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Page 2: Railcoaches and Twin-Cars
This page is under
construction!
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This is one of a series of pages on Blackpool trams
under construction. This page shows the Blackpool Railcoaches and also the
trams which
were rebuilt as Twin-Cars.
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Railcoaches, Twin-Cars and OMO Cars
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Railcoaches 200-224, 264-283 (later 608-620)
The first English Electric
trams in the streamlined fleet were the standard enclosed single deck trams
known as Railcoaches, so-called because they emulated the comfort of the
latest road coaches. 200 was the prototype English Electric streamlined tram
delivered in June 1933 and was 2ft shorter than later deliveries. The last
of the first batch, 224, was delivered in May 1934. Subsequent tram
deliveries to Blackpool were the Boats (225-236) and Balloons (237-263)
until February 1935. Deliveries of the second batch of Railcoaches (264-283)
followed, finishing in September 1935.
None of these trams remain in their original form. Most of the first batch
were scrapped between 1961-65. Ten cars were rebuilt as towing cars for the
Progress twin cars in the 1950s and 1960s and thirteen were converted to the
One-Man Operated (OMO) class in the 1970s. These have all since been
scrapped or withdrawn. The last railcoaches in the fleet were the heavily
modified former towing cars 678–680 which were converted back to single
trams with driver cabs at both ends. Two Railcoaches became illuminated cars
733 and 735. (Ref: Wikipedia)
This section will be expanded
Railcoaches in service
Photo: ©Ian Boyle collection
Progress Twin-Cars
(272-281 + T1-T10 - later 671-680 +
681-690)
Single deck towing and trailer
cars. 671–680 (towing cars) and 681–687 (trailer cars).
Ten English Electric Railcoaches from the second batch were rebuilt as
towing cars between 1958 and 1962. They were renumbered 272-281 (671–680
from 1968). Their cabs were heavily redesigned to resemble the then
contemporary Coronation cars. They towed ten new trailers (T1-T10) built by
Metropolitan-Cammell, which look almost identical except for the lack of a
pantograph tower. They were not a great success since they could only be
turned at return loops. 671-677 were later converted into fixed coupled
pairs with driving cabs fitted to the trailer so the set could be driven
from either end. The coupled trailers were renumbered 681-687. The other
three towing cars 678-680 continued to run as single cars and their trailers
were scrapped.
They operate in regular pairs, such as 675 and 685, except for 678 to 680,
which operate singly. The trailer cars originally had the fleet numbers
T1 to T10 (Ref: Wikipedia)
This section will be expanded
Progress Twin-Cars
Photo: ©1986 Ian Boyle
ex-Progress Twin-Cars running as
single cars
Photo: ©1993 Ian Boyle
