{"id":62350,"date":"2026-03-22T17:00:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T17:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=62350"},"modified":"2026-03-18T18:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T18:18:16","slug":"theyve-run-in-2026-meet-the-trams-beamish-blackpool-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=62350","title":{"rendered":"They\u2019ve Run in 2026 \u2013 Meet the Trams: Beamish \u2013 Blackpool 31"},"content":{"rendered":"

We continue our look at the heritage trams which have run in 2026 and we remain at Beamish for this latest article with a review of Blackpool 31<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Blackpool 31<\/strong> is a tram which owes its existence in preservation to the fact that after its initial passenger use came to an end it was converted to a Works Car. It was originally built in 1901 by the Midland Railway Carriage and Wagon Company as a double deck open topper, before being rebuilt in 1918 which saw its body length extended but it still remained open top.<\/p>\n

In 1928 it received a top cover but its passenger carrying days came to an end just six years later. This saw it become Engineering Car 4<\/strong> with it losing its top cover again and receive a tower for overhead line inspection. Renumbered to 754<\/strong> it remained in use until 1983 when it was transferred on long-term loan to Beamish which saw work started on its restoration back to a passenger tram once more. It entered service at Beamish in 1988 in its open top condition and is a very popular tram.<\/p>\n

As well as operation at Beamish it has enjoyed loan spells back to Blackpool (on three occasions \u2013 1997-1999, 2010 and 2016-2017) and a very popular spell at Manchester\u2019s Heaton Park Tramway from November 2010 until May 2011.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

We feature a photo of 31 in operation at Beamish on 7th May 2023. As is normally the case it has a packed top deck of passengers enjoying some Bank Holiday weekend sunshine. (Photograph by Gareth Prior, 7th May 2023)<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We continue our look at the heritage trams which have run in 2026 and we remain at Beamish for this latest article with a review of Blackpool 31.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,121,120],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62350"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62350"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62352,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62350\/revisions\/62352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}