On Wednesday 14th December, another tram left Blackpool for a new temporary home at the nearby town of Fleetwood. The fourth car to depart for storage in Fleetwood was Ex-Towing Railcoach 678, which duly became the fourth tram to leave following acquisition by the Friends of Fleetwood Trams, and also the first single-deck car to leave Blackpool since Manchester 765 in April!
Prior to departure, 678 had its lifeguards removed as well as its pantograph, although the tower remained in situ. Unusually the car was also stripped of its Radio Wave advert vinyls, which caused a fair bit of damage to its paintwork and left the already shabby tram looking even more sorry for itself. However, as its new owners previously stated that they intend to repaint 678 all-over cream to represent its 1960s appearance, this shouldn’t really matter too much. On the day of its departure, the tram was dragged out of the depot by Balloon 715 and, after an uneventful loading process, the car left Rigby Road aboard a Scott’s Heavy Haulage low loader later that day, arriving in Fleetwood soon afterwards
where it has joined Jubilee 761 and Balloons 710 and 726 in temporary outside storage. This could be more of an issue for 678 which became infamous for leaking badly towards the end of its working life – so it must be sincerely hoped that some attempt will be made to cover the tram in order to try and protect it from the winter weather.
678 was of course rebuilt into its current condition in the early sixties, but became one of three Towing cars which were never permanently coupled to their trailers, and subsequently spent most of their lives as solo performers. Unlike its sisters however, 678 did not receive an underframe overhaul or any other major work in the early 1990s, and so has hardly changed at all for the past fifty years. This has left the tram in a very poor structural condition but in spite of this it soldiered on for many years, even surviving the infamous fleet cull of November 2004 due to its then newly applied advert for Radio Wave. Instead the car lasted in regular service until the end of 2006 when the expiry of its advert contract led its final withdrawal. During its lengthy career, the tram also carried several other all-over advert liveries for Camelot theme park, Auto Trader, the Little & Large summer show at the Pleasure Beach, and the Royal British Legion (in two different designs) before the aforementioned Radio Wave advert.
The move of 678 leaves 680 as the last of the Ex-Towing cars left at Rigby Road, and as it too has a bright future in preservation to look forward to this tram is also likely to leave home before too long.
Photos of the move can be found at Alan Robson’s Flickr site – http://www.blackpooltrams.com
Report by Andrew Waddington