Rolling stock › WithdrawnData updated
Boat cars (English Electric)
Twelve open 'boats' of 1934, English Electric's streamlined successors to the toast-racks, for summer rides along the Promenade: a single step into a centre entrance, seats in an open well and a canopy carrying the trolley tower. Three are in San Francisco.
Scale
Boat cars (English Electric) · indicative drawing GB Trains · gbtrains.uk/stock/blackpool-boat/ · CC BY 4.0
You’re welcome to use this drawing
Free to use, change and share, in print or online, under CC BY 4.0. Please credit it:
Drawing: GB Trains, gbtrains.uk, CC BY 4.0Online, link the words to this page. The downloaded file already carries the credit; please leave it on. What the licence covers
- Type
- Tram, single-deck, open, centre entrance, double-ended, on two four-wheel trucks
- Builder
- English Electric, Preston
- Built
- 1934
- In service
- 1934–2011
- Lines
- Blackpool Tramway
- Formation
- One open single-deck car, 42 ft 3 in long, its seats in an open well behind a gunwale, a canopy and the trolley tower over the centre entrance; 12 built (225-236), renumbered 600-607 in 1968
- Trains in fleet
- 12
- Power
- 550 V DC overhead, trolley pole; two English Electric 305 motors · how it works
- Bogies
- English Electric trucks of 1934, under the hull of Blackpool's Boat cars
- Train length
- 42 ft (12.878 m)
- Car height
- 10 ft 3 in (3.124 m)
- Car width
- 7 ft 6 in (2.286 m)
- Profile
- tram
- Total capacity
- 44 seats on San Francisco's cars (Market Street Railway); no Blackpool figure from a checked source
- Status
- Withdrawn from regular service by the end of the traditional tramway on 6 November 2011: 607 on 31 July 2004 (National Tramway Museum) and 605 in 2010 (Market Street Railway). Heritage: 600 (225) and 227 survive at Rigby Road, and last carried the public on the heritage tours in 2024, before they were suspended in December 2024; 230 (604) last ran in 2016 and needs a rewire (British Trams Online, 3 October 2026). No heritage tram carried the public in Blackpool in 2026 after the Frigate's last Illumination Tours on 2 and 3 January (British Trams Online, 13 July and 1 September 2026); Blackpool Transport says the operational heritage cars need welding, electrical and axle repairs first, and 2027 is the earliest return.
- Preserved
- 600, 227 and 230 in Blackpool; 236 at the National Tramway Museum, Crich; 226, 228 and 233 with Muni, San Francisco
unverified Some of these figures haven’t yet been checked against an official source or a published history. What’s in doubt ↓
Sources
How we source figures → · Spotted a mistake? Tell us → (opens in a new tab)
Show the 12 sources from Wikimedia Commons, British Trams Online, Department for Transport and 4 more
- Blackpool Corporation No. 236 National Tramway Museum (Crich Tramway Village), read 12 October 2026the class: English Electric's design, twelve cars, centre entrance; windscreens 1958-9; renumbering in 1968; the trolley pole; 607's withdrawal in 2004
- No. 228, 226 & 233: Blackpool, England Market Street Railway (San Francisco), read 12 October 2026length, width and height; builder, motors and trucks; 44 seats in San Francisco; 233 (605) in Blackpool's fleet until 2010; the 1968 numbers
- Blackpool Tramway fleet list British Trams Online, updated 3 October 2026the surviving Boats in Blackpool, their collectors and the year each last ran
- Blackpool Tramway: Trams TheTrams.co.uk, read 12 October 2026numbers 600-607; 550 V DC
- 10 Years of Blackpool's Light Rail Trams Blackpool Transport, 29 March 20226 November 2011, the traditional trams' last day; heritage trams kept
- No more heritage trams in Blackpool for 2026 British Trams Online, 1 September 2026, updated 5 September 2026heritage tours suspended since December 2024; none in 2026
- File:'Blackpool Boat Tram on the Embarcadero during Muni Heritage Weekend line scan dllu.jpg' Wikimedia Commons (Daniel Lu, CC BY-SA 4.0), 19 September 2026the drawing: every length and height along the side, the trucks, fenders, trays and pole
- File:'Blackpool Transport, No.227 at Fleetwood, Stanley Road.jpg' Wikimedia Commons (Andrew Riley, CC BY-SA 4.0), 17 July 2016the drawing: the windscreen cab, the lattice tower, the livery and its colours
- File:'Blackpool Transport Services Limited car number 605 (1).jpg' Wikimedia Commons (David Ingham, CC BY-SA 2.0), 31 May 2009the drawing: 233 in Blackpool with its cabs, tower and fenders
- File:'Blackpool tramway tram 600.jpg' Wikimedia Commons (Mike Peel, CC BY-SA 4.0), 12 August 2012the drawing: the tower's proportions against the canopy
- The Highway Code: road works, level crossings and tramways (rules 288 to 307), rule 307 Department for Transport (GOV.UK), accessed 10 October 2026, p. rule 307the contact wire drawn: 19 ft 0 in (5.8 m), the normal height of tramway wires over a carriageway
- The Highway Code: road works, level crossings and tramways (rules 288 to 307), rule 307 Department for Transport (GOV.UK), accessed 10 October 2026, p. rule 307the contact wire in the In operation drawing: 19 ft 0 in (5.8 m) above rail, the normal height of tramway wires over a carriageway
.jpg){kind=link}
unverified
- Height: Market Street Railway's 10 ft 3 in 'excluding trolley tower', measured on the line scan to the canopy's top (10 ft 3 in (3,134 mm)); the tower and pole stand higher
- Length: Market Street Railway's 42 ft 3 in, taken as over the body (the fenders add about 80 mm at each end)
- Seats: 44 on the San Francisco cars (Market Street Railway); 52-56 (Wikipedia only)
- Truck wheelbase 4 ft (Wikipedia only); about 4 ft 0 in (1,230 mm) measured on the line scan
- The drawing: indicative, laid out from a line-scan photograph of 233 in San Francisco, its Blackpool cab and tower estimated from Blackpool photographs
Know a source for one of these? Send it to us → (opens in a new tab)