Winter is shaping up to be a fairly eventful time on the Blackpool tramway with a number of appearances by members of the heritage fleet. Since the last of the Santa Specials operated in December, the trams have continued to make occasional appearances with the last such outing of 2015 being for the Fylde Tramway Society’s annual Christmas tram tour on Bank Holiday Monday 28th December.
The FTS has a long history of hiring Twin cars for its various excursions and so 675+685 were chosen for this event. The duo worked an impressive three trips to Fleetwood over the course of the day with a mix of trailer and towing car first journeys, the last of which took place in darkness creating some unusual winter scenes in the town. They also ran to Starr Gate once as dusk fell, and unusually the Twin car was halted at Harrowside for a photo stop. Such stops away from designated heritage tram stops are rare but, thanks to the evening winter service being in operation by that point in the day, it was possible to arrange an impromptu photo opportunity without risking disruption to the core tram service – a major advantage in hiring a tram outside of the peak season! Another odd move occurred at Bispham earlier on during the tour; in order to access the centre line, the set were driven from the southbound line onto the centre road where they stabled for a crew meal break.
After such a high-profile end to 2015, you could be forgiven for expecting the heritage cars to enjoy an extended break but in fact it wasn’t long before another member of the fleet enjoyed a winter airing, with Box car 40 performing a full system tour on Saturday 2nd January. This was a very early start to 2016 for one of the oldest trams in Blackpool, made possible by its support group ‘Friends of 40’ who organised their regular tour aboard car 40.
Private charters may well keep further heritage cars busy in the weeks ahead, but more exciting still is the first proper operating weekend of the year – on January 30th & 31st. This is an experiment to test the level of interest in heritage tours running during the winter months, no doubt enabled by the recruitment of volunteer crews. Hopefully this latest ambitious venture will be another great success for the Heritage Tram Tours, and set the tone for another year of great interest and development on the Fylde coast.
On the second of its three runs to Fleetwood on 28th December, 675+685 pause for the cameras on Pharos Street.
2015 witnessed many rare sights on the Blackpool tramway and here is yet another - Twin car 675+685 halted on New South Promenade at dusk for a photo stop during the FTS Christmas Tour. (Photos x 2 by Rob Bray)
Great photos, but a shame no-one put “HARROWSIDE” up on the blind for the last photo!