The Railgrinder retires

For the second time this year, one of the Blackpool tramcars preserved within the last decade has shown its age to the extent that its operational career has ended, for now at least. Heaton Park’s Blackpool Railgrinder 1, better known as 752, has given good service since moving to Manchester in 2008 but now looks set for a lengthy lay-off after being withdrawn due to concerns about the condition of its motors.

Despite enduring a period of storage at Bury, works car 1 has been kept busy since leaving Blackpool – more so, in fact, than for many years in its home town. The tram has proved invaluable in assisting in construction of the tramway’s short extension to the boating lake, and more recently in laying the new Lakeside depot track fan. However, all this use has taken its toll and recently concerns were expressed about its motor. The car had been running with one ‘dud’ motor for a few years now, but now the remaining working motor is also showing signs of failure and so it has sensibly been decided that the tram must be withdrawn. The tramway have actually been quite fortunate in that this defect has developed when the need for a designated works car has lessened, with the tracks running into the new Lakeside Depot now complete, but its demise is still disappointing. The repainting of 1 last year is also looking like something of a wasted effort, with the benefit of hindsight.

It is not currently known what the immediate future holds for Blackpool 1 which would need to be lifted off its truck for the required motor repairs to be carried out, something which will be no doubt be very costly. The tram has survived on basic maintenance for several decades and so its overall condition is certainly not great, and it may well be that it remains stored until the resources are available to carry out a major overhaul. With a number of passengers cars such as Manchester 173 and Blackpool Balloon 702 also waiting in the wings, the incentive to carry out such major work on a humble works car may not be very high – although when future extensions of the line come to fruition then it may well be needed again, and push it further up the workshop queue.

For the meantime, 1 is stored at the rear of track 1 inside Lakeside Depot, behind 702 although it is expected to be extracted for static display at the upcoming Blackpool-themed event on 26th April, to celebrate the entry into service of Blackpool 280. Like fellow ex-Blackpool car Balloon 703/101 however, old age finally seems to have caught up with the railgrinder and without a large injection of cash, such static appearances could be the limit of its participation in key event days at the tramway for some time to come.

Railgrinder 1 is seen being towed out of Lakeside Depot by Blackpool Vanguard 619 during a recent shunting operation, with its trolley tied down indicating its current plight. (Photo by Tony Waddington)