No. 281 returned to original livery
FYLDE Transport Trust (FTT)owned Blackpool No. 281 is back in its original colour scheme and on display at the North West Museum of Road Transport in St Helens. An English Electric Railcoach built in 1935, No. 281 was reconstructed in its present form by Blackpool Corporation in 1960 and subsequently paired with 1960-built trailer car T1 to become one of the ‘Progress Twin-Car’ sets. The pair became the prototype set for a permanent coupling between vehicles. As originally formed, ‘Progress’ vehicles only had controls in the driving cars. They used loops on the system so that the driving car was always leading, but the controls at No. 281’s inner end were moved to the outer end of T1 to allow it to operate without being turned. In 1968, No. 281 became No. 671 and T1 was renumbered No. 681. The set was one of five to be fitted with heaters, low voltage head and tail lamps and given ‘Metro Coastlines’ livery in 2003. Withdrawn in 2010, it was acquired for Merseytravel’s proposed Wirral tram operation, but No. 671 returned to Blackpool in February 2012 in the care of FTT’s predecessor, the Lancastrian Transport Trust. There were no plans to restore it to fully-operational condition (Manchester Transport Museum Society’s No. 680 already serving as an operational example of a single motor car, on loan since 2015 to Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours) so the opportunity was taken to exhibit it at St Helens, where, now reunited with its original livery and number, No. 281 forms part of an exhibition on the development of electric public transport.