We return to the East Anglia Transport Museum as we continue to “Meet the Trams” with a look this time out at Blackpool 634.
634 is one of 20 Brush Railcoaches which were built by Brush at Lougborough in 1937. Now owned by the Lancastrian Transport Trust, the tram has had a varied preservation career which included periods in Northamptonshire and Sunderland whilst under the private ownership of Andy Ashton.
Built in 1937, the tram entered service as 297 on 14th September of that year and would remain in service until it was one of the trams which was taken out of service as part of the great mothballing of 2004. After receiving several advertising liveries over the years it ended its operating career in a blue based ad for the Cala Gran Caravan Park.
And it was in that livery that it was to take its first journey on a lorry since original delivery when it departed Rigby Road on 9th November 2009. It had been acquired by enthusiast Andy Ashton who had found a home for it at the Rushden Transport Museum, Northamptonshire. Aided by his two daughters Andy undertook a high quality cosmetic restoration on the tram – which included a return to green and cream livery, the 1990s version chosen. A further move came in May 2014 when it went north to the North East Land Sea and Air Museum in Sunderland.
Andy decided to donate the tram to the Blackpool Heritage Trust in 2016, and six and a bit years after it had originally left Blackpool it returned in February 2016. The Fylde Transport Trust became owners in December 2019 after the Blackpool Heritage Trust collection merged with the FTT.
In May 2021 the tram entered the Paint Shop at Rigby Road where it received a version of an all over advert it had previously carried. Whereas before it was the Coral Island Terror Train, this time it would say Terror Tram but would still receive the recognisable skulls on the ends.
Sadly full commissioning was never possible in Blackpool and so the Fylde Transport Trust entered a five year loan agreement with the East Anglia Transport Museum with 634 moving east in November 2023. After a winter of final commissioning the tram was ready to enter service at March 2024 and has remained an active part of the operating fleet there ever since.
634 is seen here having just come out of the woods at the East Anglia Transport Museum. (Photograph by Bryan Grint, 19th April 2026)