Time for another edition of “15 Years Apart” and it’s a Blackpool to Crich tram which features this time.
Blackpool Brush Railcoach 630 may now call the Crich Tramway Village its home but back in 2010 it was still in service on its original home tramway at Blackpool as just another member of the standard operating fleet. As one of the three Brush Cars to have enjoyed a 1990s overhaul it was still used regularly and was in an all over advert for Karting 2000 (this is the second version of an advert for the attraction – which would be forced to move from Starr Gate to South Pier because of the construction of the new tram depot). This shot shows the tram standing on Pleasure Beach on 2nd October 2010.
630 remined in Blackpool until 2011 and would then enter preservation at Crich, entering service at the home of the National Tramway Museum in 2012. Before it arrived it had received a repaint into the 1990s version of green and cream fleet livery and has been part of Crich’s operating fleet ever since, although its since been confirmed that as from 2026 it will become a reserve tram. On a very wet 14th September 2025 we see the tram in splendid isolation at Wakebridge. (Both Photographs by Gareth Prior)