Another look at the trams that have run during 2026 at the National Tramway Museum in “Meet the Trams”. And this week we feature Blackpool 167.
Blackpool 167 is one of ten trams built in 1928 by English Electric as replacements for the Box Cars on the North Station route. All ten were originally fitted with pantographs and as such they came to known as Pantograph Cars, a name which has stuck even though the pantos were removed after five years!
Delivered in the then Corporation livery of red and white, 1935 saw them receive the up-to-date corporate green and cream identity. The now very familiar wartime style wasn’t added until 1945 but this is how the trams saw out their operational days.
Having been the first of the ten to arrive in Blackpool., 167 was also the first to be withdrawn when it came out of service in 1953 and joined the permanent way fleet. Then it was donated to the Tramway Museum Society, making the move to Crich in 1962.
Restoration commenced in 1983 in Bolton and it was ready in time to play a starring role in the Centenary events on its home tramway. It has also operated in preservation at the Gateshead Garden Festival (1990), Beamish (2014) and several more trips back to Blackpool (1998, 2010 and 2014).
Now back at Crich the tram is regularly part of the operating fleet, and has been commissioned and used again as part of the 2026 fleet.
167 is seen in this 2025 photo as it passes the side of the Workshop on the way back to Town End. (Photograph by Gareth Prior, 14th September 2025)