Article updated with photo 18/5/25.
With the spring brining plenty of sunshine – and some warmer temperatures – what could be better than enjoying an open tram ride? The team at the Crich Tramway Village obviously think the same as well with the latest tram to be recommissioned for service this year being Blackpool Toastrack 166.
166 was used for the first time in 2025 on a warm and sunny Saturday 10th May 2025. On that day it joined up with its successor in Blackpool as Luxury Toastrack 236 (more commonly known to most as a Boat Car) was also in use. The trio of trams was completed by Sheffield 74.
The service at Crich continues to operate between Town End and Wakebridge only with infrastructure works at Glory Mine still taking place. It is hoped that the full tramway may be open again during June.
166’s entry into service means there have now been 11 trams which have carried passengers in 2025. And they are… Chesterfield 7, Glasgow 22, Blackpool 40, Sheffield 74, Newcastle 102, Blackpool 166, Blackpool 236, Leeds 345, Leeds 399, Blackpool 630 and London Transport 1622.
Plenty of happy passengers enjoying a ride along the tramway at the Crich Tramway Village on board Toastrack 166. (Photograph by Andy Martin, 11th May 2025)
I always refused to take the Blackpool Trams in Crich and the other museums, as I prefer to ride them in Blackpool, but nowadays …
(Couldn’t Blackpool run at least the B-fleet-Balloons as heritage specials on bank holiday weekends?! Would be better than nothing. And why can’t the other modern tramway cities in Britain not use historic trams (say, from the 1940-60s) for special tourist / sight-seeing trips? It’s done at least in some cities in Germany, Belgium and Netherlands.)
The operator would have to build a safety case, maintanance regime and training that would fit in with the UK’s strict regulations.
Non-compatible infrastructure, overhead, wheel profiles, voltages, signalling.
Finding a suitable location that isn’t going to hold up the main service.
Spend enough money to overcome those first few hurdles and for what? Is there really going to be the demand for a heritage tram ride in the likes of Croydon, Nottingham etc?
Heritage trams ran in conjunction with Flexities for over ten years in Blackpool, without incident.
The Office of Rail & Road have no safety concerns where the Blackpool Heritage Fleet is concerned, despite ‘hints’ to the contrary.
Blackpool employed engineers fully experienced in the servicing and maintenance of Heritage cars, although I understand that BTS intended to make, or have made, them redundant, very recently.
The running of heritage cars in ‘the likes of Croydon, Nottingham etc?’ has never been, and will not ever be, suggested.
Blackpool is, however, a special, in fact a unique, case, where tours by Heritage cars have operated successfully without the slightest inconvenience to normal Flexity services.
It’s a reply directly to the “Why can’t other modern tramway cities use heritage trams”…..
I find that hilarious and odd considering NONE of the type of Blackpool tram represented at Crich has been part of the Heritage fleet so you couldn’t ride them in Blackpool with the exception of the boat, though it is restored to an earlier condition and 40 is different from 147 as 630 is different from Blackpool’s Brush offering. If you have been keeping up to date nothing can run at Blackpool without restart funding (which has been extensively discussed online) which includes the B fleet.
No other Tramway can run Heritage cars because they are not compatible. Wooden bodied cars wouldn’t be allowed in tunnels, the voltage is too high and would need more resistors and the overhead would be too low for double deckers. You could run adapted European stock, but why? You will find generally only upgraded systems run Heritage. not new ones.