Blackpool Corporation "Toastrack" Tram

Blackpool has obviously been a popular tourist destination for many years and thus the town's tram network saw the opportunity to cater for the holiday market, in 1911 the tram corporation ordered twenty four open top trams for tourist travel. Known as the "Toastrack" tram due to their simple form and the resemblance to a toast rack! They were little more than a motorised underframe with wooden bench seats on top of it and a pole for the trolley mast.

Information
Number built:	30
Built:	1911-27
Builder:	Blackpool Corporation
Motor:	2 GE52 traction motors (550v DC OHLE)
Power:	54 hp (40 kW)

The Toastrack trams proved very popular during the holiday season and similar trams were also used at other seaside resorts including Southport [1]. A further six were built in 1927 for an expansion of the Blackpool tram network along the South Promenade. The outbreak of the Second World War put an end to most open top tram travel and the original fleet of twenty four trams were scrapped. The six newer cars survived as works cars for a time before they began to also be scrapped.

However a couple were used for broadcasting including the first ever live broadcast from a moving vehicle when the BBC filmed the Blackpool Illuminations in 1951. The cars survived in service until the late 1960s before finally being withdrawn, one car 166 was preserved in 1972.

Blackpool Corporation 166 at Crich Tramway Museum

166 has a very simple design

Another view of 166

[1] R.W. Rush, British Electric Tramcar Design (Oxford Publishing, 1976) p. 92

Central London Railway Locomotives

The Central London Railway opened in 1900 between Shepherd's Bush and Bank (with a depot and workshop at Wood Lane). The Central London Railway was a deep level tube line like the already open City & South London Railway (though with a wider tunnel of 3.56m diameter - wider on curves [1]). Like the CSLR the Central London Railway ordered electric locomotives to haul unpowered coach stock [2]. Originally the plan had been to top and tail trains with a small locomotive at each end but due to fire safety fears the Central London Railway instead decided to have with just one larger locomotive per train with the locomotive being detached at each terminus where another locomotive was waiting on a spur to take the train back in the opposite direction.

Information
Number built:	28
Built:	1899-1900
Builder:	General Electric Company / CLR Wood Lane Depot
Motor:	4 British Thomson Houston traction motors (550v DC third rail)
Power:	1, 045 hp (776 kW)
Wheel arrangement:	Bo-Bo

The CLR ordered twenty eight central cab locomotives which were built by the General Electric Company in the US (originally it had been intended to build the locomotives in the UK but due to industrial unrest and lack of capacity this proved impossible [4]) in knocked down form and assembled at the CLR's Wood Lane Depot [5]. Importing the locomotives was not without mishap, one locomotive whilst being carried on a barge up the Thames ended up in the river - however it was rescued and after being fully dried out did enter service!) One hundred and sixty eight coaches were built by the Ashbury Railway Carriage & Iron Company and Brush Traction.

The CLR locomotives were noticeably larger than the CSLR ones weighting forty-four tons. They had four gearless motors with a high unsprung weight [6] and were soon causing vibration problems along the line with complaints coming in from occupants in buildings above the line [7]. An urgent solution to the problem was needed by the CLR, lighter motors were trialed which did reduce the vibration somewhat but the solution was arrived at when a number of coaches were modified with cab ends and electrical equipment. This became the Central London Railway 1903 Stock and soon replaced the locomotives on the line, becoming the first of a long long of tube stock on what became the Central Line. The original locomotives were replaced in service in 1903 and most were scrapped apart from a couple retained for shunting at Wood Lane Depot, one surviving until 1942.

CLR Locomotive and train at Wood Lane depot (public domain image [3]

Tunnel entrance at Shepherd's Bush, notice the central conductor rail (public domain image [3])

CLR Locomotive (public domain image [4])

[1] Piers Connor, The London Underground Electric Train (Crowood Press, 2015) p. 15
[2] "Central London Railway Car", Street Railway Journal (Vol. XVI No. 27) July 1900 p. 653
[3] Street Railway Journal (Vol. XVIII) 1901 p. 1051
[4] "Central London Underground Railway", Street Railway Journal (Vol. XIV No. 3) March 1898 p. 143
[5] J. Graeme Bruce & Desmond F. Croome, The Twopenny Tube (Capital Transport, 1996) p. 10
[6] "Fireproof cars on the Central London", Street Railway Journal (Vol. XXII No. 19) Nov 1903 p. 851
[7] Connor p. 36

Tramlink Flexity Swift CR4000

Tramlink is a light rail network in Croydon and across South London which is part of Transport for London. It commenced operations in 2000 along former heavy rail lines (the six and a quarter mile route from Wimbledon to West Croydon for example is nearly all ex-railway apart from a few diversions [1]) and new street lines. Bombardier's Flexity Swift tram was chosen for the initial rolling stock of the network. Twenty four articulated cars were produced ready for the start of operations.

Information
Number built:	24
Built:	1998-2000
Builder:	Bombardier
Engine:	4 Bombardier Three-Phase traction motors (750v DC OHLE)
Power:	644 hp (480 kW)

The CR4000 tram is similar to the K4000 tram built for Cologne. It has a "seventy six percent" low floor design with a cab at each end. The tram has six axles with the articulated section being on an unpowered bogie. The fleet received a refurbishment in 2008-9 which included new seats and LED lights.

In November 2016 a CR4000 overturned at speed (later found to be travelling too fast for the junction it was travelling over). Seven people died and fifty-eight others were injured. Following the incident a number of extra safety features have been rolled out to the fleet including a reduction in the top speed to forty five mp/h [2].

2543 at Wimbledon

2531 at Mitcham Junction

Behind the cab

2543 departs Mitcham Junction

Some sections of the network are single track

[1] John C. Gillham, Wimbledon to Beckenham before Tramlink (Middleton Press, 2001) p. 3
[2] Colin J. Marsden, Light Rail (Key Publishing, 2018) p. 32

Cardiff Corporation 131

Tramway companies employed a number of vehicles for maintenance and, what would be termed on the railways, departmental use. One frequent need were for water cars to help keen the roads (and tracks) as clear as possible from mud and animal waste (horse drawn vehicles still being the majority at the start of the twentieth century). Many purpose built water cars were built with a wide variety of different set-ups depending on the operator's requirements [1].

Information
Number built:	1
Built:	1902
Builder:	Electric Railway & Tramway Carriage Works of Preston
Engine:	2 GEC 200K traction motors (550v DC OHLE)
Power:	60 hp (45 kW)

Cardiff Corporation 131 is the only water car to have survived into preservation. A small single truck tram, it was built for the Corporation in 1902 with a thousand gallon water tank. It was in use until 1950 when the Cardiff tram system was closed. Originally 131 had open sides but wooden panelling was added in 1913, which was not usual for water cars which were usually kept open. The tram was also fitted out for rail grinding and was used for staff transport.

Cardiff Corporation 131 at Crich Tramway Museum

Original configuration, public domain image [2]

131 isn't large, compare the double decker tram behind

The water tank can be seen inside behind the cab

131 has a cab at both ends

[1] R.W. Rush, British Electric Tramcar Design (Oxford Publishing, 1976) p. 119
[2] "The Cardiff Corporation Tramways", Electric Railway Journal Vol. XX No. 1 (July 1902) p. 42

Alan Keef 59R Beaudesert

Beaudesert is number 80 in the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway fleet. The locomotive is used for shunting, engineering trains and standby passenger duties. The locomotive is a rebuild of an earlier T-Series locomotive made by Simplex which was used as a shunter on the Channel Tunnel project, and before that was owned by the National Coal Board.

Information
Number built:	1
Built:	1979 (Rebuilt 1999)
Builder:	Simplex (Rebuild Alan Keef)
Engine:	Dorman 6DA diesel
Power:	112 hp (84 kW)
Wheel arrangement:	4wDH

Originally built as Simplex 101T018 in 1979 the locomotive was rebuilt by Alan Keef in 1999 with the works number 59R [1]. The locomotive was re-gauged from 900mm to 610mm. The locomotive is named after a school near to the railway.

Four views of Beaudesert on the Leighton Buzzard Narrow Gauge Railway

[1] Industrial Locomotives Handbook 13EL (Industrial Railway Society, 2003) p. 27