Tram Tracks – on the Beach!

Look carefully next time you’re out on the sands… Have you spotted these tram tracks on the beach?

How this all began…

Visit Fylde Coast regular, Cameron McDade, contacted us in those dreary, post Christmas days, with an interesting find. While browsing around the internet he’d found some photos on Blackpooltram.blogspot – and the first people he thought of were us!

Cameron was right – we’re always interested in the curious, weird and wonderful! And, we also recognised the location shown in the photos on the blog, so we set off to explore…

Where are the Tram Tracks on the Beach?

The blog directed us to the very last groyne between Cleveleys (which is in Wyre) and Blackpool. When the Anchorsholme sea wall works were carried out, rocks were placed along the line of the old wooden groyne boards. It served as a demarcation line to keep the public safe from the construction works.

It was these rocks which we recognised and set off for, on a cold and gloomy January morning. Take a look at this video which we made –

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What Did we Discover?

Well there are definitely tram tracks on the beach. But how, when and why did they get there?

Bryan Lindop is Head of Heritage at Blackpool Transport. Naturally he was the first person we thought of contacting.

Bryan tells us “It doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. In those days tram rail was manufactured to a much higher standard in terms of materials. It also has a high carbon content which makes it very resistant to corrosion, exemplified by the photographs! Old rail was recycled for a multitude of uses in those days. Many of our buildings on site at Rigby Road contain a lot of it! Door frames in the paint shop for example.

“The Corporation minutes often casually mention things like that, such as the tram traction poles on the Layton route being sold to the street lighting department in 1936 for a fixed price per pole, to be used for street lighting.”

Make Do and Recycle!

Bill Gibson is a VFC reader and friend of ours, and we also knew that Bill had worked at Blackpool Transport for many years. He also got in touch with a bit more information.

Bill says “Bryan is right. In ‘the good old days’, when worn out track was replaced, we kept it stored (Thornton Gate siding latterly) until there was a full wagon load to go for scrap. Various Council departments used the rail for different purposes, so I am not entirely surprised to see it used as support for groynes on the beach. (That was old street track.)

“When lines were closed (Talbot Road, Whitegate Drive, Redbank Road etc.), all the points and crossings were lifted and stored. They would then be refurbished in the depot and used to replace even more worn-out units. Once tramways closed in the UK (Glasgow was the last in 1962) it left Blackpool with a problem obtaining spares. European track was a different design, so it was important that nothing was thrown away if it could have a second life.

Even holding the roads up…!

“In the mid 1980’s I contacted the original manufacturer of the points and crossings, and was astounded to find that they still had the original pattern equipment for casting points and crossings. The old lines could be found all over the Borough when road resurfacing was carried out. In some cases, the track was supporting the surface, over a void created by leaking water pipes!  (Editor’s note: I saw workmen in a hole in the road at Central Pier where the old subway was being filled in. The tarmac road surface there is supported by rail!)

“When traction poles were badly corroded, we would cut them down, and the Illuminations dept used them for features such as the tableaux on the cliffs at Bispham. In those days, nothing was thrown away!”

More Tram Tracks on the Beach

These are some of the photos of the pieces of track, used to support the groyne posts at Rossall Beach.

Walking a little further north, towards the seafront car parking area, we saw this odd little bit, sticking out of the pebbles –

How very interesting! If you’ve got anything to add to this article you can leave a comment below. Or email any old photos to jane@theRabbitPatch.co.uk. Full credit given of course!

A Bit More Knowledge…

Nick Watts enjoyed this article and emailed this newspaper cutting from the Fleetwood Chronicle of 16 December 1949. Nick says “I thought you might like to see the following article, it implies that old tram rails were also used in Fleetwood’s sea defences.”

After first publishing this article we’d seen people commenting on Facebook that there are rails in various places around the Cleveleys/Fleetwood coastline. So we had a suspicion that it was a Wyre thing. (It could have been a Blackpool thing too, but there are no remaining groynes there to check).

Anyway, we contacted the Head of Engineering Services at Wyre Council who did indeed confirm that tram rails were used and in fact railway track is still used for the groynes today. Every day’s a school day!

Seek and ye shall find…

Some months later, Nick Watts sent us another email. He says “Since my earlier email I’ve noticed tram rails at virtually every groyne between the ‘tank traps’ and the Rossall School fields adjacent to West Way.” Here’s some of his photos:

Tugging them Out!

These old rails have served their time well. However, the old-style groyne boards – or breakwaters – need a lot of maintenance in this harsh environment. Despite being fastened with compatible railway fixings, the boards still work loose and get ripped off by the sea. With the boards missing they are effectively useless.

Fast forward to 2023 and the Wyre Beach Management Project, with new rock groynes being constructed in their place. These old breakwaters are taken out as new ones are built and have to be literally tugged out with an excavator!

The resulting tangle of wood and metal is separated into types and taken back to the yard. When a full load has been collected it all goes off for recycling. So even all these years later, the tram tracks still aren’t wasted!