We return to Blackpool once more in this latest set of photos for our “Picture in Time” series and we are back in October 1979 for these shots with Donald Brooks again our guide.
You can almost hear the silence as OMO 11 waits to leave Fleetwood Ferry for Starr Gate. No pedestrians or vehicles disturb the scene, with the only sign of movement the litter blowing along the pavement across the road. If you wanted to travel through the lights by service tram you could always be sure of a seat if you boarded at Fleetwood Ferry. Beyond the last building on the right was the site of Fleetwood station, closed in 1966. In 1979 the land occupied by the demolished station and railway yards was used by P&O as secure waiting space for vehicles using the Pandoro freight ferry service to Larne, taken over by Stena Line in 2004 and closed completely in 2010.
11 was in the red and white fleet livery at this time and although you can’t see it in the dark of the night it was still fitted with a trolley at this time. This would be the last OMO car to run in normal passenger service with its withdrawal not coming until March 1993 (a month after 5’s withdrawal and eight after 8’s). Following withdrawal it would be used as a test tram but only just saw the new millennium with it ending up scrapped in September 2000.
Photograph by Donald Brooks, October 1979