Blackpool Corporation No. 167

Blackpool 167 was built in 1928 as a successor to the by-then antiquated Fleetwood ‘Box cars’ with their wooden seats and poor ventilation (see Blackpool and Fleetwood number 40) and the even older Blackpool and Fleetwood racks with their bench seats and open sides (see B&F number 2). Blackpool Corporation’s decision to replace some of its older rolling stock was largely prompted by complaints from ‘through’ passengers who had transferred from the rather more comfortable and up-market Lytham Pullman cars at the Gynn.

Blackpool Corporation’s response was to order its own small fleet of ten ‘Pullman’-standard cars at a cost of £2,000 each from Preston-based English Electric Company. These tramcars offered a much higher level of accommodation for both passengers – who now enjoyed upholstered seating – and also crew – who benefited from the more modern looking fully-enclosed vestibule.

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Mechanically, the ten ‘Pullman’ cars were equipped with faster motors and also superior air brakes. They were originally fitted with pantographs, though these were replaced by the more conventional trolley poles after five years, and at around the same time the cars were modified in appearance by the addition of platform doors, larger metal windscreens and curved mouldings round the destination boxes, which visually brought them more into line with the more recently-introduced railcoaches.

One of the most distinctive features of 167’s design is the ‘clerestory roof’, which incorporates a small tier of vertical windows providing additional light and ventilation, which is surmounted by a gracefully sweeping roof canopy. Although associated for many years with American railway carriage design, this feature was also adopted by English Electric during the 1920s for single deck buses and railway carriages built for export.

The original red and white colour scheme was replaced with a green and ivory livery in 1935 though there were to be further modifications subsequently before the current version – green with a cream vee-shaped flare – was adopted in 1945.

Number 167 was the first of the new ‘Pullman’ cars to arrive in Blackpool and spent its operational life almost exclusively on the more northerly ‘inter-urban’ section of the route between North Station and Fleetwood though the arrival of the more modern railcoaches resulted in the Pullmans being largely relegated to summer seasonal usage.

Unlike the rest of its class, number 167 was withdrawn from passenger service in 1953 when it became a permanent way car for the next eight years, before being donated to the fledgling Tramway Museum Society at Crich, where it arrived in May 1962.   In travelling along the newly opened first stretch of the M62 (from Worsley to Stretford), it became the first tram to travel along a British motorway.

Once at Crich it was to be quite a while before time and resources could be committed to 167’s restoration, a process which eventually commenced in 1983 when the car was transported to Bolton. Once there it was restored to 1950s condition in preparation for the tram’s participation in Blackpool’s centenary celebrations of 1985, where it covered just under 2,500 miles. Thereafter, the tram has continued to lead an active life, having made guest appearances at the Gateshead garden festival in 1990 and the Blackpool tramway’s own centenary celebrations of 1998 followed by a further visit to Blackpool for the resort’s 125th anniversary celebrations of 2010.

It has also been an active member of the Crich operational fleet apart from a couple of short periods (1998-2000 and 2008-2010) while awaiting repair work to its wheels and axles. In 2014 it paid a brief visit to Beamish where it contributed to a series of World War II-themed events.

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