We head to Crich for the latest instalment of “Picture in Time” and turn back the clock to 1979 with a view of Blackpool Standard 49.
Built in 1926 Blackpool Standard 49 was originally constructed (using the top cover from the Motherwell tram of the same number) with open balconies and open platforms but it was only four years after building that it received windscreens. Full enclosure then followed in 1938 and the tram continued to operate in this condition until withdrawal in October 1962. It was just two months later that the tram was to move into preservation and it made the journey to Crich to join the growing collection of trams. It entered the operating fleet in 1964 and apart from 1974 and 1976 was an ever present until 1992.
We see 49 at Wakebridge in August 1979 with the conductor seemingly peering down the line waiting for another tram coming down from Glory Mine, the extension which had opened just over a year previously.
(Photo by Bob Hodges)
Anyone know why?
I’ve often wondered with the Blackpool Standards why some have the destination blind above the top deck and some have them just above the driver’s windscreen?
Great photo by the way.
those that were enclosed during the war (in 1940) had the screens positioned in the drivers vestibule to make them more readable in the black out and a couple of those converted earlier were altered to match.
Thanks Andy