Another edition of “Picture in Time” heads to Blackpool.
Its Fleetwood Town Centre again for this photo as we see Railcoach 618 in Lord Street. Its looks as if it may be a warm day with the driver’s windscreen open along with the majority of the hopper windows in the saloon. The tram also has two roof advert boards: one advertises the Leather and Suede Centre on Central Drive (“DIRECT FROM FACTORY TO WEARER”!) whilst the other had adverts for Embassy cigarettes.
618 was built as 271 and entered service as a traditional English Electric Railcoach in July 1935. In 1968 as well as being renumbered it would be rebuilt with tapered ends as depicted here although it remained a two person operated tramcar at the time. It would eventually become OMO 13 with this conversion completed in 1976. It would only last in service until 1984 and was then scrapped in 1985.
Photograph by Tony Stevenson