The following cars should appear in Blackpool during the big celebrations:
- Stockport 5
- Manchester 765
- Leeds 399
- Southampton 45
- Sheffield 513
- Liverpool 762
- Bolton 66
- Glasgow 22
- Blackpool 167
- Blackpool Marton Vambac 11
- Blackpool Standard 143
- Blackpool Brush 287
- Porto 273
The FTS reports about the planned schedule:
The official events will start on Friday 24th September, when some of the visiting tramcars will be operating on ‘Illuminations Tour’ duties. Saturday 25th will feature not one, but two processions along the promenade. Sunday 26th is the depot open day, which will give people a rare chance to see behind the scenes at Blackpool Transport, and on Wednesday 29th, the actual day of the anniversary, another short procession will lead to an Anniversary Dinner in the evening.
June 29, 2008 at 3:59 am
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am a Building Designer from Darwin in the Northern Territory in Australia.
I worked as a designer for a Company called Beresford Sherman from 1988-1991 in Vauxhall in London. Beresford Sherman were contracted by the First Leisure group, to reimage North Pier, as part of its reconstruction from the devastating storms of 1987? The re construction of the Pier structure was done by a separate local Blackpool Engineering firm(I met the wife of the owner of the Company at a Rotary meeting by chance, in Darwin last year would you believe!) Most of the building infrastructure was done by Design Aluminium from Bristol, from designs prepared by Beresford Sherman.
The designers who worked on the project were Nigel Cladingboel, John Kirkup, myself Chris Renehan and Charlie ?
During the design of the project, the chance came to design the image of the people mover (Blackpool North Pier Tramway) , and I jumped at the chance, as I was the only person in the firm who had any mechanical inclination or understanding of transportation systems, and I also grew up in Melbourne Australia which has an extensive tram system.
So it was I, who designed the ‘ People Mover ‘ or tramway on North Pier. It is obviously based on a ‘ Blackpool Standard tram’ of the post 1931 vestibule type. I actually bought a standard model kit from Tower models? built it as a single deck, mounted it on a model of a section of pier, and it was presented to the board of first leisure for approval. The colours came from the standard catalogue of dies that you could use in the construction of GRP bodies. Harry Steer and Co. did the construction and drive systems. The lettering on the side was obviously taken from the ‘ carnival style’ font that we had devised for use all over the pier. While it was based on a real tram using a local vernacular, it is a fairground type ride, and as such, has an oversize headlight, and childlike proportions.
Unfortunately, I had to leave to go back to Australia, and never rode on the tram until I came back over for a wedding in 1996. I was thrilled. I am now going out with an Englishwoman who would like to go home for a visit soon, so I will take her up to Blackpool to revisit the people mover.
The only thing that has changed from the original design, is the safety guards(or pedestrian catchers) below the body were yellow.
As far as cover from inclement weather goes, I designed the station canopy at the sea end with cover, but I cant remember doing a cover for the land end.
I have seen several publications which only nominate Harry Steer as having anything to do with the People mover. While Steers contribution could be rightly termed ‘ significant ‘ compared to Beresford Shermans, and Beresford Shermans as an entity no longer exist, if you want to know why it looks like it does well now you have your answer.
I have a further affinity with Blackpool in that when times were tough, I worked as a floor walker in the Merry -Go- Round arcade in Wintergardens for about three months in 1990.
If there is somewhere to post this on a relevant website , then go ahead. If you get back to me and you are interested, I am sure I have a photo of the original model and the original design drawings, in colour. which I will scan and send to you.
Chris Renehan Darwin, Australia