Picture in Time: Blackpool Boat 607

Considering when I turned over all three of my tram calendars for August I was met by a photo of a Blackpool Boat Car what better excuse do I need to include more views of a Boat for today’s Picture in Time feature? This time we are featuring 607 during its loan spell of operation at Crich in the mid 1980s.

Boat Car 607 – or 236 as originally, and currently, numbered, had been just a normal member of the class for most of its life; surviving the axe in the 1960s when the fleet was reduced for the first time. That was until the mid 1985 when it was to make a trip down to the National Tramway Museum in Crich for a loan period. With 1985 being Centenary year in Blackpool and a number of trams making the trip to the northwest coast from Crich two trams went in the opposite direction and one of these was to be 607. Leaving Blackpool on 23rd April 1985 the tram soon entered service at Crich and proved to be a popular temporary member of the fleet. With Centenary year over the tram then returned to Blackpool on 2nd December 1985 and returned to service in Blackpool for another 19 years. Withdrawal followed as did a return trip to the home of the National Tramway Museum, this time on a permanent basis but I’m sure we will feature the tram again in this series so that is a story for another day!

Image number one shows 607 passing the Depot Yard (with the Blackpool Electric Locomotive looking on) as it heads towards the Bowes Lyon Bridge during the height of the 1985 season.

And we also catch up with 607 as it is loaded in a light dusting of snow for its return trip to Blackpool. Note how much more sophisticated low loaders have become in the past 30 years!

Both Photographs by Andy Bailey