The October school half-term holidays usually provide the Blackpool tramway with one of its busiest and most interesting weeks of the year, and 2015 was no exception to the rule. As well as the core tram service being boosted by a few additional trams running as specials, the heritage fleet also had an excellent week with a daily blue service operating plus a vastly increased amount of illumination tours.
Thanks once again to the efforts of volunteers, it was possible to run a two car heritage service in the daytime throughout the week and this was very well patronised, with several near-full loads observed on high capacity double deck cars. With British summertime now officially over, the daytime heritage service actually ended in darkness giving a very different feel to the tours! However, it was probably the evenings that provided the week’s highlights, with as many as seven trams being used on tours of the illuminations. Some cars managed three tours per night, including most unusually, Boat 227 on Friday 30th October which kept it out until about 2300! This tram and open top Balloon ‘Princess Alice’ 706 were both popular choices for the daytime and evening tours and were generally very well patronised. A wide variety of trams were used across the week with both operational Twin sets being well used, along with Bolton 66 and Balloon cars 701, 715 and 717. Standard 147 worked its first illuminations tour of the year on Friday 30th October whilst on Saturday 24th, Ex-Towing car 680 was an unusual but welcome choice due to wet weather. This means that only three operational heritage cars have not performed at least one illuminations tour this year, these being Boat 600 and Centenary cars 642 and 648 – although the season is not over yet!
The one disappointment of the week was the reduction in use for the ‘B Fleet’ Balloons. When three of these trams were commissioned at the start of the year, it was announced that one of their main roles would be boost capacity during the October school holiday after the tram service failed to cope with the huge demand in 2014. Despite being frequently used in recent weeks, some days saw none of these trams used at all and on others, just one ran – the fall of darkness coming earlier meaning it was not viable to utilise illumination tour crews on these trams before taking up evening tour duties. However, recently reactivated Balloon 713 did manage to make some further appearances over the course of the week, being the only modified Balloon car to run on some days which was a surprise as it was only expected to see use as a last resort. Despite its long lay-off 713 has performed well and hopefully will not return to store, although presumably it will need to be repainted if it is to see more extensive use next year. This could therefore have been the last chance to see the tram in its popular ‘Hounds Hill’ advert livery, and indeed it is now the last operating Balloon car retaining an all-over advertisement.
Despite this one blip, the tramway appeared to cope well with the high passenger loadings most of the time with a few Balloons and spare Flexities running as specials to help out when possible. The heritage trams certainly benefited from the busiest week of the season, and the days when they were very poorly patronised now seem to have been firmly consigned to the past!
The novelty of having true heritage trams and modified 'B Fleet' cars side by side at Pleasure Beach did not escape the attentions of photographers, and a particularly nice contrast is seen here with cars 713 and 715 on the loops.
Since its return to use in September Twin set 675+685 have been regularly used and are seen here loading up for an illuminations tour.
Despite withdrawal looming 'Princess Alice' 706 remains a firm favourite and is seen here progressing along the cliffs as it heads north with another illuminations tour.
The two red streamliners, Boat 227 and Balloon 701, have often been photographed together in the last year - but not in the dark! Both trams are seen at North Pier heading south on 29th October. (All photos by Bradley Jones)