FLEET DETAILS: 'Milnes' Cars No.'s 36-75

These forty cars were built by G.F.Milnes & Co. in 1900/01 at the firms then new works at Hadley in Shropshire, being amongst the first trams to be constructed there. They arrived in two batches No.’s 36-55 in August 1900, followed by No.’s 56-75 in July 1901.

They were of completely different design to the ‘Siemens’ cars, though again they were open topped, but were totally enclosed around the platforms, and had hexagonal dash panels which were made up of separate wood panels. 90 degree direct stairs were also fitted to this class tram. On arrival an L-Shaped seat was added around the stairwell to give forty-two seats arranged 2 + 1 on the upper deck, the lower saloon had the more conventional longnitudal seating for thirty passengers. As built and delivered only a shallow side decency panel was fitted and no end panels, only wire framing, but this was altered after about 18 months to full height panels with hex ends to match the dash. These were altered to round ended after 1910 and from 1921 onwards were painted ivory instead of the original olive green.

An unusual feature of these cars was that the floor and platform were on the same level, made from one continuous steel frame, this meant that there was no awkward step into the lower saloon from the platform, but to compensate, there was a third step from the road level to platform, this bottom step was made somewhat redundant after the fitting of smaller wheels and the trucks lowered during the late 1920’s early 1930’s. Platform gates were fitted, which were drawn across at the drivers end, these gates were known amongst the crews as ‘finger crushers’, a very self-explanatory description. These gates were closed at the drivers end at all times, a reportable offence should they not be, and the ‘rear’ gate was closed only when maximum capacity had been obtained. A trolley mast was originally mounted to the side of the upper deck, but by the mid-1920’s these had been altered to a central position.

They were fitted with 4 x GE 52-6T 20h.p. motors, altered to 5-turn on delivery, and later still in the 1930’s altered to 4-turn, made by British Thompson Houston Limited and B.T.H.Ltd. B6 controllers, which were made by a firm called ‘Ganz’ of Budapest under licence from Bruce Peebles & Co. Bogies were equal-wheel Peckham 14B, a type used by only one other tramway operator in the U.K., Birkenhead.

On the upper deck, lights were fitted from new and they had the luxury of trap-doors, which covered the stairwell and were lowered at the ‘front’ ends, this made them less draughty, especially after top covering. Originally they were fitted with a simple wire life-tray and no head lamps. To conform to new regulations, a new type of life-tray was fitted from 1925 onwards and from 1926 life-guards were fitted. Head lamps were fitted from around 1903

Dimensions:

Livery was the same as on the other cars, except that the ivory was continued around the dash panels. Lining was gold on green and green and red on ivory, and when top covered the upper deck panels were also piped in dark red round the edge. Originally the title ‘BLACKBURN CORPORATION TRAMWAYS’ was carried on the rocker panels in large gold, shaded green, lettering, but from around 1911, this was replaced with small letters in the same style shading and positioning as the ‘Siemens’ cars. Fleet numbers were also gold shaded green.

Top Covers Fitted
In 1906 the Corporation experimented with the fitting of top covers to cars No.'s 61 and 45. A top cover was fitted, which gave a road to trolley plank height of 15ft. 8inch., and a domed roof was incorporated within the design, the trolley poles were fitted off-centre to match the over head. The top covers had hexagonal ends to match the lower deck and a roller blind destination box was fitted into the top of the end window. The decency panels remained green until after 1921. The two cars top covers differed in that No.61 had drop-framed windows to the saloon. Two more cars, No.’s 49 in December 1907 and No.62 in November 1912, were re-built with top covers, No.49 the same as No.45 and No.62 the same as No.61. The first three cars originally had their roofs painted white, but this was altered after 1910 to dark grey, No.62 having dark grey from it’s rebuild. Owing to the height of these cars, they could only work the bridgeless routes on the system of Preston Road, Cherry Tee and Intack, and it wasn’t until 1925 that it was discovered that by fitting 26inch wheels and re-designing the top cover to one of 5inch less, the lowest bridge on the system, at Church, could be safely negotiated. In March 1925 car No.56 received a top cover to this new design and it was decided to fit all the ‘Milnes’ cars should be fitted with these new covers, and between October 1925 and May 1933 all but eight were top covered, the cars remaining open topped were 36, 47, 51, 53, 54, 55, 59 and 66. On the new design the trolley poles were placed centrally on the roofs, as by this time all the over head wire had been re-aligned, except under bridges, which gave an alarming sight to the passenger of the trolley head dipping below the top of the windows. Of the original four top covered cars, No.’s 45 and 62 received new top covers, whilst No.’s 61 and 49 had theirs altered. In the case of No.49 a flatter roof was fitted, the decency panels and windows reduced in height. With No.61, having drop-framed windows, the whole of the reduction was taken from the bottom of the lower deck, and a new flatter roof was also fitted. On all ‘new’ top covered cars, the upper deck seating was rearranged to give a better passenger flow, this reduced the capacity to forty.

High Speed Motors
In 1927 a set of four high-speed motors, B.T.H. 265D type, were purchased and fitted to No.57, so successful was this that five sets of four second-hand motors were bought from Lanarkshire Tramways, these motors, B.T.H. 265J type, were fitted to cars No.’s 39, 43, 45, 60 and 63 in 1932. Between May 1930 and August 1934 all top covered cars had their lower saloon seating replaced with dark green leather upholstered seating arranged 2 + 1 in the centre with four longitude seats for three passengers at end, this reduced the seating capacity on the lower saloon to twenty-seven.

During the 2nd-World War six cars, No.’s 37, 44, 48, 60, 69 and 73 were fitted with trafficators and car’s No.’s 60 and 73 were fitted with an experimental microphone and speaker system. In 1941 all top covered cars received entry signs above the platform entrance, except No.61, owing to the fact that it’s original top cover having drop-framed windows, and due to how it was rebuilt, there was no room on the panel for the entry sign.

All the ‘Milnes’ cars lasted until after the 2nd-World War, until some were sacrificed for spares. Eventually all were broken up and scrapped after the closure of the system, with the exception of those cars described in chapter 15.

Although to the tramway historian these cars are always known as the ‘Milnes’ class, to the depot staff at Intack they were referred to as ‘BTH open’ and ‘BTH Standard’