Picture in Time: Blackpool Conduit car 4

For today’s ‘Picture in Time’ image we head once again to Manchester, however rather than the familiar Heaton Park Tramway or the Metrolink system, our destination this time is the Manchester Museum of Science & Industry. For a number of years this was home to the oldest electric tram in Great Britain, Blackpool 4, and this tram is the star of this feature.

Car 4 was of course one of Blackpool’s original fleet of conduit cars, although as most readers will know this method of operation did not last long due to the problem of the conduit slot filling with sand. In later years 4 was adapted for use by the overhead line department which included the fitting of an inspection tower, and this enabled it to survive long enough to be resurrected for the tramway’s 75th anniversary celebrations in 1960, albeit retaining a trolley pole and painted in an inaccurate red and white livery with the equally unauthentic fleet number 1. It was subsequently donated to the Tramway Museum Society and after periods at Clapham, Crich, Clay Cross and Bolton it returned to Blackpool in 1985 after being restored to a more authentic condition and an unusual sand, green and white livery. The trolley pole was removed and instead the car was powered by batteries to simulate conduit operation. After starring in the centenary events – leading the legendary 20-tram cavalcade on 29th September 1985 – it spent several years on display at the Manchester museum before heading back to Crich in 1991, by which time the opening of the new Exhibition Hall enabled more vehicles to be housed on site. It has spent the vast majority of its time in this building since then although it did briefly operate at Crich in 2005, however it did not carry passengers. The opportunity for the original Blackpool tram to return home for the ‘Blackpool 125’ celebrations in 2010 was not taken and today it remains a static exhibit at Crich.

Blackpool 4 is pictured at the Manchester Museum of Science & Industry in April 1987, outside the old Liverpool Road station, operating on battery power just as it did in Blackpool in 1985 and again at Crich in 2005.

(Photo by Geoffrey Tribe)