Photos of vehicles that are used to tow in broken down vehicles, or repair the tram tracks. Note that some vehicles are owned by the Council.

The Centenary Trams were the last traditional type tram to be built for the UK (Low Floor LRT vehicles since then). The bodies were by ELC of Blackburn, whom Blackpool Transport have bought many buses off them. They entered service from 1984 onwards. According to one book the Centenary Tram is apparently the most unreliable public transport vehicle in the world. Regardless of this claim, they are the backbone of the winter timetable on the Blackpool Tramway.

The Optare Delta was Blackpool Transport standard single decker since deregulation, Blackpool had 33 Deltas overall, though 2 are now driver trainers, whilst withdrawals have also taken place. A few have fallen victem to fire.

Blackpool first low floor deckers were delivered for line 14. Further batches as followed for the 14 and the 11, some batches were badged as Transbus and are shown in a different collection.

Blackpool have a small fleet of twin car trams. The Motor cars orignally were streamlined E-E Railcoaches bought by Walter Luff. Blackpool rebuilt several to become towing Cars. Originally there was 10 of them however, 3 trailers were scrapped, and the towing cars became normal railcoaches. A handful carry the colourful Metro Coastlines livery.

Photos of various heritage cars on the Blackpool system. Really I mean the old style looking ones, not the style that you associate with Blackpool.

Blackpool is known for its Illuminations, to add to the experience, several trams over the years have been decked out as Illumination trams, mind I have yet to get night shots of them.

In the late 1970s / early 1980s Blackpool completely rebuilt two Balloon Cars to One Man Operated (OMO) Trams. These became known as Jubilee Cars, and are numbered 761 and 762. Both have been rebuilt in recent years.

Blackpool aquired all of their Northern Counties Atlanteans when they took over Fylde Blue Bus. A few have been rebuilt with Palatine 1 front ends. However I only got 2 photos of these as they were on their way out when I visited.

The Leyland Atlantean was the mainstay of the Blackpool fleet for many years. Blackpool withdrew all bar 2 in October 2006. Only the 2 B regs remain with Blackpool.

Blackpool ordered a small batch of Olympians from East Lancs. They have recieved mid life refurbishment before been placed on the 11. Most are now in the Black Generic Livery though at least one is now orange.

Blackpool aquired 10 ECW bodied Olympians secondhand from Trent. These are painted in either orange or lilac. In 2005 more ECW Olympians was added to the fleet, when Ensign decided to update the open top fleet with 2 examples that were new to London Buses.

Blackpool has 3 Roe bodied Leyland Olympians, they were all aquired off West Yorkshire PTE.

Blackpool have a handful of Metrobuses on loan from Ensign Bus for use on the Citysightseeing service. Orignally it was from Pontins to the Zoo, but now they are used on the number 1 route from Cleveleys to Pontins / Blackpool Airport in the summer. Please note that the fleetnumber on the vehicle may not correspond with the fleetnumber in the caption. I have been using the local fleetnumbers, though some vehicles have started carrying them.

Blackpool was the first major operator to buy Optare Excels, however the early batch has moved on, and the T-Regs remain in service. In 2005, Blackpool aquired 3 Optare Excels from Go North East.

Blackpool has been a fan of Optare Buses since Optare came about. After the Optare Citypacer, Blackpool went onto buy the Optare MetroRider. 3 MetroRider went on Loan to Arriva North East in the summer of 2005, these photos will be shown in a seperate collection on this Gallery.

Blackpool standard Low Floor Minibus is the Optare Solo, the delivery of these replaced the last Optare Citypacers. Some Solos are owned by the local authorities and these are loaned to Blackpool Transport, these can be identified by the electronic blinds on the front.

These Railcoaches were formerly used as part of the twin cars, and were rebuilt to match the lines of the trailer cars that they towed. However 3 Trailer Cars were scrapped and these reverted to normal single cars.

For a short period Dennis became Transbus, until Transbus went bust and is now known as Alexander Dennis.

Blackpool operate a small fleet of Volvo Olympians with Northern Counties Palatine II bodywork.