Standard 143 work continues

The launch of Blackpool Standard 143 is now a little over a week away and with this in mind the past week has seen some good progress made on the tram’s restoration with it now to be found in the Rigby Road Paint Shop.

To assist with the work still to be completed the trams owners, the Fylde Transport Trust, arranged for a volunteer work party to attend Rigby Road during the past week. With Blackpool Transport’s own coachpainter concentrating on the exterior of the tram – with full exterior panelling now in place – the volunteers concentrated on the interior giving a coat of grey floor paint.

As well as the paintwork – which in itself has seen remarkable progress over the past few days – the destination boxes (complete with glass) – have now been fitted with the tram really starting to take shape ahead of its planned launch on 23rd September.

The main paintwork is due to be completed ahead of a visit by specialists from the Isle of Man in the week commencing 16th September to put the decorative additions to the paintwork.

The tram is due to be launched in a special ceremony on Monday 23rd September before it is then down to run a tour for the Fylde Tramway Society on Friday 27th September and then be seen by the general public during the September Spectacular event on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th September.

* Regular updates of progress are being posted to the Fylde Transport Trust Facebook page.

This entry was posted in Blackpool Tramway, Fylde Transport Trust. Bookmark the permalink.

1 Response to Standard 143 work continues

  1. Andrew Waddington says:

    The work being done on 143, particularly by volunteers, looks absolutely stunning and those who are working very hard to ensure that the tram is ready in time for its launch event should be very proud of their efforts. However, I am somewhat concerned by how ‘last minute’ everything has been – it seems that without the support of volunteers, the latest deadline would be missed, even though BTS had been contracted to carry out the work with funding provided by the FTT.

    Considering that the Head of Heritage had promised that 143 would be completed by the end of August unless “something catastrophic” happened, I was alarmed that the top deck was still a shell less than two weeks before its public launch. Happily it seems work has stepped up several gears, but the volunteers and workshop staff who have worked on the car in evenings and this weekend have almost certainly saved the day!

Comments are closed.