This weekend – Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th February – sees the second special ‘Gold’ running weekend for Blackpool’s heritage trams with an impressive turnout of six cars per day planned. In addition, the Tramway & Light Railway Society are hosting a model tram show at the Lyric Hotel, and a temporary heritage tram stop will be placed near the venue at St Chad’s Road to serve this event and add further novelty to the occasion.
A total of eleven different trams are planned to operate this weekend – only Balloon 700 is scheduled for both days as a mobile souvenir shop will be on board. The others are a diverse bunch, although as always it should be noted that all advertised vehicles are subject to availability and other operational factors. The provisional output also reflects the predicted weather, which looks miserable for Saturday but more promising for Sunday, although with the BBC forecast changing considerably over the last few days anything could happen!
Here is the expected heritage tram output for Blackpool this weekend:
Saturday 25th February – Railcoach 680, Balloon 700, Balloon 717, Millennium car 718, Balloon 723 and Frigate 736.
Sunday 26th February – Box 40, Bolton 66, Centenary car 648, Balloon 700, Balloon 715 and Western Train 733+734.
If they do indeed run as planned, cars 648, 715, 718 and the illuminated Train will all be making their debuts in service for 2017, whilst Bolton 66 running in winter is also very unusual. It is perhaps slightly odd that, having dominated the daily promenade service for the last fortnight, the B Fleet do not feature more heavily but the list of trams above certainly represents a great variety and will hopefully cater for all tastes.