New Rail at Little Bispham

New lengths of rail being delivered at Little Bispham

As part of the ongoing track maintenance on the Blackpool tramway this week, new rail was being delivered for laying on the main line, adjacent to the turning circle at Little Bispham. On the morning of 16th February, new lengths of rail were being delivered and craned off the back of an articulated lorry, before being positioned with the aid of winch equipped hand trolleys.

A new length of rail being craned into position

The new piece of rail being positioned with winch equipped hand trolleys

Some of the newly delivered rail waiting to be fitted at Little Bispham

Ballast laying at Rossall

The TD12 Ballast Distributor at work on the tramroad at Rossall

The tram service was suspended in Blackpool, commencing on Sunday 14th February, to enable essential track maintenance to take place. On Monday 15th February ballast laying was taking place at Rossall. A Thwaites TD12 Ballast Distributor, from Shovlin Plant Hire of Manchester, was being used to spread new ballast along the open sleeper track, between the Rossall Beach and Rossall School tram stops.

The Ballast Distributor laying new ballast near Rossall School

The Ballast Distributor heading north with a new load of ballast

The TD12 Ballast Distributor being replenished with a fresh load of ballast

New Solo for Coastliner Buses

Coastliner Buses Optare Solo PX54EPF on Cleveleys Promenade on 10th February

A 2004 Optare Solo has been noted in service with Coastliner Buses on the route 24 between Fleetwood and Poulton. PX54EPF was formerly 47146 with Stagecoach Cumbria and North Lancashire, another Solo has also been acquired from Stagecoach, this being 47055 (PX04DLV).

Blackpool 'Palace' car

1896 Blackpool 'Palace' car 13, at the Squires Gate terminus of the Lytham Road tram route c1918

A rare good quality photograph of a Blackpool 'Palace' car has recently been discovered, showing the tram at the Squires Gate terminus of the Lytham Road route, taken around 1918. As well as male and female tram crew visible in the photo, there are a number of personal from the Royal Army Medical Corps hospital, that was located at Squires Gate during the First World War. Number 13 was built at Lancaster in 1896, one of four trams constructed for Blackpool Corporation Tramways by the Lancaster Railway Carriage and Wagon Company. The Lancaster cars were the first bogie trams to be used in Blackpool, originally operating on the conduit tramway along the Promenade. The four Lancaster trams (Nos. 11 to 14) were built as open-toppers, but were later fitted with top covers in 1915, reverting to open top condition again in the early 20s, due to stability problems in high winds. The four 'Palace' trams were withdrawn from service at the end of 1925, and replaced by Blackpool Standards.

Reindeer Bus

Enviro 448 on Clifton Drive North at Squires Gate sporting a reindeer nose

Blackpool Transport ADL Enviro 448 was spotted on Clifton Drive North at Squires Gate on New Year's Eve, wearing a red reindeer nose.

Stockholm Trams

Flexity Classic 2 heading towards the city centre along Strandvägen

Stockholm is the capital city of Sweden and has a tram system consisting of four routes. During a very brief visit in 2018 only route 7 was observed, and at the time it was mostly being operated by Bombardier Flexity Classic trams. The six Flexity Classic trams in use on route 7 were delivered new in 2011, and unusually they were actually owned by the Norrköping public transport company, and only leased by SL Stockholm. In December 2020 the Flexity Classics were withdrawn and transported to Norrköping, they are being replaced by CAF Urbos model A35 three section trams.

Flexity Classic 1 crossing the Djurgården Bridge on route 7

Flexity Classic 6 heading inbound along Strandvägen on route 7

CAF Urbos UXL 461 outbound on Djurgårdsvägen on route 7

1920 Stockholm A1 tram 76 on Strandvägen operating heritage line 7N

MAN A23 Lion's City G 4074 on route 2 to Katarina-Sofia

Stockholm Red Buses 4, a 2012 Volvo B9RLE with UNVI Urbis 2.5 DD body

Tram rail on Cleveleys Beach

Tram rail and wooden board remaining from an old groyne on Cleveleys beach

Whilst going for a walk along the beach at Cleveleys the other day, I noticed a line of steel girders sticking out of the sand where an old wooden groyne used to be, most of the wooden boards have long since rotted away and a line of large boulders have replaced the old groyne. On closer inspection these turned out to be no ordinary steel girders, but sections of old tram rail driven deep into the sand.

A short section of tram rail sticking out of the sand

An end view of a barnacle encrusted piece of tram rail

Tram rail with Norbreck Castle Hotel visible in the distance

Tram rail along the alignment of the old groyne (now replaced by boulders)