In another edition of “Picture in Time” this time we feature a Blackpool tram which since being withdrawn by Blackpool Transport has gone through a number of owners but in 2021 has joined the Fylde Transport Trust Fleet.
That tram is Brush Car 625 which is seen in this image having just rounded the Metropole Hotel on the approach to North Pier with a service to Pleasure Beach on 12th September 1982. In the standard green and cream fleet livery the tram is completely devoid of advertising with the Blackpool Corporation crests on the bodysides under the fleet number.
625 entered service as 288 in July 1937 and would be one of the trams which would be withdrawn at the end of the 2004 season (the great “mothballing”). It wouldn’t run in Blackpool again and after being sold on several times ended up back at Rigby Road for storage, although it will be on the move once again having been acquired by the Fylde Transport Trust and Blackpool Transport reducing the amount of space available for privately owned trams at the depot.
Photograph by Simon Watts
This sort of photo in my view shows a working tram in the very best of light, as a public service vehicle ( I quite like a bit of dirt and rust, correction, wear and tear on them!).