The Lancastrian Transport Trust have a lot to celebrate this month as their preserved Blackpool ‘Boat’ car 233 (ex-605) is now available for regular service in its new home at Beamish, the Living Museum of the North. Following completion of its British Trams Online sponsored repaint and other commissioning work, the tram debuted in service on Thursday 12th April and then ran extremely successfully throughout the four-day ‘Great North Steam Fair’ event.
Despite changeable weather over the course of the event, 233 proved very popular with visitors to the Museum and attracted considerable interest whilst in service. The tram ran faultlessly apart from a minor issue with the breakers on Friday 13th April, although after a brief test run it was soon passed as fit to remain in service. Some further work is now planned to take place on 233 – most notably the repainting of the interior as time did not allow this to be completed before the steam event. It is also hoped to carry out further work on the car’s electrics during its time at Beamish. However, for now the tram is available for service and should be used extensively this summer – weather permitting of course!
There have been a few comments and queries regarding Boat 233 and its current appearance. Some enthusiasts have said that the cream paint has a slightly greenish look, which is probably due to the dark green wartime livery underneath, and the positioning of the Blackpool Corporation crests on the side panels has been questioned. A lot of research was done by Beamish Museum’s Keeper of Transport regarding the crests, and they have been placed as they were when the Boat trams were new in 1934. The location of the crests on Blackpool trams has varied over the years and for many people this will seem unfamiliar, but rest assured, 233‘s crests are definitely not in the wrong place! One of the problems with the Blackpool streamliners is that their long working lives mean they can be restored in many different guises, so people will inevitably disagree as to how they should look, and indeed the decision for this tram to revert to its old fleet number has not found universal approval. The intention is for 233 to resemble its ‘as new’ appearance, although the LTT were keen to retain the windscreens in place for now at least which leaves us with something of a compromise. For many people the tram will remind them of the 1990s when it previously ran in original fleet livery.
However you think of 233 (or 605 if you prefer!), we hope that it will bring much enjoyment during its time at Beamish, and the feedback we have been given about it suggests that most enthusiasts think it looks fantastic. Certainly considering the tight timescale and limited budget for the project to return it to service, the end result is very impressive and our thanks go to everyone from Beamish Museum and the LTT who made it possible. It is hard to believe that, just two months ago, this was a ‘dead’ tram in store at Blackpool and now it is doing what it was built to do once again.
For those of you who have not yet seen Blackpool 233 since its transformation, Sunday 22nd April will be an ideal opportunity to do so as an official launch ceremony for the tram is being held on behalf of its owners and shareholders. Further details will be announced later in the week, and for those of you who would like to support the tram even more, it is still possible to buy shares in 233. More information can be found at: http://ltt-news.blogspot.co.uk/
Blackpool 233 pauses at Foulbridge depot whilst operating at Beamish on Saturday 14th April. The newly-applied crests can clearly be seen in this view. (Photo by Tony Waddington)
LoL! I hadn’t realised there had been discussion over the position of the crests! I did check these very carefully however. It would appear that in general the second panel out from the platform was favoured but that when livery changes came later, the crests moved to a position more in line with the bogie centres. There were traces of such when 233 (as I know it!) was rubbed down. I also think I could detect traces deeper into the paint in the original position too, and the height was gauged from the platform handrail position. I was therefore pretty happy that, with laws of averages applied, the crests are in the correct position. Legal lettering is to follow (for Luff), and so stamps the livery style as pretty much 1930s-50s with a few amendments for later periods (such as the platform canopy interior colour and, of course, windscreens). In any case, 233 is merely continuing its working life, not being restored to a particular date in its past – one of the pleasures of our fleet of trams is that they still very much work for a living!
There have been several comments re the cream. The white primer was very white and so didn’t suggested the green would show through, and when rubbed down the green was of course much lighter anyway. Nobody has mentioned yet that the tower is a different cream to the rest of the tram! The tower used up 31’s body paint as we had a tight deadline to paint it before the new paint arrived from Blackpool (you can blame me as I painted it!), and has proved to be a little lighter than the bodysides, but I’m sure they must have been swapped about occasionally so could have been like that in service anyway!
One visitor told me on Sunday that he worked on the trams during the 60s and he reckoned it was spot on. Obviously study of contemporary transparencies can lead to misleading shades of colour and thus corruption of the collective memory, but I do agree that there is a hint of ‘lime’ in there. Either way, the paint keeps the weather out and this paint job should manage that for many years to come…
Numbers are still to be fitted, and are on their way from the USA via the LTT, there is also a missing strip on one fender to replace. The interior repaint will follow further work to sort out the wiring conduits and trunking internally – these are fairly pourous with some quite large holes in at present and require repairs and filling plus some additional protection from the weather (this was why we couldn’t use 233 in prolonged rain – which fortunately didn’t materialise). We then reach the thorny question of what colour to paint the interior. Practically, the later darker brown is favoured (and keeps within historical correctness for crest position, though not necassarily legal lettering, the timescale getting a bit tighter at that point). We have matched the existing brown too (suspiciously similar to 31’s bogies actually…) to enable some localised patching last week. Otherwise it will be fit and ready for the season ahead. Meanwhile, with dire weather forecasts, 233 and 101 are back on Road 4. The wiring of this track is considered an early priority. It will also enable us to consider Road 5 later this year.
Incidentally, there were 15,000 visitors to the Great North Steam Fair, and with 233 running pretty much throughout plus during the Sat evening photo charter, it must have been pretty well recorded!
Now, we must return our attentions to 196 and its overhaul (which will be quite extensive) and repaint…
Thank you to everyone for their support in this work, including BTO for sponsoring the repaint. Peter Barlow, Les Brunton and Mel Whatmough (the Beamish Tramway Group) have been absolutely brilliant, worked very hard and maintained their high professional standard and they must wonder what daft idea this curator will come up with next, and what ludicrous timescale will be set for it!!! Next year is the Beamish tramway’s 40th anniversary, so we really ought to do something special for that…….