At the recent Tram Weekend held at the Crich Tramway Village in mid-September one of the special photo line-ups was looking ahead to trams which would be returning to service in the future. What we didn’t expect was that of the “Coming Soon!” line-up, one would be back in service very soon as Blackpool 40 returned to service for the first time since 2021 after the conclusion of its overhaul on Tuesday 10th October.
40 was taken out of service towards the end of the 2021 season for a full start to be made on its overhaul, which also included a repaint. It had originally been anticipated that the tram would be ready earlier in the season but unforeseen delays knocked the project back a little bit but the finishing touches on the overhaul and commissioning of the tram took place in early October allowing it to join the ranks of the operational fleet once more.
Its first day back in use was a bit of a Blackpool day at Crich as 40 was joined in service by open pair Toastrack 166 and Boat 236 to operate the three car service on 10th October.
40 becomes the 15th passenger tram to have run in service at Crich this year (not including the Works Cars which carried passengers at the Tram Weekend) and means there are now two operational Blackpool Standard cars in the UK (159 being the other at the East Anglia Transport Museum).
40 hasn’t been the only Blackpool to have returned to service at Crich in recent days either. Pantograph 167, which had been absent for a while although did work earlier in the season, was also back in operation on Saturday 7th October.