It’s been an exciting week for the Manchester Transport Museum Society, which has seen two of the organisation’s ex-Blackpool trams travelling by road to new homes.
The week started in fine form on the morning of Monday 28th November, when Blackpool Balloon car 708 was dragged out of the Electrical Compound at Blackpool and loaded up on Blundell Street, adjacent to the Fitting Shop. A low loader from Scott’s Heavy Haulage had been spotted stabling outside the tram depot at Rigby Road over the preceding weekend leading to a great deal of speculation, and sure enough a tram was indeed on the move. After an uneventful loading process – presumably the team from Scott’s can just about load a Balloon car in their sleep by now – 708 left its home of 77 years after 1100 and arrived at Bolton later that day. The tram has moved to this site for temporary storage, but hopefully it will one day operate on the preserved tramway at Heaton Park, Manchester. It was intended that the car would be housed inside a large building, but unfortunately unforeseen circumstances at the last minute dictated that 708 had to be deposited outside. It is hoped that this situation will not be for long though, and that the tram will soon be provided with secure storage undercover.
For the record, 708 last operated in passenger service during the 2004 illuminations, by which time it was already in a visibly poor condition, not helped by its weather-worn paintwork dating back to 1999. However this was not 708‘s last outing on the Blackpool
tramway, as it remained available for emergency use in its capacity as a snowplough car, and indeed a heavy snow fall led to it making one final run on 12th March 2006. Despite its long period in store, the tram remains largely intact apart from a few missing window panes and indeed it could probably be made serviceable on at least a restricted basis with fairly minimal effort. The car’s owners have not yet confirmed their long-term plans for 708, but at least the tram has escaped the confines of Rigby Road to see another day.
708‘s journey was just the start of the week’s tramcar movements though – and the second move of the week was even more exciting! The same low loader which had been used to transport 708 was taken to Trafford Park the following morning, where it collected Brush Railcoach 623 which was duly taken to Heaton Park! The tram had resided at Trafford Park since May last year when it left Blackpool, initially for display
in the short-lived ‘Museum of Museums’ alongside fellow MTMS-owned tram Balloon
702. Both cars have been stored in another part of the same complex for most of 2011 after the attraction closed down, but with plans afoot to redevelop the site, the MTMS were given notice to move both trams. Unfortunately 702 is too tall to fit in the current tram depot at Heaton Park, and will therefore be moved elsewhere, but the opportunity to
provide a fully enclosed car for winter operation at the park, in the shape of
car 623, was clearly too much to resist.
A short length of temporary track was laid in front of 623 inside the building which has been its home for the last 18 months, and the car was then carefully winched aboard the trailer, before emerging into the daylight. After making the short journey across Manchester, 623 arrived at its new home in the early afternoon and touched down on Manchester rails at 2:40pm. Despite its arrival being greeted by a hailstorm and then torrential rain, the Scott’s workers and tramway volunteers were undeterred and the tram was unloaded quickly, after which it was shunted into the depot by another ex-Blackpool
resident, Stockport 5.
As 623 has not operated for just over two years, it is expected that it will require some minor attention before entering service in Manchester, which will include the fitting of a trolley pole atop a shortened trolley tower. If all goes to plan then it is hoped the launch the car into passenger service early next year; details will no doubt be released by the
tramway in due course once a launch date is confirmed, and this will of course be reported here on British Trams Online.
Report by Andrew Waddington
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