Picture in Time: Blackpool OMO 1

The very first of the One Man Operated trams is the feature of today’s Picture in Time as we take a look at the Plum and Custard liveried no. 1 in 1973.

1’s life as an OMO started in October 1972 when it became one of the second of the class to enter service (no. 2 was used a week earlier) following its conversion from English Electric Railcoach 616. This photo shows the tram less than a year later on 23rd June 1973 at Bispham with the tram proudly carrying the distinctive Plum and Custard livery as it operates a service through to Starr Gate with a Balloon Car looking on from the centre track.

1 continued as part of the operational fleet until final withdrawal came in June 1989 (only 5, 8, 10 and 11 lasted longer) and despite hanging around Rigby Road Depot for a number of years scrapping finally came in November 1993 in the workshops.

Photograph by Alasdair Macfarlane

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1 Response to Picture in Time: Blackpool OMO 1

  1. Mike Baron says:

    Thank you for posting this picture, it brought back a lot of memories. These trams (rebuilt from earlier railcoaches) were featured in a lengthy BBC Look North report at the time (1972-3). We were regular visitors to Blackpool then and wanted to go and take a ride. The novel aspect featuring in the Look North report was of the controller having to be used by the motorman’s right hand rather than his left and a motorman so trained was interviewed. (In another BBC Look North report from the 70s, a motorman was interviewed whilst driving one of these cars and he played Joe Loss 78s on a portable wind-up gramophone as the tram went down the prom, much to the delight of his passengers!). We boarded the car at Harrowside and the platform was wide and sloping rather like some of the Manchester buses in the 1960s, and of course, we paid the motorman. However, although the livery (plum and primrose – originally the colours of Rochdale Corporation and Middleton Electric Traction Co.), front aspect and the platform were all really most appealing, that was more or less all there was to recommend them. Once inside, we sat down on what must have been the most uncomfortable seats ever used in public transport – fixed (without moveable backs) and the backs themselves were at 90 degrees. They were phenomenally uncomfortable making you sit bolt upright and really unpleasant to ride any distance. Worse than that, the windows were much smaller and higher than the bodies they replaced and it was a strain to keep one’s head up to see out. Visiting Blackpool subsequently, we were not the only ones wishing that the railcoaches had been restored and more often than not, we let these one-man trams pass, waiting for a more comfortable ride. They finished up arching their backs like threatened cats and became really unpleasant, looking even worse in green and cream. The last time I travelled in one was in the later 1980s when it was noisy and depressingly slow. As I got off it and watched it disappear in the distance, I realised that it had been a bold and brave experiment which had been executed in the most reasonable manner for the time (apart from the seating which I still regard as an absolute failure). However, whereas the original railcoach had been a classic, these became just interesting birds of passage.

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