The Blackpool 'Standards'

This book is a pictorial history. This book, written by Peter Waller, is a pictorial history of the evo-lution and operation of the 42 ‘Standards’ built. It looks at the precursors to the design and takes the story through the late 1920s and 1930s - when the type upgraded, with all receiving enclosed lower-deck vestibules and a number being rebuilt as fully enclosed (including four that were so modified dur-ing World War 2) - through to the post-war years when the increasingly aged trams were taken out of service and many were scrapped. The arrival of new trams in the early 1950s, allied to the conversion of the ‘town’ routes between 1961 and 1963, saw all bar four withdrawn - but this quartet survived until a final farewell tour, using two of the remaining trams, in late 1966. Fortunately, however, seven of the type survive in preservation - on both sides of the Atlantic - to provide the modern age with a reminder of this popular and iconic type of tram.