream and green Blackpool Corporation Transport colours certainly made a nostalgic sight as 524 traversed the town centre reminding older passengers of how their municipal buses used to look in former times. Number 524 shows off retro colours in Abingdo

Driver's position in large end platform area of an 'Aufbau' 1950s German tram - Number 392 of the Rheinbahn fleet serving the Dusseldorf area. The Summerlee Museum in central Scotland is the closest thing to the Beamish Museum in Co. Durham, complete with working tramway and robust displays of industrial heritage. Located in a constrained site on former industrial land Summerlee manages to pack a lot of interesting displays which reflect the former years of great Scottish man

Thanks to Colin MacLeod we can add to the images on the previous Blog with views of work now ongoing at the former tram terminus for both Layton and Marton services at Talbot Square. Of course the Layton service was replaced with buses in 1936 but the tracks remained in place well after the war years up until the early 1950s, albeit paved over with successive layers of new road surface. The Marton tram route closed in 1962 and the same repaving occurred over the entire lin

Preparatory work underway at the junction of Talbot Road and Dickson Road - site of a former tramway junction and soon to be the scene of second generation tramway installation late in 2018. The dreaded Wilko building now surrounded by contractors. Clever political messaging on the part of a certain constituency MP ? or not Abingdon Street - trams stopped here in times gone by - now its a detoured bus service - one of many this winter.... Below : The same locati

Blackpool's tram operation survived while other UK systems followed a similar trend of bus (or trolleybus) replacement which began during the 1920s as smaller first generation tramway operators found the capital costs of track renewal (mainly) and updating their fleets from open top (mostly) cars too much of a financial challenge. A minority of operators pursued modernisation of their fleets, mostly larger systems; although towns such as Rotherham, Aberdeen, Sunderland bucke

Blackpool's own electric powered trams initially operated on the principle of power collection being drawn from a sub-level third rail through a 'plough' fitted under the car body sliding along a slot. Initially revolutionary - a moving tram with no visible means of propulsion it was a marvel of its time. However the system soon proved to have faults, certainly on an exposed seafront line prone to sand and stones being swept in by very high tides. Thirteen years later t

The centenary this week of the breakthrough on the Western Front after years of deadly trench warfare and over the top sacrifice of tens of thousands of British, Empire and French troops commemorates the first engagement of the 'tank' on the battlefield. Having joined the Army and the Royal Armoured Corps I found myself arriving on a bleak garrison town at Catterick, North Yorkshire in the early 1960s - entering the gates of Cambrai Barracks, home to the 3rd Royal Tank Regime

And one might add 'Goodbye Princess Street' as far as the days when trams were able to trundle along these once important parts of Blackpool. Blundell Street was of course the site of the town's initial tram depot, housing as it did the conduit cars which made up the early promenade service from Cocker Square south to what was once called Victoria Pier and sandhills beyond. Gradually the depot gained a much larger capacity as the tramway company was taken into public (Corpor

Blackpool is experiencing (finally) definitive change thanks to Council actions initiated some years ago with approval of the Talbot Gateway scheme combined with railway electrification finally reaching as far as Blackpool. Recent visits to Florida by the Council Leader and Deputy Chief Executive attending the international trade exhibition event for theme park and leisure development may shortly lead to unveiling of proposals for the Central Station site regeneration - led