Over the past few weeks we’ve been in Fleetwood and then Blackpool and now we keep going south on the Lancashire coast reaching Lytham which at the time of the photo was home to Coronation Car 663.
Coronation 663 was originally numbered 327 when it entered service in December 1953. It lost its VAMBAC equipment in early 1967 and would remain in service through until the end of the 1974 season at which point it was withdrawn. Unlike most of the other members of the class it was not to be scrapped and would be moved two years later to the Motive Power Museum in Lytham which is where we see the tram in the below picture.
The Motive Power Museum – along with a narrow gauge railway, the Lytham Creek Railway – was on the site of Helical Springs (now known as Helical Technology) at Dock Road and 663 was one of many exhibits on display in 1977. It is joined in this photo by 0-4-0ST Peckett 2087 of 1948 (then named Miranda), which was built for industrial service with Courtaulds, latterly working at the Red Scar factor just outside Preston until dieselisation in 1968. The steam loco has spent spells at Lakeside and Quainton Road since but is now at the Mangapps Railway Museum, Burnham-on-Crouch, Essex.
Back to 663 and this tram is now back at Rigby Road Depot having spent periods at Southport, West Yorkshire Transport Museum, St Helens Transport Museum, Richmond, Brinwell Road and Ian Riley in Bury. All in all a well travelled tramcar!
Photograph by Donald Brooks