“15 Years Apart” again features a tram which has not only changed its livery but also location in the intervening years.
Blackpool Replica Vanguard 619 was built from the remans of OMO 7 in 1987 to add a bit more vintage tram interest on the Prom but with the tramway upgrade happening it was deemed surplus to requirements and so would enter preservation. But before then it was reinstated into service in Blackpool (having spent some time out of use) and on 11th September 2009 we see 619 on Pleasure Beach loop looking as if its next trip will be a special to Cabin. The tram was in, as it always was in Blackpool, a brown and cream livery. (Photograph by Gareth Prior)
619 now calls Manchester’s Heaton Park Tramway home and has also enjoyed a repaint into a red and cream livery. Since being in Manchester the tram had a short period where it carried the number 7 (with it being the seventh tram to run on the preserved tramway and also as a nod back to its origins as OMO 7) but is now firmly back as 619 and proves to be popular on sunny days in the Park. This was 18th August 2024. (Photograph by Steven Hughes)