Today we go “Side by Side” and a trip to Rigby Road Depot in Blackpool is in order.
This photo was taken during a tour of Tramtown, at a time when the main depot at Rigby Road was open for guided tours (as was the Paint Shop and Body Shop). This meant there was the chance to see some of the trams stored in the depot and this photo includes an image of two of those. On the left is Blackpool Transport’s own Twin Car 272+T2, a pair of trams which haven’t operated since 2016 when there was a fire on the motor during the main Anniversary celebration event for the tramway of that year. Alongside it is Works Brush 259 which is still owned by the Fylde Transport Trust which was last used as a passenger tram in 1971 and after conversion to a works vehicle saw use until 2002. (Photograph by Stuart Cooke, 28th April 2023)
Can someone tell me why Crompton Parkinson controllers in the Brush cars were replaced English Electric controllers. Presumably the works car in the picture still has the original controllers. What is going to happen to all the vintage trams in various states of restoration ?
Standardisation as there were plenty of spare EE controllers in the 60s.
The main reason the CP controllers were replaced was because of the desire to standardise the remaining cars on one type for ease of maintenance and there were surplus EE from scrapped cars plus spares were still available from the manufacturers. The EEs were also regarded as lower maintenance and generally (though not universally) preferred by drivers.