The National Tramway Museum in Crich, Derbyshire, has a large and diverse collection of heritage tramcars, and aims to illustrate the complete development of the traditional British Tramcar. Where it is not possible to show this, tramcars from places as far away as Berlin, the Hague, Douglas, Halle, Howth, Johannesburg, New York City, Porto, Prague and Sydney have been acquired to show this. The majority of the trams at Crich are double-deck trams built between 1900 and 1930, and several have open tops. There are a few trams in the collection that were built after the Second World War, and these give an idea of how the British Tram Industry may have developed if services had not declined.
The museum have part of their website dedicated to the histories of the trams in their collection which can be found here.
Fleet list Colour KeyIn service On Loan On displayUnder Restoration/OverhaulIn StoreDisplayed Unrestored
Passenger trams ImagesOriginal SystemCar NumberLiveryYear builtSeatsNotesDerby Corporation Tramways1Green and Cream190345This tram was built by Brush Electrical Engineering in Loughborough, and was delivered to Derby in December 1903. It used for crew training and infrastructure testing prior to the opening of Derby's electrified tram system on 27 July 1904. Originally an open-topped car, it was later fitted with a top-cover and vestibule, and ran in service until September 1933, ten months before the last Derby tram route closed. After withdrawal, it was sold-off and the lower saloon converted into a summer house in Mickleover.
In 1962 it was rescued by the Derby Tramway Group and restoration started. The upper deck was reconstructed from parts salvaged from about a dozen old tram bodies that had belonged to trams from Derby, Nottingham and Leicester. It was displayed briefly at short-lived East Midlands Transport Museum before being acquired by the Tramway Museum Society and placed into storage. In 1991 it was given a cosmetic repaint and moved into Exhibition Hall at Crich. In June 2021 it was moved to the museum's off-site storage facility at Clay Cross.
However, in 2023 the tram was returned to Crich for a further cosmetic restoration, before going on loan to the Great Northern Classics venture, located appropriately in the former Derby tram depot at Osmaston Road, where it will be displayed alongside classic motor vehicles and help to provide apprentices with valuable heritage engineering skills.Douglas Southern Electric Tramway1Crimson and Cream189675This is the only tram car from the Isle of Man in the collection, the second-oldest electric tram, and the oldest to use a trolley pole for current collection. The car was built by Brush, but equipped with a Lord Baltimore truck imported from the United States. The design is unusual, marrying a toast rack style lower deck with transverse garden seats on an open upper deck. The tram was used on a line along Douglas Marine Drive, excavated along a ledge on the cliff face between Douglas Head and Port Soderick.
The line never re-opened after having been closed for World War II and, after a period of storage on the island, the car was moved in 1956 to London, where it was restored and put on display in the British Transport Museum. When that museum closed, its ownership was transferred to the city's Science Museum, from whom it has been on long-term loan to the National Tramway Museum since 1975. It is on display in the Exhibition Hall.Leamington & Warwick Tramways & Omnibus Company1 -188142This double-deck horse tram operated on the single track line between Leamington Spa and Warwick until 1905, when the line was electrified. The car was then sold locally and converted into a bungalow at Claverdon. It was rescued by the Birmingham Railway Museum in 1984 and ownership was transferred it to the Tramway Museum Society in 1993. The car is on display in the Exhibition Hall in unrestored state to illustrate the state that many of museum's tramcars were in at the time they were taken into preservation.London County Council Tramways1Blue and Ivory193266This tram first entered service in 1932, and was intended to revolutionise London's tramcar fleet due to its advanced design, which attempted to encourage off-peak tram-riding while retaining additional capacity for rush-hour services. The car introduced a number of innovations including an all-metal body, four-motor on equal-wheel bogies, a single level lower deck, air-operated brakes, folding platform doors, superior upholstery, improved heating, recessed lighting and brighter interiors with additional space for standing passengers. It was originally painted in a distinctive blue and ivory livery, which gave rise to its nickname of Bluebird. However, the car did not, as was intended, presage a modernised fleet of trams as, shortly after its introduction, London's various transport undertakings were unified under the London Passenger Transport Board, which decided to replace its trams with trolleybuses.
LCC 1 operated in London until 1951 when it was sold to Leeds Corporation Tramways, which was short of trams because of the Second World War, where it ran as car 301. It remained operational in Leeds until 1957 and was sold to Crich in 1973. For many years displayed in non-operational status, the London County Council Tramways Trust have funded a restoration, which led to the car being moved into the workshop for restoration in 2014. It has been repainted into its distinctive blue livery, and moved under its own power for the first time since 1957 on 22 April 2024.Blackpool & Fleetwood2Brown and Cream189856This tram was one of the ten original trams supplied to the Blackpool & Fleetwood Tramroad, a coastal interurban tramway that connected the towns of Blackpool and Fleetwood across what was then open countryside, and was independent of Blackpool Corporation Tramways that operated that town's trams. The tram is often referred to "Rack 2" on account of its toast rack seating style. The car became part of the corporation fleet in 1920, when the tramroad was acquired, and was renumbered 127. Shortly afterwards the two systems were connected and this enabled the tram to operate along Blackpool promenade for the first time.
The car was retired from passenger service in 1938, when it became a works car. It was restored to its original state for the 75th anniversary of Blackpool tramways in 1960. Subsequently transferred to Tramway Museum Society ownership, it was moved to Crich and was the first electric tram to be used in service at Crich in 1964. It returned briefly to Blackpool in 2010 for the 125th Anniversary of the tramway, and it also played a major role in the Electric 50 event at Crich in 2014, where it re-enacted its first service at the museum. It was then withdrawn and awaits overhaul, although it was briefly reactivated on 1 September 2018 to celebrate its 120th birthday. Blackpool Electric Tramway Company4Orange, Green and White188532This is the oldest electric tram at Crich and was built for the UK's first electric street tramway, which opened on 29 September 1885. The short line was approximately two miles in length and ran along the promenade at Blackpool. The power for the tramcars was provided by means of a conduit system designed by Michael Holroyd Smith, whereby the electric current was carried in a specially constructed channel under the roadway.
The conduit system proved vulnerable to sand and saltwater, and after Blackpool Corporation Tramways took control of the line in 1892, the line was converted to overhead electrification, and the car was fitted with a trolley pole. In 1905 it was converted to a works car, and an overhead line access tower was added in 1912. In 1934, the car was put into store, where it remained until 1960, when it was used in the celebration of the line's 75th anniversary. The car was given to the Tramway Museum Society in 1963, and was first exhibited at Crich in 1979.
In anticipation of the Blackpool tramway's centenary in 1985, the car was restored, as far as possible, to its original condition. To simulate conduit running, it was fitted with a new, home-built truck powered by lead acid batteries. It briefly returned to Blackpool in order to take part in the centenary celebrations. In 2005, it ran for the 50th anniversary of the TMS, though not carrying passengers. It is now on display in the Exhibition Hall. Blackpool5Green and Cream197248This car was built in 1972, using the lengthened frames of English Electric central-entrance railcoach 221 (later 609) built in 1934. The car was built to permit one man operation (OMO) on the tramway during the quieter winter months. It operated in this role until 1993, when it was withdrawn from passenger service in rather poor condition and with severe corrosion problems. Ownership was transferred to the Tramway Museum Society in 2000, and it was transferred to the museum's off site storage facility at Clay Cross, where it remains in unrestored condition. It is one of only two surviving complete Blackpool OMO cars. Gateshead and District Tramways5Crimson and Cream1927 48This car was built in 1927 by, and for, Gateshead and District Tramways, who unusually for the UK used long single-deck trams because of the presence of a low bridge that precluded the use of double-deck trams. When the Gateshead system closed in 1951, it was sold to British Rail and transferred to the Grimsby & Immingham Electric Railway, the same tramway that 14 originates from. Renumbered as 20 and repainted in that line's green colours, it operated there until 1961, when that line closed.
The car was acquired by the Tramway Museum Society and brought to Crich in 1963. Between 1965 and 1973 it was gradually restored to its Gateshead condition and livery. It first entered service at Crich in 1966 and has had several spells in traffic since then. Most recently, it was withdrawn from service in 2007 and is on display in the Exhibition Hall. Chesterfield Corporation Tramways7Crimson and Yellow190456Built, as one of 12 open-topped double deckers, by the Brush Electrical Engineering Company at Loughborough, coincidentally helping to replace horse-tram 8, also in the collection. It was damaged but narrowly escaped destruction in a fire which gutted the tramshed in 1916. It was restored and a top canopy was added in 1919, but then sold off in 1927 for use as a holiday home near Matlock. It was purchased by the museum in 1973, and restored to operational condition in the 1990s. Chesterfield Corporation Tramways8Cream and Blue190416Tramcar No. 8 was one of the last horse trams built for normal passenger service. Was on long-term loan from the Science Museum but passed into Crich ownership in 2016. On display in the Exhibition Hall. Companhia Carris de Ferro do Porto9Yellow, White and Red187320This trailer car from the city of Porto in Portugal is the only vehicle in the collection which has been hauled by three different forms of traction: mules, steam and electricity. It is also the oldest tram in the collection. On display in the Exhibition Hall. Hill of Howth10Brown190273This tram operated on a short but scenic route north of Dublin and is the only Irish car in the collection at Crich. On display in the Exhibition Hall. Grimsby & Immingham Light Railway14Green191572This car was built by the Great Central Railway for use on the line that the railway company built to convey dock workers from Grimsby to its new, and rather isolated, coal dock at Immingham. Partly built parallel to the steam railway carrying coal to the docks, but not connected to it, and partly running in the street, this line is variously described as an interurban tramway or as an electric railway, and car 14 demonstrates this hybrid nature. When the line closed in 1961, the car was preserved, initially in store at Clay Cross (then a British Rail facility) before going to the National Railway Museum at York in 1988. It has been at Crich since 1990.