Two nights after the Blackpool illuminations were officially switched-on for another season, Sunday 1st September saw a belated beginning for tours of the lights by tram, using the illuminated feature cars and other members of the heritage fleet. As reported previously, two major concerts at the Tower Festival Headland on the first two evenings resulted in a split tram service operating, and therefore it wasn’t possible to run any illumination tours at all.
Prior to the 1st September, the only outings by the illuminated cars in 2013 had been for private charters. On Tuesday 27th August, the Fylde Tramway Society had hired the Trawler 737 for its first appearance of the year, along with Open Boat 600. Unfortunately on this night there was yet another partial closure of the promenade by Blackpool Council due to the annual ‘Ride the Lights’ event, so that cyclists could cross the tramway in safety near the Tower. This restricted the tour cars to the North Pier – Fleetwood area, apart from a single run to Pleasure Beach late that night.
Then on the switch-on night itself, Friday 30th August, the Western Train 733+734 was used to transport Jonathan Ross to the Tower Festival Headland to flick the famous switch, marking the start of the 2013 illuminations season. Bizarrely, the Train’s external lights were switched OFF for this prestigious role!
Then, on 1st September, all three illuminated feature cars finally took their rightful place on the promenade, with the Trawler working the first tour of the year. As the first tour is currently required to reverse at Bispham so that it can return to Pleasure Beach in time to complete a second round trip, this should have been a vintage tram, but instead 737 was chosen and the car began its first journey facing backwards, before using the crossover at Bispham to restore its correct appearance! Hopefully this was a one-off as running feature cars backwards for half a tour is far from ideal, and heritage cars will be used until the illuminations are shining for long enough to allow the first car out to fit in two full length runs to Little Bispham and back.
In other, better news, the Frigate 736 has been brightened up with some new multi-coloured external lights. September 1st marked the first day of passenger-carrying use for this car in 2013, although it did operate a couple of private hires earlier on in the year.
I spoke to Bryan Lindop at Pleasure Beach last night and he said that 147 was scheduled to work the first tour but failed at last minute with a compressor fault and there wasn’t anything else suitable to take over.
Thanks for the clarification Ash, and glad to hear there was a good reason for the use of the Trawler. Fingers crossed the fault with 147 isn’t too severe and it will be back in action soon!