Blackpool 31 tram at Beamish Museum, Co. Durham.
Blackpool 31 was built in 1901 at the Midland Railway Carriage and Wagon Co. for Blackpool Tramway, originally as a four-wheel double-decker open topper, for use on the Marton route. In a trial of its intended Standard class tram designs, it was rebuilt in 1918, which saw the body being extended and remounted on a new underframe fitted with two English Electric 4′ wheelbase equal-wheel bogies, to the American McGuire pattern (the smaller end windows correspond to the length by which the body was extended), with BTH 265C 35 hp motors and BTH 510 controllers.
It operated as an open top unvestibuled tram until 1928, when a top cover was fitted. A transfer to the Engineering Department in 1934 saw the tram renumbered 4 and modified for engineering use – the top cover being removed and replaced with a central wire inspection tower with current collection poles front and rear, and driver’s windscreens fitted. In the Blackpool fleet renumbering of the 1960s, it was renumbered 754.
After seeing regular use as an engineering tram, in July 1984 it was placed on long-term loan to the museum, with the intention of restoring it to its 1920s condition (open top, open platform double-decker). It entered service in 1988, being used in the summer seasons. it returned to Blackpool for the 1998 summer season only, to take part in the Blackpool – Fleetwood Tramway centenary celebrations. The tram was withdrawn for overhaul in 2016. This work involved attention to the motor, controllers and the paintwork and was completed in 2018.