Original Livery

Wartime Livery

1937 BLACKPOOL BRUSH RAILCOACH 

In 1937, to cope with rapidly increasing traffic on the Promenade and Fleetwood routes combined with the closure of the Lytham and St Anne’s Tramway, it was decided to increase the number of railcoaches in the Blackpool fleet by a further 20.  However the originator of the earlier English Electric railcoaches, Mr Mac Marshall, had by this time left English Electric to become a consultant for Brush of Loughborough, so the order for new trams went to them.

 Whilst at first glance similar to the English Electric cars, the new Brush cars were different in almost every detail, incorporating all the latest advances in design. 

 Air operated sliding doors were fitted,  which could be operated by either the driver or conductor, a sliding roof was fitted over each saloon which retracted under the trolley tower, tubular heaters and winding full-drop windows were fitted.   The interior lights were concealed behind patterned etched glass also shone through green glass panels above the windows to the outside of the cars.

 From 1958 the 6 destination indicators featured on this model were removed, being replaced by a single indicator placed centrally at each end of the cars.  The cars have undergone many other changes over the years, but at the time or writing (July 2007) twelve of the original twenty still remain at Blackpool, of which five are in service and seven are stored out of service.

RETURN TO HOME PAGE