They had Preston McGuire bogies with 4 ft 1 in (1.24 m) wheelbase and 30 in (760 mm) diameter wheels, British Thomson-Houston B510 motors with hand and rheostatic brakes.

After an initial trial period, company directors approved an order for 11 production cars, which arrived in July and August 1934.

[11] Work began on the circular and coastal tours, replacing the original Toastrack cars, which were considered dangerous and old-fashioned.

They were stationed at both Rigby Road and Marton depots for ease of access and continued there until the outbreak of World War II, when they were stored out of service due to the withdrawal of the circular tour and general lack of demand.

Car 601 (226) was the first to be preserved and has been at the Western Railway Museum, Suisun City, California, United States, since 1971, renumbered back to its original pre-1968 number as 226.

Car 603 (228) was loaned to Philadelphia in 1976 for the United States Bicentennial, then returned to Blackpool where it was stored until 1984, when it was then given to the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni), where it operates with its original pre-1968 fleet number as 228.

[13] The fleet was further reduced when car 606 was given to the Trolleyville Museum, Ohio, United States, in September 2000, in return for Standard 147, which was restored to its enclosed condition.

Work included the fitting of modern safety features such as halogen headlights and a rubber bumper and fibreglass skirt on each end.

In August 2013, 602 returned to service repainted in a fictitious style of Blackpool Corporation red and cream livery and was renumbered back to its original pre-1968 fleet number as 227.

629 was withdrawn in 1972 requiring an overhaul, but was scrapped in 1980 due to Rigby Road workshops working throughout the 1970s on the OMO rebuild programme.

622 was given to Anchorsholme Primary School for use as a static classroom, but was eventually no longer required and was scrapped on site in December 2024.

630 was rebuilt in the 1990s with modern indicator headlamps, electrical equipment and bus-type seats and remains in this condition to represent its class in a heavily modernised version from this period of Blackpool's tramway history.

634 was privately sold and was on static display at the North Eastern Electrical Traction Trust museum painted in 1990s green and cream livery until 2016 when it was donated to the heritage fleet in Blackpool by its former owner and returned to Blackpool in February 2016 and was expected to re-enter service there repainted in a version of its former Coral Island Terror Train advert that the tram carried in the late 1990s.

They were originally known as Sun Saloon Railcoach cars, but became known as the Marton VAMBAC Railcoach cars after their original equipment was replaced with VAMBAC (Variable Automatic Multinotch Braking and Acceleration Control) equipment to allow for smoother, faster and quieter acceleration and braking.

Coronation 304, the first of the fleet, was bought for preservation and achieved celebrity status in 2002 when it was the subject of the seventh episode of the second series of the Channel 4 television programme Salvage Squad.

It was returned to working order by Salvage Squad and FTT members and unveiled to the public on 6 January 2003 when it was filmed carrying out test runs along Blackpool Promenade.

In the late 1970s, Blackpool Transport, having completed its OMO rebuild programme, was still left with a significant surplus of cash.

It was thought a success, so a second was created using redundant Balloon car 714, which unlike the first, retained its centre doors and was completed in 1982.

761, meanwhile, was preserved by the Fleetwood Heritage Leisure Trust and was in outside storage until December 2013 when it was moved back in to Blackpool Transport's Rigby Road Depot.

[30] The cost cutting continued, as although the bodies, chassis and bogies were new, the motors and wheelsets were pre-war, refurbished ones from withdrawn cars.

[citation needed] The retained Centenaries unfortunately suffer from electrical issues, with 642 failing on the first day of its re-entry into service, although it has operated successfully since.

645 was stored at Windy Harbour Holiday Park in Singleton near Blackpool, but returned to Rigby Road depot to join the heritage fleet in 2017.

After being fitted with a propane-fuelled on-board generator,[32] it entered service on the Willamette Shore Trolley line (which lacks overhead wiring), in Portland in 1992.

[34] Later, it was sold to a research facility in Texas, United States, who used it to test alternative power sources and after completing this role, the car's body was scrapped, with only the underframe left intact.

With the introduction of the Flexity 2 trams in 2012, the Western Train (733+734), the Frigate (736) and the Trawler (737) were retained as part of the heritage fleet.

[39][40] The fleet of heritage trams are used most weekends throughout the year; at any one time, some are operational and some are awaiting overhaul, repair or restoration.

The first tram to visit Blackpool was Southampton 45 in 1949, which was stored inside Marton Depot for its owners, the Light Rail Transport League whilst the group attempted to find a permanent home in preservation for it.

611 returned to Blackpool in 2018, now in a silver livery, for storage purposes only, with plans for it to eventually operate on a test tramway in Preston.

In 2011, Cardiff water car 131 arrived in Blackpool for use in scrubbing and preparing the newly laid track on New South Promenade for the start of testing of the Flexity 2 trams.

In 2018, Halle 902 was loaned to Blackpool for storage purposes only to free up additional space at the National Tramway Museum and left in 2022.