{"id":10363,"date":"2015-02-19T19:24:14","date_gmt":"2015-02-19T19:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=10363"},"modified":"2015-02-19T19:24:14","modified_gmt":"2015-02-19T19:24:14","slug":"in-pictures-more-destinations-from-the-past-appear-in-blackpool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=10363","title":{"rendered":"In Pictures: More destinations from the past appear in Blackpool"},"content":{"rendered":"

The dedication of French tram enthusiast Peter Watts continues to bear fruit, with three members of the Blackpool Heritage Trust’s collection of trams now sporting brand new period-style destination blinds which he has kindly made at no cost to the Trust, and these were fitted during a visit to Rigby Road on February 17th. Following on from Twin set 272+T2<\/strong>, the latest beneficiaries of Peter’s efforts are Brush Railcoach 631 <\/strong>and Balloon 715 <\/strong>– the latter of course being in the works ahead of a planned return to service during 2015.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As expected, each tram has received a different style of blind intended to suit its appearance. 631 <\/strong>has therefore been fitted with two destination blinds which both feature the famous ‘1’ destination, referring to the long-lost North Station to Fleetwood route once served by the Brush cars. This set are otherwise quite similar to those recently fitted to the cream Twin set, and therefore perfectly complement the 1950s green and cream livery worn by car 631<\/strong>. This particular tram is now in the workshops being serviced ready for the start of the main operating season for the heritage trams next month. This tram should see a lot more use than it did last year thanks to the greatly increased number of running days advertised, as it was a fairly infrequent performer in 2014 despite seeing some use on driver training and private hires over the winter period.<\/p>\n

The other new set of destination blinds have been fitted to Balloon 715 <\/strong>and are very different in appearance, although once again feature white capital letters on a black backdrop. The style of font used here is based on that which was more commonplace during the 1970s and 1980s, although some did last considerably longer than that and therefore will be a familiar sight to many enthusiasts. They represent a period when destinations were generally kept simple without use of terms such as ‘via Promenade’, and the sloping letters of earlier years were dispensed with. 715 <\/strong>is currently residing in the Paint Shop ahead of a full exterior repaint, following the completion of panelling repairs and other remedial attention which will allow it to take up its rightful place on the promenade this year.<\/p>\n

It has also been confirmed that the new heritage destination blinds are eventually to be fitted to all of the retained heritage trams, which will allow the few genuine blinds left in some of the cars to be removed. These will, however, be retained as historic artefacts in the BHT archives so that they can be preserved indefinitely without having to endure the risk of damage caused by regular use. It will also allow all of the trams to display destinations appropriate to their new role on the modernised tramway, whilst also acknowledging their origins with some long-lost destinations included as well.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Brush car 631 awaits its next call of duty at the front of depot, proudly displaying one of the more unusual destinations on its newly fitted blinds.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The opposite end of 631 showing a more familiar destination for this tram.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Destination Pleasure Beach for 715 but in fact the tram is inside the Paint Shop!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A close-up view showing one of the new destination blinds fitted to Balloon 715. (All photos courtesy of the Blackpool Heritage Trust)<\/p><\/div>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The dedication of French tram enthusiast Peter Watts continues to bear fruit, with three members of the Blackpool Heritage Trust’s collection of trams now sporting brand new period-style destination blinds which he has kindly made at no cost to the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10363"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10363"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10370,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10363\/revisions\/10370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}