Over the past couple of months we have been taking a look at the Illuminated trams of the Blackpool Tramway over the past 45 years or so and now to round this off we feature some other trams on Illumination Tours.
Sometimes Illumination Tours were operated by normal members of the fleet often due to demand and then from the early 2000s due to the fact there was a much smaller Illuminated fleet. A lot of the time these other trams were some of the more special vehicles such as Bolton 66 or one of the Boat Cars in traditional livery. But then sometimes something else entirely was used. This edition of Picture in Time takes a look at just three occasions when something unexpected was used on Illumination Tour duty.
First up is a tram from a class which has always been popular on tour duty – and still is today – but rather than one of the Boat Cars carrying a standard fleet livery on 13th September 2002 all over adverted 607 was chosen to operate one of the tours. The tram was carrying adverts for Blackpool Transport’s own Travelcard and is seen here as it approaches Pleasure Beach. Other trams on tour duty during this evening were Bolton 66, Sheffield 513 and Princess Alice.
In this scene at Cabin on 15th September 2004 we see two trams operating on tours: Balloon 721 and Frigate 736. 736 had left North Pier as normal with an Illumination Tour (just four days after its relaunch) but seemed to suffer problems as a fitters van had been seen heading in its direction and when your photographer arrived at Cabin this scene was to be found with Balloon 721 having been commandeered off Cleveleys service (in its Michelin contravision all over ad probably not the most suitable tram for tour duty!) to rescue some tour passengers as seen with the destination blind having been altered. However the Frigate still had some passengers on board and soon after this shot was taken both trams set off with tours! Only one other tram was out on tours this was the Illuminated Trawler 633.
You can imagine the scene, you are looking forward to going on an Illumination Tour and wonder what might turn up. Will it be one of the Illuminated trams? Will it be a really historic tram? Maybe the weather is nice and you might be lucky enough to get a Boat? Well on 10th September 2004 the second tour car of the night was – Centenary 648! Despite the probable disappointment for a lot of the passengers there was still a healthy load getting onto the tram at North Pier as this photo was taken. Only two tours ran on this Friday evening and this was the day before the 70th anniversary of the streamlined trams procession and the relaunch of the Illuminated Frigate.
Photographs by Gareth Prior
648 worked tours tonight – wonder if sept 2004 was its last tour previously
I wonder how many tours Centenaries have done? And how many did 648 do as 651?
I was sceptical of 648 as I thought it would be full of enthusiasts but no – 8 enthusiasts and full of families! Great fun and slightly surreal too.
I seem to recall Centenaries were quite common on lights tours around 2004 due to staff shortages meaning that the tours sometimes ran OPO. I think one did a tour on the night of 736’s first public use after its rebuild, but can’t remember seeing any other than that.
Nice to hear that the Centenaries are finally getting appreciated. Does 648 on average, attract less ‘civilian’ passengers than the other, more traditional trams? I’ve not seen it on the heritage service enough for me to judge myself, although if I knew nothing about trams and someone showed me a picture of 648 in it’s original form, I would say it was from the late 60’s or 70’s, it doesn’t fit the traditional image of 80’s design.
On an average blue service yes it attracts less. On a gala weekend when ordinary visitors have the chance to ride a few different Trams they will ride them. On 648’s illumination tour only about 8 enthusiasts, rest families but most people don’t seem to care what they are on as long as it takes them through the lights!
I would like to see a shoebox Centenary in the collection – hideous but a part of their story none the less.