In Pictures: Return of the Routemaster Balloon car

The August Bank Holiday weekend saw the welcome return to service in Blackpool of Balloon 701, fresh from the Paint Shop following a complete repaint. Gone was the faded and unflattering plain yellow coat of paint it carried when it last ran in May 2013, and in its place, it has regained the stunning red and white livery last seen on this tram between 1991 and 1993 following a major overhaul.

701‘s livery was based on the ex-London Routemaster buses which ran on the promenade service for some years at the time when its last major overhaul was completed, and was applied to ensure that the tram stood out amongst its green and cream sisters, to emphasise the fact that it was at the time the most extensively rebuilt Balloon car yet. Sadly the attractive livery soon faded badly and disapeared after less than three years, but was always fondly remembered and therefore the inclusion of 701 in the retained heritage fleet provided the perfect opportunity for it to regain its most popular livery.

On Sunday 24th August, 701 duly appeared on the promenade looking absolutely magnificent once again following this repaint. Due to the extent of preparation of the body panels which was needed before they could be painted, the project had run slightly behind schedule and it was therefore not possible to finish the job in time for the weekend; however it was decided to run the incomplete tram anyway, and nobody seemed to mind at all. 701 is expected to return to the works shortly where its intricate black and white lining out will be completed, and the car should also receive some varnishing to protect its immaculate paintwork.

Full credit must go to the painters who worked so hard to get 701 ready for its advertised debut outing, and also to the Fylde Tramway Society who financed this latest impressive repaint, making the tram another more than worthy member of Blackpool’s heritage fleet.

The immaculate Balloon 701 is seen on arrival at North Pier fresh from depot on 24th August - the first day out for its shiny new paintwork.

701 arrives at Fleetwood with the morning heritage tour on August 24th.

Contrasting Balloon car liveries with 701 and 706 posed side by side on the Fleetwood Ferry passing loop.

One of the Bank Holiday weekend's many highlights was the chance to see 701 next to red Boat car 227 which appeared in service on the Sunday afternoon due to fine weather. The duo are seen here at Pleasure Beach. (All photos by Bradley Jones)

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7 Responses to In Pictures: Return of the Routemaster Balloon car

  1. David Taylor says:

    sadly it does not look like a proper Route Master as the colour was darker red and a small grey stripe. Blackpool’s Route Masters may have been in this livery but I do not think it suite’s the trams.

    • Bob Hayes says:

      Agreed David. The livery used on secondhand post-privatisation RM buses was uninspiring. The Boat in red and cream is superb!

    • Tommy Carr says:

      Yes, blackpool’s route masters were painted in the same livery as 701, and it ran in this livery at the same time as Blackpool’s routemasters in the early nineties.

  2. JOHN says:

    I feel someone has missed the point – its a recreation of the actual livery it carried in the early 90s, which was inspired by Blackpool’s RMs!

  3. Franklyn says:

    701 looks superb and credit to the painters who look to have done an excellent job in recreating her 90s livery.

    Al little note about the history of the livery… The routemasters in Blackpool were painted red and white in the same colours and style as the pre-streamlined trams were before 1933. Back then the red also faded, which is why Blackpool’s trams became green and cream in the first place.

    The first ex-London Routemasters to run were intricately lined out like the old trams were, but later ones ran in a slightly simplified livery. 701 and one of the Boat cars were similarly treated at the same time to advertise ‘Travel cards’.

    Now 701 is complete it would be nice to have the cream bits of the red boat also painted white to make this another proper historic livery.

    It’s noticable that the paintwork on the trams doesn’t seem to suffer anywhere near as badly as it once did. Is this because they’ve stopped using the fairly brutal automatic washer at Rigby Road, which seemed to use some very strong detergent? So hopefully the newly applied red and white will stand the test of time better than it did before.

    Can we have a second twin car in half green half cream next please?

    • Andrew Waddington says:

      Changing the cream bits on Boat 227 to white wouldn’t make much difference as when sister car 604 was red and white the colours were the other way around!

      As for the paint lasting better on the Blackpool trams, maybe its because they are not running half as often?

      • Andrew says:

        The change of the livery from red to green in 1933 had nothing to do with fading paint. The paintwork on the trams didn’t fade in the 1920s as it was applied with multiple coats and varnish to create a lasting finish. The livery was changed for two reasons – firstly due to the desire of the new general manager to put his own stamp on the fleet and secondly because the competing Ribble buses were also painted red.

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