For the second major royal celebration in a row, Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours are to mark the occasion by having a parade of trams. Taking place on Sunday 7th May, 11 tram will be involved and tickets are available to travel on seven of them now!
The parade is due to depart from Pleasure Beach at 1415 (boarding will be available from 1345) and will then travel north to the Comedy Carpet where they will pause for photographic opportunities and then onto Little Bispham. They will then return south to North Pier before terminating at Pleasure Beach. On the way back passengers will be able to get off at either Bispham, Cabin, North Pier or Pleasure Beach.
The 11 trams due to be included in the parade are:
- Boat 227
- Boat 600 (tickets available)
- Brush 621 (tickets available)
- Railcoach 680
- Bolton 66 (tickets available)
- Western Train (tickets available)
- Trawler (tickets available)
- Frigate
- Balloon 717 (tickets available)
- Balloon 723
- Balloon 700 (tickets available)
In addition to the trams an open top bus will run alongside the parade to give a unique viewpoint of what is going on.
A major change to last year’s parade for the Queen’s Jubilee is that this parade will not be free and tickets are available now at https://blackpoolheritage.com/kings-coronation-parade/. The accompanying bus costs £5 for adults and £2.50 for children with those trams which will be available for tickets to be bought costing £10 for adults and £5 for children.
Once the parade is over, between 1600 and 1800 there will be Coronation Specials running between Pleasure Beach and Bispham – this will also include the return of three additional heritage stops at north of South Pier, Manchester Square and Imperial Hotel. Boat Cars 600 and 227 will be joined by Bolton 66 and Balloon 717 in running this service. Tickets will be £5 for adults and £2.50 for children.
So basically this is a re-run of last year’s parade but with 631, 648 & 707 missing and 621 joining in. Why? Surely they could do something unique to mark the occasion? Any photos will be nearly identical to last year’s which is a real shame, feels like a missed opportunity to me… and of course the fact that no Coronation car is available to participate in a major royal celebration for the second year running is very unfortunate. How about a static display with all three survivors lined up at the depot? Even a B-Fleet Balloon with a vinyl wrap for the Coronation would have been something a bit different and special! Sadly all of the imagination seems to have gone from Blackpool.
It saddens me to say that I feel that Blackpool Heritage Tram Tours have lost it. Yes, I understand fully that it is Volunteer based, and that funds don’t come out of thin air, but what about a bit of pride. I saw 717 a few weeks ago and the roof was black, with black run-offs, I am assuming ‘panto grease’, running down some of the upper deck windows. Just get it cleaned so that it looks the part! And regarding something to celebrate the Coronation, I remember the announcement of a ‘scruffy surprise’. This was 723 stripped of it’s vinyls. It was then repainted and looked the part. Then it was revinyled for some ‘winter themed’ promotion over a Xmas period, only to be repainted again into another ‘period’ livery. So if that can be done, surely a ‘special’ livery can be applied to one of the vehicles to celebrate what will obviously be a very auspicious and rare occasion which might also encourage more people to splash out on a heritage ticket to ride upon it.
I would like to see 600 decorated for the occasion as it bears the name of the Queen Consort who, with the King (then Prince of Wales) rode on that very tram. Also, 621 would prove a suitable tram for special attention as the Brush Cars can boast a Royal connection dating from around the time of the previous King’s Coronation and this class has been used before to mark Royal events – 634, the Silver Jubilee and 627, the Diamond Jubilee, albeit as a static exhibit by the Pleasure Beach stop.
Of course, it would have been great to have a 1952 Coronation Car available to be included in the parade, but these trams are notoriously problematic and inflict heavy wear and tear on the infrastructure. Far better that they be considered only as static exhibits in the main.
600 should probably be renamed really, as Kate Middleton is now the ‘Duchess of Cornwall’. Charles never rode on 600 incidentally, only Camilla.
Considering the FTT are actually working on getting 304 operational again your arguments about why a Coronation car shouldn’t take part in this event are rather weak! Also the connections of a Brush car are a bit tenuous.