The Blackpool Tram (Perpetual Motion) BBC Documentary

many years ago when I was working down south new mom said to me she had a dream that one day she falls see me driving a truck I said there's no way I'll never be driving a drum got no foreseeable future in that near I am driving a tram it was quite unusual raela Blackpool is still Britain's most popular holiday resort 17 million people a year come to indulge in the delights of the Golden Mile with its three peers and famous tower for these structures are monuments to another age Blackpool's motto has always been progress and a hundred years ago the town was a pioneer in the leisure industry creating dramatic attractions with new technologies like structural steel and electricity by combining these two Blackpool created the first electric tramway and the trams were once the talk of the town they were very beautiful and very they exciting to ride in because they were so very comfortable and they really wrote quite like a light railway I think everybody's got very very happy memories of travel especially the older people not one place has a sub member it's always things of the past things they enjoyed they met the boyfriends or girlfriends on the trams they can remember that one got engaged in a tram everybody's got very very happy memories each part of our histories it's black ball is trans when the big illumination switch on came on last night the main attraction worth illuminations it was all the trams everybody want to have a ride on the tram trams are necessity it's a dinosaur that certain people keep certain things claim which are no good to anybody wears a leads have used all the time Blackpool still has 75 of them and as his mother predicted Steve can is now one of their regular drivers Jack seven one three he goes oh tower tower if you've got a really good crew like we have to conduct a little live electrons it can really make a good day if they're faster the bells and with the controls it makes my job a lot easier they have a laughing a job with customers I have a laughing a job with them we all get on great really well if you have a bad crew be a really bad day make a long day if you've got a couple of miserable ones especially there's plenty of them around you have this very well known character called Ronnie crossly if he was on the first Fleetwood traveller Marlin used to have his cotton possibly planted a all the shaving equipment at the front and used up a shave while he was going along to play he would have his cup of coffee we miss people like that the characters of the job there's not many left there you tend to have this relationship with trums there's bitter character in the trans whereas on the bosses there's no character on here it's completely different and completely different world it's a world closer in spirit to the railways in the road a world of family traditions public service and things built to last a complex network of rails poles wires and all the other costly hardware needed to provide the service that only trams can give one thing that too heavy tourist in Blackpool knows is if you stand by the side of a tram track waiting for a tram sure enough a tram will come along maybe something by the sides road waiting for a bus you're not quite sure that you're part of that Network is a not really sure you're part of the system that's working whereas in the tram weight is quite different you can be certain there's a psychological element you're gonna be vehicles will come along on the bus side it's different I am it's all plastic metal there's no wood there's no teak there's no there's no character in the metal they won't last a quarter of the time there's what these old balloons and the rail coaches always the old trams it's the smell the noise it's completely different the locals call Blackpool's double-deckers balloons when fully inflated they carry a hundred passengers and keep both conductors busy they were designed in 1934 and in over half a century of service they have outlived half a dozen generations of new buses but immortality has its drawbacks what we don't like really about the old trams is that from the drivers point of view they're very uncomfortable difficult to see out of windscreen wipers aren't built for the job really there's no windscreen washers on them that makes it even worse we get a lot of wind and rain and salt coming off the sea passenger trams date back to the mid 19th century riding on smooth rails set in cobble streets trams were less bumpy than other transport but horsepower limited their speed and capacity after attempts with steam power the breakthrough came in 1885 when the first electric tramway opened on Blackpool promenade the open-top trams took power from a live rail in a trough between the tracks but this quickly filled with sand blowing off the beach so in 1899 a new overhead wire system was introduced it will become a standard design for trams the world over was the earliest fram I remember the Dreadnought big grey pilot which of course I wrote quite a lot as a child I do remember my mother had a very cheery mangrove a sort of Yorkshire Terrier type I think he was he had the habit of jumping on the Dreadnought and driving up to riding up to talk square having him to walk round and then coming back on another dreadnought all on his own he was all always known well by the conductor's they didn't charge him Dorris Thompson's family started Blackpool's biggest funfair The Pleasure Beach in 1890 my father had been in America he was interested in their amusement parks or two then becoming very popular he decided to come back home to this country and start one year and he had his eyes on that food because it was such an up-and-coming place and of course when he came up he realized all the potential with all the heavy industry round about you know and all these mills and places they took their holidays at different weeks of the air and they all came to Blackpool so you had a continuous stream of holidaymakers coming that's why he decided this was the place and they all came by electric tram car the beauty of the system was its simplicity electric current picked up from an overhead wire passed down through a controller to motors and Lao Cai the rails no clutch no gearbox no fuel and no exhaust it seemed like a perfect form of road transport soon everybody was copying Blackpool by 1927 there were over 14,000 trams on the streets of Britain giving mobility to the masses fares were low so people could now afford to ride to work no longer tied to living in the shadow of the factory towns grew and spread out as suburbs developed along the new tram roads Blackpool's pioneer system also expanded in lamb to serve the town and northwards to the fishing port of Fleetwood nine miles away oh yes well of course it was a marvelous way of getting around and for certain I read them regularly so did everybody else because we didn't have cars much in those days we hadn't the car then we had a car after the first world war but even after the first world war motoring was still for the better off with no serious competition operators saw little need to improve or modernize the trams conditions were basic their open ends were drafty the springs were hard and the seats were hard but they were cheap and as mass moves of people they seemed unbeatable but by the early 30s there was competition motor cars were getting cheaper and motor buses were developing fast with pneumatic tires all enclosed bodies and upholstered seats they rapidly overtook the trams in popularity what's more buses needed no special track to run and soon they were replacing entire tramway systems but in 1933 Blackpool appointed a new and dynamic general manager Walter love he persuaded Mack Marshall of the English Electric Company to rush through a new design the result was the rail coach a revolutionary machine with all the creature comforts of a luxury motor coach it was unveiled in Blackpool at a conference of transport managers in 1933 it was demonstrated to all the transport managers and one of those present was Alfred Baker of Birmingham who said I'm sorry Mac you're 20 years too late because by this time all over the country tramways were beginning to be abandoned by 1933 66 tramway systems have been closed and plans for closing the system in London Birmingham and Manchester were well in hand undaunted Walter laughs got Blackpool corporation to order a large fleet of the new designs which included the balloon a double deck version of the Royal coach in which almost 100 passengers could ride in comfort when the new trams were delivered in the 1930s they made a tremendous amount of impact on the visitors to the town because nobody had seen a tram like this before the traditional tram car was a double deck sometimes four wheeled ironclad curved staircase vehicle in which it was not pleasant experience to ride on but when they came on the lateral tram they found when they stepped on the platform that it was so luxurious they were rather tempted to look for a mat on which to wipe their feet and some people even remove their hats when they got on people were so enraptured by the sight of these modern looking rail coach type tram that they used to stand by and let the old cars go past and wait for the new one to come Walter laughs had given Blackpool the best fleet of trams in Britain but most channels were less fortunate everywhere the rails were being torn up or buried on the tarmac the confirmation that trams were really on the way out came in 1952 it was one day not long ago London had to say goodbye to her last tram sometimes some day it had to come and some people were glad to see the back of them and some of us was sorry they were going for we'd be missing a sight as friendly as a pleasure steamer though not quite so silent one last week two clatters on the streets streets that will never be the same now the tram is gone now all the paraphernalia that was only theirs is in the Attic after this it was downhill all the way by the early 1960s the bus was in almost total control and trams were confined to Blackpool and one other major city Glasgow but not for long the rail bound tram is one of the greatest contributors to traffic congestion as more and more private cars are used and parked in the streets so traffic congestion increases now we are replacing an increasing number of these tram services by large capacity double-decker buses from the passengers point of view the bus has many advantages over the tram and of course there are many advantages from the operators point of view - by 1962 only Blackpool was left I'm very glad we kept ours would have been a great mistake to do away with the ones on the promenade it's nice that they with the fan is and also nice that they held on to them and other people let them go so we didn't make that mistake even here there were cutbacks the inland routes were abandoned millions of visitors still pack two trams each summer and they continued to provide the year-round service to fleetly but most people now regarded them as just another seaside amusement Blackpool won't be Blackwell without the travels everybody must have a ride and I travel he comes a black ball it's like getting a stick of rock he must also have a ride on the tram oh we're a crispy quick hat it's all part of the scene it's gonna Tremlett people are fanatical over it all pictures of trams Kipps of trams and if you do with a tram day love that is what they're after that's they come to back before fundal boys coming out up they just can't wait to get a tram kit or to get on the tram and the coming and tell you all about it which number tram their being on what it was like how to have the old wooden doors on and then they've been on of the new ones the differences in it all these things people love see you now don't come back we were the very first town in the whole world with electric tram cars and were the last one in England to still have them environmentally though extremely good they don't pollute the atmosphere we weren't to know that of course but the reason that we did have tram cars and our love affair with tram cars is enabled to town to grow so fast de tramway system is clearly blackness over ground underground it moves fast numbers of people in fact six million people traveled by tram last year it's a place that has devoted its whole effort into making people feel at home giving people vacations giving people a good time is a place that was simply built for fun and a tramway system in Blackwell is now emerged as possibly the greatest fun ride within the whole of England of moving architecture if you like also I think the fact that they rattle along and they're clearly old and historic things means they're not just a means of transport they've got a bit of romance about them and from an operator's point of view they should capitalize on it charge extra to go on all these historic trams I'd like in fact more the old trams brought back to Blackpool and in fact a while ago when I ran the Civic Trust we suggest they brought trams from around the world that's historic champion from around the world from Argentina from Budapest from Moscow and we had a living cham museum one that one that actually worked that people could travel on and get a real sense of adventure and fun we're not a museum system and irrationally a childhood operator which happens to use symbol it originally early but our role in life is to be able to trust proposal there are a number of quite different markets some of which are really conflicting with each other you've got locals who use the tram all year round and who travel every day come to work and the morning go home in the evening you got the tourists who are actually wanted to go between a particular place and their hotel or you've got other people just happily going for a ride what pool is like the only open tram track there is in Britain and people when they come here on holiday you don't realize there is trams there because they haven't got them in their town to think there's no transia if they hear a tram they don't think it's a tram coming towards them or anything and you tend to get in the way a lot and that's why we have to be on our toes all the time but I think if people realize that the drive inside of the trams is very difficult you think they can just stop on a sixpence in the car it does take time for a trial to stop like a train one casualty was Coronation Street fillin and Bradley who chased Rita fur glove to Blackpool Strand Hotel meter was walking along the promenade in a semi translight stage she didn't see him getting the car he approached her grabbed old of her and bundled her into the car she bought him and escaped from the car table yes the shift age she started to run across the promenade there by a tram just mister and the tram unfortunately it's Howard as he just crossed over in the front of it and it really does go to show that you really should be aware of where the situation with the tram as they are fine danger first I must say we weren't too pleased with this because of safety aspects and so on but Grenada promised that would make it a nice death if there is such a thing and people started writing in from all parts of England saying can we ride on the Allen Bradley deathtrap which I don't know whether he's a healthy thing or not healthy for business perhaps but hardly fair to the trams in fact Allen was 8 times more likely to have been hit by a car keeping the trams working safely depends on the craftsmen in the Blackpool transport workshop Britain may have invented the tram but tramway engineering is an almost forgotten art in this country so Blackpool must do all the jobs needed to keep its fleet on the rails even rebuilding the fuel trucks that carry the body and contain the motive but when the trucks and the workshops they are as appreciate the filthy so we initially have them steam cleaned and then the brought in stripped write down all the nuts bolts bushes pins taken off discarded if they are too bad to be reused the mantra is taken across to the electricians to be checked older tires the old tires will be burned self and new tires refitted steel tires can last 150,000 miles each tram has eight of them to be replaced it's not like a car factory where you can go in day after day and you're putting the same wheel on to the same position to come in here you know more or less what you're going to be doing but you can't guarantee it's very this is very very you've got to improvise a lot we've got to save a lot of parts that we do we'll take some other sums that we are renovating sometimes we have to take one to rob Peter to pay Paul and so on but most bears are out of stock so when fifty-year-old parts break the ancient skills of the blacksmith are in demand blacksmiths many years ago we used to have five and then we're down to the right one now they are very hard to obtain he's very versatile because appreciate is knocking bushes out of a set of old shops he's bending steel tubing to make new pantographs with is assembling the pantographs he's very very versatile I think in the 30s this really was a revolutionary design the streamline look which was very much the feeling of the 30s comes across in the purples and over the years the livery has been changed sometimes to accentuate the streamlining sometime to play down when people's ideas about the look of vehicles have changed rather and even though you may try to bring in adaptations and improvements as you go along you're still basically working with something which is getting older as years go by purists may say that we are altering the basic character we don't think the average man on the street will notice that basic character because the average person talking about vehicle is in fact looking for transport from where he is to where he wants to go and for local people on Tuesdays that means fleetwood market for this is not just a fun ride along the prom it's also a link between two town centers heading north it passes through Bisping and Cleveland's before reaching its destination nine miles away and here it defies all the laws of town planning and all the lessons of history by boldly taking to the streets again reliving the days when trams and traffic battled it out for road space but now the rules of engagement are beginning to change the love affair with a motor car may be waning traffic jams fuel costs and pollution worries a tarnishing its glossy image and the once despised tram may yet prove to be a winner for it can also escape from the streets to become more like a railway train unhindered by traffic and taking priority at road crossings it still demonstrates its ability to beat the bus and the car I think we're on the edge of an important revolution here in public transport not just in light rail but in the whole question of public transit it's a revolution which is going to need commitment from politicians of course and also from the public in general we're going to have to have a culture developing in the UK which says I'll go by car when I have to do but I'll go by bus when I can or by tram what I can and I think lightly of very important part of that change because clearly the way that traffic congestion problems developing urban areas we're not going to be able to carry on simply building roads and building our way out of traffic congestion we've got to look at new ways of doing it throughout Britain transport planners are taking a new look at the trap they use new names Metro light rail light rapid transit but it's the same basic idea one city did more than look 40 years after scrapping its trams Manchester decided to bring them back Metrolink is the first of britain's new generation of on-street tramways when the old trams obstructed the traffic we threw them off the streets and tore up their tracks now those same streets are closed to motor cars while modern super trams avenge the ghosts of their ancestors the story has come full circle more than 40 towns are rediscovering the tram and Blackpool is once more ahead of the field we are really stewards of a business that's being passed on to us from people who are making decisions where back in the 1930s about the design of tram the desire the network which many people have questioned over the years probably about every 10 years somebody says did we do the right thing did Walter laugh when he lit his eye on this and his trying make the right choices but many of the decisions he was making then have been proved to be right it's very interesting isn't it that here we are in the 90s now getting on for the year 2000 and these vehicles which were approaching 60 years old are still operating today after long long after some other vehicles which were set to replace them have gone to the scrapyard the Town Council's had this long continued love affair with electricity ever since the very first street lighting system since the very first sham wave system and indeed the town's motto is progress and certainly this affection for electricity has led to a tremendous growth in Blackpool we've hit problems recently because what what you do when you are one of the first people to be inventive and bring out electricity is that we've got an aging infrastructure and the council is now faced with a bill of six million pounds not only to relay cabling for the tramway system but also for the illumination system the original cabling was put down almost 100 years ago and it's pretty shot out and we've got this terrible problem what we do are we go in for a diesel tram or electric tram and I'm happy to say the councillors come over and said look we're going to have electricity or nothing at all everybody looks fun Black Hills a joke as this lava travels now it seems to be all coming back people used to look upon us as does the only tramway in Britain and now we're not very happy about it because Manchester's getting theirs and Sheffield getting theirs and but we're ahead of everyone that's the main thing we was there first and we're still there that's the main thing in perpetual motion next week at the same time Royal Air Force crews reflect on the departure of the Avro Shackleton you

Channel: Thomas Barnes

Views: 42,095

Keywords: blackpool, tram, motion, bbc, documentary, perpetual

Id: beBzJOOnEXM

Length: 29min 18sec (1758 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 07 2016