{"id":10575,"date":"2015-03-13T20:30:31","date_gmt":"2015-03-13T20:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=10575"},"modified":"2015-03-13T20:30:32","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T20:30:32","slug":"date-confirmed-for-680s-heaton-park-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/?p=10575","title":{"rendered":"Date confirmed for 680’s Heaton Park debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

The much-anticipated entry into service of Blackpool Ex-Towing car 680 <\/strong>(currently known by its earlier identity of 280<\/strong>) at its new permanent home, the Heaton Park Tramway, has been confirmed to take place on 26th April. Having just made its farewell passenger appearance at Beamish Museum last weekend, the tram will shortly be transported to Manchester to begin its new life as a member of the Heaton Park fleet.<\/p>\n

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Despite being owned by the Manchester Transport Museum Society since 2010, 680 <\/strong>has not yet made it to the sanctuary of Heaton Park and so its belated arrival will be the cause for a celebration. It is planned that the car will be on display at the tramway’s Spring Gala on Sunday 29th March; however it will not be in service until a month later, to allow plenty of time for crew training and commissioning. However, this year’s gala will feature a photo opportunity with the new arrival being posed with fellow ex-Blackpool cars Vanguard 619 <\/strong>and Brush 623 <\/strong>at Lakeside. The day should also provide the chance to drive 619 <\/strong>for a modest charge, with 623 <\/strong>and Manchester 765 <\/strong>maintaining a public tram service.<\/p>\n

Sunday 26th April should see a more exciting event take place as 680 <\/strong>is welcomed into the operating fleet. This day should begin with a two-car service before 1300, when 280 <\/strong>and 623 <\/strong>will perform a short parallel run, followed by a mini procession of the three operational Blackpool trams currently on site, all of which will run up the hill past the old tram depot for a line-up, before a second parallel run along the double track to Middleton Road, this time featuring 280 <\/strong>and 619 <\/strong>– both of which started life as English Electric Railcoaches, although neither is obviously recognisable as such today! Whilst all this is going on, a limited tram service should operate between Lakeside and the top of the hill, utilising Manchester 765<\/strong>\u00a0to enable visitors to sample four different trams in one day. The afternoon concludes with the Blackpool trio in service together from around 1400, although there will be a brief pause at around 1530 to create a streamlined photo opportunity at Lakeside, consisting of 623<\/strong>, 680 <\/strong>and Balloon 702 <\/strong>– the latter is also due to be on static display throughout the day.<\/p>\n

For fans of Blackpool trams, the launch of 680 <\/strong>at Heaton Park looks set to be a very entertaining day and should be only the beginning of a very special year for the Heaton Park Tramway, which should hopefully culminate in a record-breaking total of six passenger trams being available for service by the end of the summer.<\/p>\n

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During 680's final weekend of service at Beamish, the tram is seen passing through the Museum's Town area. (Photo by Bradley Jones)<\/p><\/div>\n

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The much-anticipated entry into service of Blackpool Ex-Towing car 680 (currently known by its earlier identity of 280) at its new permanent home, the Heaton Park Tramway, has been confirmed to take place on 26th April. Having just made its … 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":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10575"}],"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=10575"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10583,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10575\/revisions\/10583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.britishtramsonline.co.uk\/news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}