1946
Preston Road route closes
The Transport Committee re-instated the pre-war abandonment plans, and under this scheme the Preston Road route closed on January 6th, 1946. There was no ceremony, the last tram, car No.74, trundled back to the depot in the late evening and the route was replaced by buses the following day. An experiment had taken place the week previous with buses and trams running together to ascertain the timing of the vehicles was satisfactory. Although the route was officially closed, the trams, in the form of ‘Football Specials’, continued to traverse the route from Montague Street to town until the last car ran on the day of the last home match of the season on April 19th.

With the closure of the Preston Road route, giving the department sufficient trams to operate a full service on all the remaining routes, and the lifting of certain war-time restrictions, the services of the remaining routes were increased from January 7th, by the re-introduction of the late service, suspended at the start of the war.

CHURCH. Route No.1
Monday to Friday inclusive
Ex-Salford. 10:20, 10:40, 11:00p.m.
Ex-Church. 10:45, 11:05p.m., (11:20p.m. to Intack only)
Saturday
Ex-Salford 10:10, 10:20, 10:30, 10:50, 11:00p.m.
Ex-Church 10:32, 10:42, 10:52, 11:05p.m., (11:10, 11:20p.m. to Intack only)
Sunday
Ex-Salford 10:10, 10:20, 10:30p.m.
Ex-Church 10:35, 10:45p.m., (10:50p.m. to Intack only)

INTACK. Route No.2
Monday to Friday inclusive
Ex-Salford 10:10, 10:20, 10:30, 10:40, 10:50, 11:00p.m.
Ex-Intack 10:25, 10:35, 10:45, 10:55, 11:05, 11:15p.m.
Saturday
Ex-Salford 10:05, 10:10, 10:15, 10:20, 10:25, 10:30, 10:35, 10:40, 10:50, 10:55, 11:00p.m.
Ex-Intack 10:17, 10:22, 10:27, 10:32, 10:37, 10:42, 10:47, 10:52, 10:57, 11:07, 11:15p.m.
Sunday
Ex-Salford 10:10, 10:20, 10:30p.m.
Ex-Intack 10:25, 10:35, 10:45, 10:55p.m.

WILPSHIRE. Route No.3
Monday to Friday inclusive
Ex-Salford 10:10, 10:20, 10:30, 10:40, 10:50, 11:00p.m.
Ex-Wilpshire 10:30, 10:40, 10:50, 11:00, 11:10, 11:20p.m.
Sunday
Ex-Salford 10:10, 10:20, 10:30p.m.
Ex-Wilpshire 10:30, 10:40, 10:50p.m.

BOROUGH BOUNDARY DARWEN. Route No.8
Monday to Saturday inclusive
Ex-Railway Station 10:10, 10:20, 10:30, 10:40, 10:50, 11:00p.m.
Ex-Borough Boundary 10:30, 10:40, 10:50, 11:00, 11:10, 11:20p.m.
Sunday
Ex-Railway Station 10:10, 10:20, 10:30p.m.
Ex-Borough Boundary 10:30, 10:40, 10:50p.m.

Despite the increases in services it was decided in late January to apply to the Ministry of War Transport for the abandonment of the section of track between Church and Intack. This application was granted, but the section remained operational for a further 3 years.

Two Darwen cars collide
A rather curious accident occurred on Thursday April 9th, when two Darwen cars collided on Craven’s Brow on the Darwen route. At around 7p.m. driver Mr S. Bolan was driving one of Darwen’s streamlined cars from Darwen to Blackburn when the brakes failed going down Craven’s Brow. He informed the passengers to jump clear and eventually brought the car to a halt. The driver decided to take the car back to Darwen depot and after crossing tracks at Oakfield Road began the climb back up Craven’s Brow. It was surmised that he forgot to change the trolley pole on to the ‘up’ wire, a result of which, when the car encountered a Blackburn car descending the hill, the poles collided, causing the Darwen car to be put out of control and it began to run back down the hill. Another Darwen car, driven by Mr J Bowker, was following about 60 yards or so behind, he stopped his car and told the passengers to get off. The runaway tram crashed into the second vehicle and, becoming interlocked, both cars ran down the hill at full speed. Fortunately, the cars were not derailed on the bend at the bottom of the incline, and once on the level began to slow down. A passer-by, Mr H. Swarbrick, heard the rattle of the two cars and, realising there was no one on board, jumped on and brought the car to a standstill near to the Fernhurst Hotel. Five women were slightly hurt whilst jumping from the trams, but no serious injuries were sustained. The streamlined car received only a broken front window, whilst the other Darwen car had a badly damaged cab, a wrecked bogie and torn floorboards.

At 9:30a.m. on Thursday May 26th, the ‘wireman’ was called to attend to the over head line and damage to pole No.77, situated at the bottom of Craven’s brow. The damage had been caused by a wagon owned by Messrs. Bolton and Hayes Ltd. of Bolton striking the pole. The extent of the damage was that the pole was bent, the 18ft. arm was broken and two 16ft. stay rods were also broken. These were all renewed along with 40 yards of running wire. [see IMAGE]

Six new buses were purchased during this year, these being Leyland PD1 engined vehicles, with Leyland 56-seat double-deck bodies and were numbered 67-72.

During the Spring of 1946, men from the armed services, previously employed by the department, began to arrive back from war duties and were duly re-engaged . In preparation for this eventuality, no conductresses had been taken on since September 1945. The Transport Manager, Mr Potts, said that he was “...glad to have them back...” as there was a shortage of staff at the time, due to sickness.

On September 4th, two of the high-speed motored cars No.'s 39 and 57, were in collision with each other about 100 yards from the Church terminus, though no-one was injured and the passengers suffered little inconvenience. [see IMAGE] The trams, however, were badly damaged on both the lower and upper deck ends, but the drivers of the cars, James Devaney and Walter Walmsley, managed to drive them back to Intack depot where they were subsequently repaired.

Darwen system closes
Darwen Corporation had announced it's intention of closing it's system down from October, and preparations were made for Blackburn to continue their part of the service. Darwen sold the two modern streamline cars, No.'s 23 and 24, to Llandudno & Colwyn Bay Tramways, and to help with the services, hired two of Blackburn’s ‘Milnes’ cars, which were sheded at Darwen, until the system closed on October 5th, and from then on all cars terminated at the Borough Boundary.

Thousands of Darwen people on Saturday night watched the last tram journey in the town. In a beflagged illuminated car members and chief officials of the Corporation travelled from the depot to the circus, then to the Blackburn boundary, back to the Circus, and finally into the sheds. The last tram bore the bold inscription "46 Years Public Service. Commenced 1900 - Retired 1946," Another car carried other Corporation guests. Thus ended Tramway through running between the two towns, however Blackburn trams will continue to run to the Borough boundary.

Northern Daily Telegraph 7th October 1946

There is talk that the two streamline cars were offered to Blackburn, though no records have materialised to substantiate this. Mr Potts and Rolling Stock Superintendent Mr J Harrison represented Blackburn at the closing ceremony. With the closure of the Darwen system, Blackburn was now the only tramway service in East Lancashire. The timings on this route were altered slightly so as to ensure that a Blackburn tram always met a Darwen bus at the Borough Boundary. After the closure of the Darwen system, the crossover at the Borough Boundary terminus was altered from a trailing crossing to a facing crossing, allowing cars to ‘reverse’ more easily.

Tramway receipts 1941-1946:
1941.........................................£80,487
1942.........................................£88,189
1943.........................................£94,960
1944.......................................£100,957
1945.........................................£98,059
1946.........................................£91,638

Corporation men on strike
A long running dispute between the Corporation and the crews of the buses regarding the timings allocated for the Preston Road and Cherry Tree routes, resulted in a lightening strike beginning at 1:00p.m. on Saturday November 2nd. At that time all trams and buses stopped running, over 100 vehicles made an impressive procession back to Intack depot. Though most shoppers had already done their weeks shopping, many were still stranded in the town, and thousands of football fans had to walk to Ewood Park later that afternoon to watch the match against Liverpool. After many discussions over the following days, the matter was resolved with a compromise being reached, whereby instead of the 1 hour previously allowed for this route and the 50 minute service requested by the Corporation, an agreement of 54 minutes was settle upon, and the trams and buses resumed operations on Tuesday 5th.

Due to the scarcity of parts, the decision was taken in late 1946 to sacrifice some of the trams, to be ‘cannibalised’ for spares to allow the trams to continue operating in safety. Although the trams were now being ‘run down’, maintenance was still a high priority, and so 59 new steel tyres were purchased from Brown Bayleys Ltd. (Sheffield) for £199.17s. 3d.

A new contract with the Northern Daily Telegraph, for the carriage of parcels was agreed at a sum of £450 per annum.

Tramway traffic returns for 1946/1947:
Church, Wilpshire &
Darwen sections:
Miles run.................................836,067
Passengers carried.............14,565,957
Revenue......................£79,605. 3s. 5d.
Receipts per car mile................22.63d.

1947
Arctic weather hit Blackburn in late February 1947, with a result that on the night of Tuesday 25th, the tracks became clogged with ice and three trams were abandoned with burnt out motors, one on the Boulevard, one in Whalley New Road near to the Convent and one near to the Redcap Inn on the Accrington Road. The one on the Boulevard was ‘freed’ the following morning, but despite gallant efforts to clear the tracks with salt, the other two trams were stuck for some time, the services were curtailed and buses took over the running. The car stuck on Whalley New Road, ‘Milnes’ open top car No. 66 was released after three days, but the other No.36 was stuck for over a week, a watchman with glowing brazier stood guard day and night to keep the tram company and other traffic out of danger.

Accident at Intack depot
In early 1947 a rather strange 'accident' happened at Intack depot. A fitter was asked to move one of the trams, which was on No.1 road, to the back of the depot, unfortunately he couldn’t stop the tram and it crashed through into the paint shop where ‘Milnes’ car No.63 was up on trestles, it’s bogies and motors having been removed for maintenance purposes, it was knocked off the trestles by the impact and suffered damage to the bodywork. As the repair to the tram would take a few weeks, it was decided to fit No.63’s high-speed motors into car No.46 as this was the next car in line for servicing. This car’s lion’s share of duty then being spent on the Church section. car No.63 returned to service some weeks later with standard motors fitted, those from No.46, and the two cars ran with these ‘swapped’ motors until they were withdrawn from service.

In August 1947, an application was submitted to the Ministry of War Transport for the abandonment of all remaining routes, except that to Intack. This was approved, and to complete the changeover a purchase for 40 new omnibuses had been made by November. These vehicles were for replacing Pre-war buses as well as tramway replacements, and consisted of:

Traffic on the Wilpshire route was held up for half an hour during the afternoon of Tuesday 30th September, 1947 after ‘Milnes’ car No.44 was in collision with a lorry near to Skew Bridge. The front of the tram, driven by William Dyball, was extensively damaged, and after being towed back to the depot was withdrawn from service and later scrapped. Mr Dyball was treated at the Infirmary for injuries to his back.

On November 6th a tram was involved in an accident on the Church section at West End, Oswaldtwistle. The tram, ‘Milnes’ car No.43 was in collision with a lorry in fog and though the near side of the front end of the tram was ripped open to upper deck level, the driver, Mr Robert Smith, climbed out of the wreckage almost unhurt, with just a slight cut on the knee to the amazement of the score of passengers. The crash left the front upper deck seats and steps hanging drunkardly, wrecked the controller and smashed an upper deck window. The conductor, Mr Harold Heaton, was collecting fares upstairs when the floor caved in to within a few inches of where he was standing. The crash occurred about 8:30a.m. and by 9:30a.m. the tram had been towed by to Intack depot by another tram, and until the wreckage could be cleared, buses took over the Church Intack section of the route. The tram, although under normal circumstances would not have been considered a ‘write-off’, was deemed too damaged to merit re-building and it was therefore taken out of service. It’s high speed motors being refitted in to ‘Milnes’ car No.37, and the rest of it’s useable parts being used as spares.

Wilpshire route closes
December 21st 1947 saw the closure of the Wilpshire route, three leading officials of the Transport Department rode on the platform of the last tram, Chief Inspector Dabbs, Miss Ellis (Committee Member) and Mr Harrison, Rolling Stock Superintendent. There was no ‘official’ ceremony, but many people gathered at both the Wilpshire terminus and Water Street on that Saturday night to see the last tram in. The tram itself was No.74 driven by Bill Bentham with conductor Dennis Moran in attendance. The crew had been working their usual Wilpshire route all day on car No.46. Due to fog and the delays caused by this, it meant that Bill and Dennis would be on the last tram from Wilpshire. As they arrived at Water Street for what would have been the last journey to Wilpshire, they were informed that members of the Department would be on the tram and they were to use car No.74 instead.

In Winter, new caps were issued to the transport workers and were of the cloth top, instead of straw topped as had been before. It was estimated that a cap was supposed to last each man a year, and that veteran driver H. Craddock must have been ‘capped’ 41 times!. Strict rules were enforced with regards to the wearing of caps. Cap covers were used of two different colours, black and white. The change to white had to be done on the first Sunday in May and to black on the first Sunday in October. Fines were imposed on those who missed the changeover. During World War ll the ruling was relaxed and white tops were used all year round.

1948
To give an indication of how the trams were beginning to wear out, New Years day 1948 showed that no less than 26 cars came in to the depot at some point during the day for minor faults, some more than once during the day. Faults ranged from brakes needing adjusting and broken trellis gates to the problem of ‘Milnes’ car No.48 whose motor at No.1 end had caught fire!

Further reduction in tram fleet
By early 1948 the trams were fast approaching the end and only 30 cars remained in service on the two routes, Church and Darwen Boundary. The maintenance costs of the cars was high due to the fact that a certain number of tram maintenance staff had to be retained, despite that fact that the number of cars was decreasing. At Intack plans were already underway to make alterations once the trams had gone. However, track still needed renewing, for safety sake, and during 1948 the following track work was carried out, the last major tasks completed by the Permanent Way Department.

Church section.......Accrington Road, inward and outward track from Intack to Bank Lane, including curve leading out of the depot. Outward tack from Printer’s Arms to Wellington Inn. Single track re-laid at Thwaites Road, Bottomgate, Thwaites Brewery and opposite Airey’s Garage, Eanam.
Darwen Section......Points at Ewood renewed.
Permanent way Mileage as at March 31st, 1948
Church Section:
Double track........2 miles 1,466 yards
Single track.......................1,363 yards
Interlaced track..................397 yards
Route Length......4 miles 80 yards
Darwen Section:
Double track.........1 mile 1,738 yards
Single track.........................683 yards
Interlaced track..................345 yards
Route Length..…..2 miles 1,363 yards

In February two tram drivers, Bill Bentham and Harry Whiteside, were each fined £2 after their trams collided near to Eanam and they failed to stop to report the accident.

From April 1st it was decided that Guide Dogs for the Blind would be allowed to travel on the lower deck of all Corporation vehicles, trams and buses, without the need for a ticket.

In September 1948 another crash occurred at West End Oswaldtwistle. On Saturday 25th, car No.67 was in collision with a coach belonging to East Yorkshire Coaches. [see image] After colliding the coach then crashed into the wall of the Old Rectory. Seven people from the Hull area suffered shock, but were able to continue their journey. The tram was damaged at the front to upper deck level [see image] and was towed back to Intack where it was subsequently taken out of service and, after cannibalising for spares, was eventually scrapped.

Tramway Traffic Returns for 1947/1948 were:
Church, Wilpshire* & Darwen sections:
Miles Run...............................779,897
Passengers Carried...........13,104,155
Revenue.....................£71,694. 4s. 0d.
Receipts per car mile...............22.06d.

* Wilpshire route operated by trams only until December 21st, 1947

Towards the end of the year the tram fleet was reduced still further to 25 cars. The Transport Manager reported to the Committee that the state of the track between Intack and Church was in such a bad condition, added to which, the tramcars were deteriorating rapidly, that it was becoming more and more difficult to maintain a service between the two points and, he proposed the earliest possible abandonment of this section This would allow the withdrawal of a certain number of cars and thus keep repair costs to a minimum.

Ten new omnibuses were bought during 1948, six Leyland PD1A with Leyland 56-seat double deck bodies No.’s 115-119 and a further five Leyland PS1 32-seat Crossley bodied single-deck vehicles numbered 6-10.