Blackpool North
It’s been a while since my wife Lynn & I travelled to my favourite seaside resort of Blackpool by train! The last time we attempted to do this was in February 2022, as recounted in the blog “A Railway Misadventure”, where we got as far as Preston, where the Avanti West Coast Pendolino was unable to complete it’s journey to Blackpool North due to no driver with the appropriate route knowledge being avaliable…….and we were unable to get off the train due to a wind damaged roof, so the train reversed to drop us at Wigan!
With the storm that caused the damage at Preston having caused havoc with the railways across the North West, we admitted defeat and returned to Sandwell & Dudley via Liverpool!
Before that, baring some local journeys that we’d made whilst on holiday in Blackpool in September/October 2019, we’d reached the resort by train on 23rd February of that year, on board a then recently introduced, one way Birmingham-Blackpool North train which left Wolverhampton at 07.40, heading to Blackpool for a Heritage Gold event, the main focus of which was saying farewell to Blackpool & Fleetwood Box Car 40, which would subsequently return to the Crich Tramway Museum in Derbyshire, where it still resides.
We’d both like to reach Blackpool by train more often but various factors, including cost, engineering works and, to be honest, the recent performance of Avanti West Coast has put us off, so we usually drive up instead. But when we both decided that we would come to Blackpool on this April Saturday, Lynn suggested that I look up available train tickets, this taking place just over a month before we made the trip. With our Two Together Railcard, tickets were available from Wolverhampton-Blackpool North for £52 return, not the £20-£30 bargain that was avaliable some years back, including the £33.60 cost of that February 2019 trip but not too bad, any higher, like the £87 they wanted to charge us in 2021, then we’d have driven up, like we did on that occasion. Anyhow, we booked the tickets this time.
The Trip There
So, we arose nice and early on the Saturday concerned, and caught CAF 100 47 on the recently reopened side of the West Midlands Metro, with us soon passing over the new pointwork at Wednesbury that will connect the exisitng Edgbaston Village-Wolverhampton Station line to the new Dudley branch, the reason that the Wednesbury-Edgbaston Village section of the line had been closed for just over a fortnight.
We were looking forward to a smooth, direct run to the front of Wolverhampton Station but the conductor informed us that trams were being forced to terminate at The Royal, just on the edge of Wolverhampton City Centre due to the failure of traffic singnals on the Wishbone Roundabout that the trams cross on the Wishbone bridge, so we walked the ten minute walk from The Royal. Luckily, we’d allowed plenty of time to get to Wolverhampton for our 07.22 booked train, so we still had just under an hour for a latte in the station’s Costa Coffee before heading onto Platform One in time for the arrival of Avanti West Coast Pendolino 390 107;
I was surprised to find that the train was terminating at Preston and not heading further north to either Glasgow or Edinburgh, the normal destinations of the hourly service from London Euston via Birmingham & Wolverhampton. Sadly, that through train that we’d used in 2019 didn’t survive the pandemic, whilst that supposedly through train we’d used on that aborted trip in 2022, part of a then roughly two hourly service, hadn’t survived the return of hourly through trains to Scotland, so it was back to the traditional change at Preston.
390 107 is one of the Pendolinos to feature a recent refurbishment (in fact, I believe the vast majority of Pendolinos have now been done) and this is the first time that I’ve taken a long distance trip on one. My opinion though, remains the same as that first, fifteen minute burst I had on a trip from Wolverhampton-Stafford last year (see blog “Just £2!-Part Thirteen-Staffs & Shropshire”) which was that it certainly smartens up a rather weary, well used fleet and that the seats are fairly comfortable but why do modern train seats have to be that hard?
We found our reserved seats, that were sited right next to a pillar, but the train was really empty at this point, so we positioned ourselves at a nearby table seat, where we discovered that one positive of the recent refurbishment was a wireless charging facility built into the table top, so we both used this to top up our phones to 100%.
We had a lovely, relaxing journey north through Stafford, Crewe, Warrington Bank Quay & Wigan North Western before arriving at Preston, at the opposite side of the station to Platform One, where Blackpool trains habitually go from. However, rather than do the usual ritual of clambouring up the steps and over the bridge, Lynn spotted a lift which lead to a subway that I didn’t know was there, so we used that, this subway obviously being much older than the lifts connecting it, so I reckoned that it had once been used by railway workers for transferring mail and such like.
We then used another lift to ascend to Platform One where I caught sight of something from the railway’s past!
This was 70000 Britannia, which I was subsequently to learn was waiting for a charter train running from Leicester-Carlisle via the Cumbrian Coast line, which was diesel hauled (I suspect by the West Coast Railways Class 57 (a re-engined 47) in the brown and cream livery that I saw in the sidings at Preston on our return journey that evening.
More prosiacally, our train from Manchester Airport soon arrived in the form of a six car set of two Class 331 three car Electric Multiple Units (EMUs) with us boarding the front set, which was 331 017. The train was modestly full but it’s 09,00 Preston departure was really a bit too early for the majority of Blackpool day tripping passengers, which would pass through later. Nevertheless, I couldn’t help pondering that these units, introduced when new in 2019 to the line, following the 2018 electrification of the Preston-Blackpool North line, are a vast improvement on the often two car Class 150s or 156s that often featured on the slower of the two Manchester-Blackpool North trains per hour, which this train was, calling at the stations of Kirkham & Wesham, Poulton Le Fylde and Layton before reaching Blackpool North and that I’d had frankly too many crowded journeys on over this line in the past. Interestingly, both the slow and fast Manchester trains now head to/from Manchester Airport, once the terminus of just the faster trains, for a while run by First Trans Pennine with three car Class 185s before passing to Northern just before the electrification. Over the years, the stopper has terminated at Buxton, Manchester Victoria or, since electrification, Hazel Grove.
So comfortably seated, we set off, taking the left fork at the junction by St Walburgas church, which posesses the tallest steeple in the UK of any church that isn’t a cathedral, which signify’s to me and many others, that our train journey to Blackpool was now on it’s final leg! We left the Preston city environs and made our way into the green Fylde countryside, soon reaching our first stop at Kirkham & Wesham where the still diesel single track line to Blackpool South branches off to run around the coast through Lytham St Annes, Class 150s & 156s being the regular trains on the hourly service to/from Preston. We then headed onwards, passing the remains of the junction with the former Marton line, which provided a more direct route to Blackpool South and the 1964 closed Blackpool Central than the surviving coast line. The Marton line closed in 1966, part of it’s formation being used for the construction of the M55 Motorway that we use when we drive in, as well as Yeadon Way within the town, carrying visiting traffic high above the town on the former railway embankment, into the Central car parks that were built on the site of the many sidings that once used to hold all of the locos and stock that had once bought people into Blackpool, their transformation into car parks illustrating the change in visitors travel habits over the years. Fortunately, despite the flexibility of the car and the various hassles, particulrly cost, that are now associated with rail travel, there is still a strong demand and I must admit that this morning’s journey had been an absolute joy compared to the trials of driving, even though I love driving, and particularly a Saturday morning jaunt up the M6 & M55!
I then found myself looking due south for the view that has greeted generations of visitors to Blackpool, the view of the 1894 built Blackpool Tower! Yes, it was still there! The delightful station in the delightful small town of Poulton Le Fylde was the next call, after which you could see the overgrown remains of the line to Fleetwood, the original route of the 1837 opened Preston & Wyre Railway, of which the line down to Blackpool North was an 1846 constructed branch, a branch that would play it’s full part in developing the town of Blackpool into the succesful resort that it became! Closed in 1966, there are tentative plans for the Fleetwood line to reopen, with Tram-Trains being the latest idea to enter discussion.
We took that 1846 opened branch, seeing housing being built on the former curve that linked the Blackpool North line to the Fleetwood line, once being served by a steam railmotor, and were soon entering the Blackpool suburbs, calling at Layton before reaching Blackpool North itself;
North Station Tram Terminus
Unlike our unexpected walk from tram stop to railway station this morning, we both knew that a continuous tram-train-tram journey wasn’t going to happen here, as Wolverhampton Station was the first of two planned new railway station tram termini to open, doing so last September, despite the fact that the first test tram to actually run up the new extension from Talbot Square (by North Pier tram stop on the Promenade) up Talbot Road to North Station ran considerably earlier than the first test tram on the Wolverhampton extension. The delay here has been due to the new Holiday Inn that surrounds the new terminus still being under construction. Now, I believe that the Holiday Inn has opened but, with the season about to start in earnest, this probably isn’t the time for Blackpool Transport to begin the testing needed before the extension opens to the public, so I suspect that the opening won’t occur util towards the end of the year at the very earliest.
Still, never mind, at least I could take some photos of the new stop!
Bus Service Revisions
Lynn and I had decided to spend most of the day around Blackpool Town Centre (I’ll talk about the one exception later) but I wanted to take a few photos of buses featuring the new route numbers introduced with Blackpool Transport’s January 2024 route revisions.
The idea behind the changes is to simplify (a word we hear a lot in the bus industry) route numbers to certain, specific destinations, with all services to, for example, Victoria Hospital, now showing the number 5, with variants using suffix letters, such as 5A, 5B etc.
Thus the 5 from Halfway House-Victoria Hospital, a route that dates from 2001’s Metro Coastline revisions (bringing route branding to the network, which lasted until 2010) has been extended onto Poulton every half hour, replacing the 2. Meanwhile, the hourly 5A replaces the recently reintroduced 15 to the village of Staining (see blog “A Weekend In Blackpool-Part Two “) whilst a new hourly 5B runs from the Hospital-Blackpool Zoo:
This specific route is actually a revival of a route taken by the 5’s predecessors, the 23 & 23A and from deregulation in October 1986, the 23, 24 & 25, which carried on beyond the Hospital in the summer season to the Zoo, until this was discontinued after the 1987 season, with seasonal service 21 and later 20 serving it via Stanley Park, a route that has been covered in recent years by Transpora’s 22, which will presumably restart once the season gets going after Whitson.
Meanwhile, the former 2C to Knott End On Sea is covered by the 5C, being reduced in frequency from half hourly to forty minutes to improve operational reliability. Unlike the other route 5 variants, the 5C follows the 2C route exactly, using the former 2/2C route between Town Centre and the Hospital via Newton Drive, as opposed to the 5 route via Layton.
The other service along Newton Drive is Transpora’s 24, which makes a roundabout route from Blackpool-Fleetwood via Victoria Hospital, Poulton & Cleveleys, which has recently been increased from hourly to half hourly with Lancashire County Council money that’s come from the government’s Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP), with this Dennis Dart appearing on the route today;
Another renumbered service is the 9 from Blackpool-Cleveleys via Layton, which is now the 7A;
…..to match the more direct 7 to Cleveleys via Devonshire Road.
The 7 still runs across Blackpool to St Annes via St Annes Road but the bus changes number at Blackpool, becoming the 11A, which then continues from St Annes to Lytham along the 11 route via Church Road, this heading from Blackpool via Lytham Road, this meaning that the original Blackpool Corporation use of the numbers 11 & 11A, up until June 1983, has swapped around, with the original, 1935 introduced Blackpool Corporation and Lytham St Annes Corporation joint service 11 having used St Annes Road, whilst the team replacing 11A, introduced in 1937, having used Lytham Road!
The other service linking Blackpool to St Annes and Lytham, the roundabout 17 via Queensway, has been renumbered 11B. As far as St Annes, this service was originally the 1940 introduced 11C! This lasted until November 1994 when it was replaced by the extended 14 from Fleetwood, this being rerouted to Mereside in 2010, when the 17 was introduced, later extended to Lytham.
The Mereside section of the 14 would subsequently be replaced by the revived 6, since when the 14 returned to it’s traditional Blackpool-Fleetwood via Thornton routing, the recent changes returning a fifteen minute frequency to this route.
The hourly 1, which parallels the tramway between Fleetwood and Blackpool Town Centre has once again been joined by a seasonal hourly journey from Cleveleys-St Annes via the Promenade, competing with Transpora’s 21 over the same route and making a half hourly service between Cleveleys and the Town Centre with the Fleetwood 1, with the St Annes journeys now numbered 1A;
There has been a degree of controversy about the changed numbers and, to be honest, I can understand this, as I often find people can get confused by route variations denoted by suffix numbers.
The last service to be renumbered was the 4 from Cleveleys-Mereside via Blackpool, this short MMC E200 operated service being renumbered 3A to match it’s 3 sister service that runs over a similar route, with the 3A now taking over the 3’s route beyond Cleveleys to Cleveleys Park…this originally being part of the 4 when the two routes were introduced with the 2001 Metro Coastlines revisions.
The 3 is now the main haunt of Blackpool Transport’s oldest buses, the 2015 vintage Mercedes Benz Citaros;
The Blackpool Transport fleet is thus extremely modern, the rest of the fleet consisting entirely of Alexander Dennis Limited (ADL) products, consisting of MMC short and long E200 single deckers and MMC E400 double deckers. Despite this modernity, today’s fleet won’t be around for too long, as Blackpool Transport has received a government ZEBRA grant to replace the entire fleet with electric buses, this government grant (which basically covers the difference between the cost of a diesel and electric bus) being supplemented by a loan from Blackpool Transport’s sole sharehilders, Blackpool Council, to be paid back from company profits, this arrangement being similar to that which financed the purchase of the ADL MMC fleet, though this was frustrated by the pandemic, which knocked any profit out of the operation, which then struggled a little to get back on it’s feet, not helped by the bus driver shortage that has afflicted the industry from 2021 onwards, though the tide nationally seems to be turning here.
Nevertheless, Blackpool Transport have decided not to rebid for the Lancashire County Council tendered 74/75 Fleetwood-Preston services that they won back in August 2020-not the best time to commence new operations (see blogs “Return To Blackpool” & “A Weekend In Blackpool-Part Two”) preferring to concentrate on their core operations in the Borough of Blackpool and the urban parts of Fylde (basically Lytham St Annes) & Wyre (basically Cleveleys & Fleetwood) with the company’s operation of the 74 & 75 due to come to an end on 17th August.
Blackpool Transport apparently initially ordered Yutongs for it’s electric fleet but have changed this to BYDs with familiar to the company ADL bodies, though this has attracted a legal challenge from the ADL/BYD’s main rival in our electric bus market, the Northern Irish firm of Wright, whose Bamford owners claim that the purchase of Chinese built chassis is against the principle of the ZEBRA funding……not that I’m aware of any particular pro British clause in the ZEBRA process. Certainly, the Fakirk & Scarborough built MMC Enviro bodies qualify as British! One hopes that this situation can be resolved successfully.
So, though a few black clouds feature on the horizon, the future’s looking fairly bright for Blackpool Transport.
Showtown!
We went for breakfast at the Hive, a restaurant/cafe recommended in a vlog by the Macmaster youtuber on his last visit to Blackpool. Located on Church Street, near to the Winter Gardens, the food here is as excellent as the review stated, with me having a bacon & cumberland sausage barm cake that was incredibly fresh, all the produce being of top quality. A place where I’ll certainly call at again.
We then headed to Showtown, the recently opened museum located in the building that was the former Palace Nightclub on the corner of Adelaide Street & Bank Hey Street, right next to the Tower. Costing £15 admission, which includes re-entry for twelve months, the museum tells the story of Blackpool, particularly from the point of view of it’s entertainment industry, telling tales of the performers of the past and the influence the place has on the likes of Ballroom dancing and so on. Split into seperate areas, featuring the stories of dance (not just the Ballroom Dancing scene but things like the Syndicate Nightclub, a rather notorious venue for the early 21st century dance music craze) the illuminations, the Circus and so on.
Centrepiece is a giant screen which tells the story of Blackpool in around twenty minutes, told by a donkey and two seagulls who have chips for beaks!
This screen has a little of transport interest, including the periodic passing of a typical Blackpool Leyland PD3!
….as well as Balloon Car 707 in it’s 1975 Empire Pools advert, the first allover ad on a Blackpool tram!
….and then there’s one of the two lost children bus that was stationed on the Promenade. 1937 vintage Burlingham bodied Leyland TS7 number 9, which became the Lost Childrens bus upon withdrawal from normal service in 1956 and 1940 vintage Burlingham bodied Leyland TS8 17, which became a Lost Children’s bus in 1957, both buses having their engines removed before adopting their new role. They would be replaced in the late sixties by rather boring porta cabin thingies that performed the task when I was little, meaning that there really was no point in being a lost child by that point!
A fascinating attraction that is just the sort of thing Blackpool needs to pull it out of it’s current doldrums! Yes, the town needs to look to the future but if it can do so by showcasing it’s illustrious past, then all the better!
68th UK Coach Rally
Back on the prom, I noticed that the Tower Headland, next to the Comedy Carpet, was acting as an overflow for this year’s Blackpool coach rally, the main event taking place on Middle Walk, North Shore. Here’s some photos:
Elmer The Elephant
From today until 9th June, Blackpool is being invaded by around thirty elephants! All painted in bright, colourful liveries representing different aspects of the town!
Before anyone calls the RSPA, I ‘ll point out that they’re not real elephants but models named Elmer, with people able to follow a trail to find them all!
My favourite is the example by North Pier that features the green and cream tram livery:
631
Of course, a trip to Blackpool isn’t a trip to Blackpool without a tram ride, particularly one of the Heritage fleet!
Three Heritage tours were operating today, a Coastal Tour out to Fleetwood in the morning, which I believed used Balloon double decker 700, and two Promenade tours in the afternoon, departing at 15.10 & 16.30, both of which were operated by Brush Car 631, a tram that I’d not ridden in a while, and a nice change from the usual Balloons, open Boat cars and Grand Old Lady Bolton 66, which seem to monopolise the normal tours, outside of the enhanced running events that take place at times (this year scheduled for late Spring Bank Holiday weekend, Fleetwood Tram Sunday, August Bank Holiday weekend and the Tramway Anniversary weekend in September.)
631 was numbered 294 before the 1968 renumbering that Blackpool put the trams through due to a new computer and was one of 20 single deck trams (284-303) built by the Brush company of Loughborough, following on from 45 quite similar looking single deckers known as Railcaoches, that had pioneered General Manager Walter Luff’s much lauded modernisation plan that basically allowed Blackpool’s trams to survive beyond the closure of all the other mainland UK tram systems, taking them up to the time when trams came back into fashoin here, following the 1992 opening of Manchester Metrolink, Walter Luff’s thirties vintage cars being the mainstay of the Blackpool system until the modern Flexities entered service on the modernised system in 2012.
The rest of the thirties fleet was built by Preston based English Electric, so the 1937 Brush built single deckers became known simply as Brush Cars.
They were ordered to make up for lost capacity caused by the closure of the Lytham St Annes tramway, which not only ran into Blackpool as far north as Gynn Square but also provided trams to Blackpool Corporation on hire at busy times.
Although the thirties fleet also included the 27 Balloons (13 of which were originally open top before gaining roofs in 1940) the fleet of 65 fully enclosed single deckers saw Walter Luff favour using small capacity, rather luxurious trams on a high frequency service, a strategy that would ultimately fall foul of increased staffing costs from the mid fifties onwards, which saw the Balloons move to greater prominance in the busy, summer months.
The Brush Cars would outlive the earlier Railcoaches (although several of those would be rebuilt into the towing cars of the Twin Cars from 1958-1961 and the One Man OMO cars from 1972-1976) with 12 (plus a 13th rebuilt as illuminated Trawler 737) surviving in operation until 2004, when most of them were mothballed in a reduction of the operational fleet at that time.
631 was one of three Brush Cars that were heavily refurbished in the nineties (of the other two, 630 now survives in fully refurbished condition at the Crich Tramway Museum, where it will make an interesting comparison with 298, a Brush Car which Crich are restoring into original 1937 condition, whilst 626, sadly, is in a somewhat derelict condition in Birkenhead, plans for it’s operation on the Birkenhead Heritage Tramway falling through) and was initially the only operational survivor in the Heritage fleet, so a start was made upon turning the car into more of a traditional condition, with swingover seats replacing the bus style seats fitted in the nineties, thus it’s interior looks something of a hybrid;
After this project was started, several other Brush Cars in a more traditional condition would enter the Heritage fleet, with the first Brush Car 621 being refurbished as part of a project by inmates at HMP Kirkham in time for the Brush Cars 80th anniversary in 2017 (see the “BusesForFun” blog “Brush Eighty”), this making a second operational Brush Car in the fleet, whilst the Fylde Transport Trust’s 632 is also at Rigby Road awaiting it’s turn for restoration, as is the former Permemnant Way car 624.
Also a resident until last year was 634, bought from Blackpool Transport by enthusiast Andy Ashton who, with his daughters Beckie & Jess, restored the tram’s external & internal condition to a high standard before they returned the tram back to Rigby Road. Plans to restore 634 to operational condition at Blackpool were unable to come to fruition, so the tram has now moved to the East Anglia Transport Museum, Carlton Colville, near Lowestoft, where it re-entered service over the Easter Weekend this year, operating alongside fellow Blackpool trams Marton Vambac 11 and Standard 159, with another Museum resident, Sheffield Roberts Car 513, having also spent time in Blackpool.
Another place where you can ride on a Brush Car is the Heaton Park Tramway in Manchester, where wartime liveried 623 is one of the regular runners there. Lynn and I last rode it on the occasion of the Greater Manchester Transport Museum Twilight Event last October (see blog “Debut Twilight “)
At the moment, work is taking place on the roof at Rigby Road depot, meaning that it’s currently unable to be used for the actual operation of trams, but a small fleet of Heritage trams is currently based at the Flexities Starr Gate depot to keep the Heritage operation going. The condition of the roof has meant that the Tram Town Tours that have been taking place (see blog “A Weekend In Blackpool-Part One”) are currently only able to take in the tramway workshop but are still avaliable, bookable on the Heritage Tramway website.
With a reasonable load on board, we set off north, heading past the Metropole Hotel before beginning the gradual climb of the cliffs along North Shore, dropping again as we passed Gynn Square but climbing ever higher towards Cabin, offering superb views over the Irish Sea. The journey continued out to Bispham, where the illuminations end, with us carrying on out to Norbreck, then turning around on the 1937 constructed (thus it’s the same age as 631!) Little Bispham turning circle, which now features a community garden in it’s centre;
We then headed back towards Blackpool, passing beyond North Pier and heading down a bustling Golden Mile and onto the Pleasure Beach, where we turned around on the loop and returned to North Pier;
With it now being tea time, we walked up to Yorkshire Fisheries on Topping Street, probably the best fish & chip shop in Blackpool, though there are a fair few other contenders for this title! Sitting in the restaurant, I enjoyed a large cod & chips which was exemplary, thoroughly justifying the shop’s reputation. Lynn was similarly impressed with her burger!
Return Journey
After this, we made the short walk to Blackpool North Station and waited amongst other visitors, tired but happy after a marvellous day in Blackpool! 331 011 was our stead, on the 18.22 to Manchester Airport, again part of a six carriage train which gave all on board sufficient comfort for the journey. Again, this was also a stopper to Preston, calling at Layton, Poulton Le Fylde and Kirkman & Wesham, a lovely, Spring early evening run across the Fylde countryside.
At Preston, we had around half an hour before we boarded the 19.18 to London Euston via Birmingham, delayed due to the late running of the direct via the Trent Valley, Euston train in front of it. 390 001 was our stead, with us finding that out reserved seats this time actually had a window next to them, a good job, as there were precious few other seats available on this busy service.
A smooth, relaxing journey was had back to Wolverhampton, far more relaxing than driving! We then found that the West Midlands Metro was fully operational down to Wolverhampton Station again, so we caught the trwm back home from right outside Wolverhampton Station, with it hopefully not being too long before we’ll be able to seamlessly board/leave a tram at Blackpool North too!
Around twenty minutes later, we were back home, after another fine day in my favourite seaside resort
Tram, Train & Buscapades! 