Coronation 304 under attention

Following its arrival at Beamish Museum on Friday 12th October, the Lancastrian Transport Trust’s Blackpool Coronation 304 has been the subject of some attention from staff and volunteers at the museum. This has mainly been focussed on the trolley tower, and a spare trolley base is currently being overhauled for fitting to 304.

It is not known why this is needed as the car’s trolley base was presumably working perfectly when it last ran at Blackpool, but for whatever reason a replacement has been deemed necessary. Luckily, the museum had a spare trolley base as that of Oporto 196 was replaced during its recent overhaul; indeed this car is now fitted with the base it had on its arrival at Beamish from Portugal over two decades ago! This will inevitably delay the tram’s entry into service, but with commissioning work now well underway it should be ready for its advertised photo shoot on the evening of Friday 2nd November. A series of photography events over that weekend was originally intended to bring the curtain down on 304‘s visit to the North East, but with its arrival being delayed this may well turn out to be its first use at Beamish.

A planned date for the Coronation’s public debut in its temporary new home has wisely not yet been announced, due to the need to carry out a few tasks and of course the tram will also need to be extensively tested – but hopefully the much anticipated sight of this beautiful tram running around the Beamish circuit will soon become a reality!

Blackpool 304's arrival at Beamish has not previously been illustrated on this website; so to rectify the matter, the car is seen here outside the tram depot waiting to be unloaded.

The delicate operation of unloading a tram as large as 304 can be seen in this view as the Coronation touches down on Beamish tracks on 12th October, with Leeds 6 looking on.

A more recent view shows 304 at the front of the Beamish depot with one of the museum's replica buses for company. (All photos courtesey of the Beamish Transport & Inudustry Blog)

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