TRAMTALK

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' conne...

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...

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...

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...

 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....

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 u...

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 n...

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 battlefi...

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...

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...