Almost exactly one year after debuting in service in its recreated red & white ‘Routemaster’ livery as first seen in 1991, Blackpool Balloon 701 now has an even more authentic appearance thanks to the addition of black and white destination blinds to the car. These use a style of lettering which is appropriate to this tram and the time when it previously ran in this colour scheme.
701 has become the latest member of the heritage fleet to receive traditional black and white destination blinds, but whereas the others had new blinds made specially for them it is believed that 701‘s set are an original pair which have been supplied. Only the large Fylde Tramway Society logos on the staircase panels and the lack of Travelcard adverts now give away that any new pictures of 701 were not taken in the 1990s!
The tram debuted in passenger service on the green heritage output on Saturday 29th August, marking the start of the Bank Holiday weekend’s enhanced service. Also in use were Boats 227 and 230 as well as Twin set 272+T2 which operated a late afternoon journey to Fleetwood. Extra variety was provided by the use of two modified Balloon cars on specials, and unlike on previous heritage event days both trams ran in ordinary public service, using the platforms as intended. Initially just 700 ran on specials but it was later joined by sister car 711 which duly stayed out into the evening, and even managed a very unusual sunset trip through to Fleetwood. This may well have been the latest in the day that one of the purple and white Balloons has ever run and was certainly an unexpected highlight on this fine sunny Saturday.
Balloon 701 shows off one of its smart new destination blinds at North Pier whilst employed on the heritage service on August 29th. (Photo by Lee Andrews)
The blinds look good replicas of those fitted to all the Balloons in 1986 when the Sandcastle opened.
I believe these blinds are in fact not replicas but originals someone had hidden away and has now made available.
The only issue with running the B fleet yesterday was that they were mostly working the same Pleasure Beach Little Bispham circuit as the Heritage Cars, which did seem to confuse some potential passengers, particularly when 700 spent much of the afternoon running 5 minutes ahead of or behind 701… 700 really needed to do a Cabin or a Cleveleys journey to separate them.
As well as the 2 ‘B’s there were also 2 Flexities on specials (meaning 15 out of 16 were in use simultaneously) and as for the evening run to Fleetwood on 711 – Who said Blackpool post-upgrade was predictable and boring?!? 🙂
Thanks for the information Paul, the article has now been amended accordingly. Big thanks to whoever supplied the blinds as they look fantastic!
Blackpool is certainly a very exciting tramway even post-upgrade and I hope weekends like this prove to some of the doom & gloom brigade that there is still so much to enjoy whether you like traditional, modern or a bit of both!
This comment is for Andrew Waddington I am gutted that I missed out on the £5 tickets for the depot tours for Saturday or Sunday 26-27 September, I did not know when they went on sale & only got phone number for Emma on Friday 18th which was to late, do u know if there is anyway I could get a ticket I have money ready to pay. I missed out on depot tour for 125 year event so was looking forward to this one. If you could let me that would be wonderful thanks Andy Scott
Sorry Andrew but all the tickets have gone and as I gather the tours are being run by volunteers who are already stretched there is no scope to add any more unfortunately. Your only chance now is if anyone who has a ticket decides they no longer need it. I suspect more tours will be arranged in the future as they have obviously been very popular, but that is only a guess.
There certainly seemed a welcome high number of trams about on Saturday, bearing in mind that, unlike last year, the basic LRT service itself is running at an enhanced 10 minute frequency during the day. Even with four specials on general service there were standing loads on many occasions during the day. Well done to BTS, not only for the superb heritage output but also for not forgetting the needs of the general travelling public. We definitely have the best of both worlds now.
As the person making the Heritage replica blinds, I can confirm that the blinds fitted to 701 are originals and not replicas.
There will be another two trams being fitted in September with my replica Heritage blinds, and these will be ready for the big 130 celebrations.
In service this morning were 600,642,672+T2, 680, 701,715 and Bolton 66, 7 in all with 642 duplicating 680 on the first Fleetwood joining at North Pier, so 7 heritage trams along with 711 working prom specials along with 004 and 008. Additionally 230 later replaced 600, so 8 heritage cars running for part or all of the day. Incredible output, well done to all concerned in making it possible.